WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (part six)
INTRODUCTION: In our series on what love has to do with it, we've seen the importance of love being the basis for my salvation, my relationship with God and my service to God. We've seen how love needs to be the foundation of all my relationships if they are going to be successful. Then we looked at the importance of love in overcoming fear and unforgiveness. Today, in the final installment, we'll look at what love has to do with overcoming the world.
What’s love got to do with overcoming the world?
1) To love is to obey is to overcome.
1st John 5:1-5, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
The only one that can overcome the world is the one who is in agreement with God by believing that they need to be born again. And when I understand that God loves me and I want to love him back I will show that love by obeying his commands.
And when I understand the benefit and wisdom of those commands I will conclude that they’re not burdensome; they’re burden-lifting. When love is the driving force we don’t find doing things a burden. When I love you what I do for you might not be easy but it’s not a problem-I enjoy doing it because it pleases you and I know you appreciate it.
It’s the same with God. When we love God our obedience will not be a burden; it might not be easy but it won’t be excruciating. We might not always be excited about it and sometimes obedience is a struggle but we don't do it begrudgingly. And knowing God loves us it makes it easier to agree with his commands because we know we’ll be the better person for obeying them; we understand the value in them.
When I love God I will overcome the world because I will want to. Before being born-again I didn’t want to overcome the world; I wanted to be a part of the world. I subscribed to the world's ways; I did things according to the flesh. I wasn't looking at things from a godly perspective; I wasn't looking at things from his point of view.
And not only that, I will overcome the world because I know I can. Jesus said in John 16:33, "Take heart, I have overcome the world." And since Jesus overcame the world, because I love and serve him, I can too. Before being born-again I didn’t have the power of Christ living in me but now I do. That's not the reality for the non-Christian . Anyone who's not a Christian can’t truly overcome the world. They might be able to make some positive changes in their lives but it's not the same.
With Christ I can be victorious over temptation as well as overcoming things like materialism and liberalism. Through Christ I can overcome the trappings of the world like greed and lust; these things won’t have a hold on me unless I allow them to. Through obedience to Christ I break the chains of addiction; I escape the emptiness of chasing after worldly lusts. I can replace an unfulfilling, unsatisfying lifestyle with the things of the Spirit that will fill and satisfy me.
Through my love for God and his commands I now have the ability to obtain peace, joy and contentment. I might’ve pursued these things before but they were always beyond my grasp. Not so any longer. With the ability to have true love, peace, joy, and contentment comes the ability to be free from hate, hopelessness, worry and fear. When I love God and his commands I will be an overcomer. My love for God will motivate me to conquer the worldly desires that are invading my life. What's love got to do with it? Everything.
2) You can't love both.
I need to realize that if I love God I can’t love the world too.
1st John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
Notice this doesn't say 'do not love anyone in the world'. We are to love all the people in the world but we are not to love any of the things in the world.
But why is the love of God not in us if we love the world? If I love money or power or material things then I will put them ahead of God. Craving, lusting after or being prideful or boasting about the things of the world is not of God-it takes the focus away from God. Money in and of itself is not bad but the love of it is. Having material things is not wrong but when I cherish these things more than God then I am honoring the created not the Creator; I am cherishing the blessing more than the provider of the blessing.
And John puts things in perspective for us. If we love the world we are loving that which will only last a short time but if we love God we will love that which will last for eternity.
Jesus talked about this principle in Matt. 6:19-24, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Who's our master? Whom are we serving? Whom are we loving? Jesus paints the reality for us. He's saying, "don't put your all your effort into worldly things that are just going to waste away or that which could be taken from you. Rather invest in the things of the spirit which are eternal. You may not see them like you can see the things of the world but don't make the mistake of thinking the things of the Spirit aren't tangible or valuable".
Then Jesus shows us that what we conclude is most valuable exposes what we love. Jesus doesn't want us to be deceived. He's saying, "don't think that you can love and serve God when all your attention is on worldly things. Don't be deceived into thinking you're serving me when your focus is on accumulating and maintaining the things of the world".
A question to ask ourselves after we've been a Christian for a little while is, "has anything changed"? Do I think differently about the world? Have my interests changed? Do I have more of a desire to pursue and please God then I do self? Not that we don't struggle with this but the point is if we're loving Christ we will begin to shift from caring more about the things of the world to caring more about the things of God. Jesus said I can't serve both. We can't have our cake and eat it too. We cannot be devoted to two at once-one is going to win out over the other; it's only natural.
We not only need to answer the question, "who's our master" we need to also ask ourselves, "who's our friend"?
James 4:1-4,“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
Before we were Christians we were an enemy of God. Rom. 5:10 and Col. 1:21 support that. We are either for God or we're against him. If we're not a Christian then we are working against him; whether we realize it or not. But thankfully, God loves his enemies! So, when we became born-again we ceased to be his enemy and became his servant; but not only his servants but his friends as well.
However, I'm a friend to Jesus when I obey him. Jesus said in John 15:14, "You are my friends if you obey what I command." If you obey Jesus you overcome the world; if you obey your flesh you are a friend of the world.
It makes sense why James would say if you're a friend of the world you're an enemy of God because look what was happening to them; look how they were behaving. None of these attitudes and actions were showing love for God or each other. When I fight, quarrel, kill and covet I am showing sinful behaviors not godly ones. I need to understand that having a love for the world produces these behaviors in me. Because having a love for the world creates lust and greed and selfishness. And these things produce fights, quarrels and covetousness.
And none of this is love for God; it's quite the opposite. In having love for the world I can become angry with God. James was explaining to them why they weren't receiving what they were asking God for. No doubt they had become bitter towards God for not giving them their desires but James wanted them to see that either their desires were not godly or their intentions were not godly-or both. In any event, if I'm a friend of the world my desires, thoughts and actions will be worldly and therefore against God.
Do I want to be a friend of Jesus? Then I need to do what he commands. If I value our friendship then I will do the things that cultivate that friendship and I will avoid the things that jeopardize it. I need to see this for what it is. I need to understand that being a friend of the world is being a friend of Satan. Anytime I choose to follow the desires of the flesh I am basically saying I'm Satan's friend; not God's. Why do I want to be a friend to the enemy? Why do I want to befriend the one who hates me and only wants to destroy me? Doesn't it make a whole lot more sense to be a friend to the one who loves me and wants to truly fulfill me? I can't be a friend to the world and God too-nor should I want to.
3) But this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy things.
Matt. 7:7-11, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
One thing this communicates is that God will provide our needs. When our children are hungry we're going to give them what they need. God will do the same. But, as a loving parent, we sometimes give our kids things they don't necessarily need but it's something they want. When it's appropriate and within reason we give our kids things to enjoy.
God is no different. He will bless us with the ability to have good things. And there's nothing wrong with it; provided we're thankful and level-headed about these blessings. When we keep the focus on Christ we're able to enjoy our possessions. It's when instead of us owning our possessions our possessions own us that we're in trouble.
And I think it's important that God determines what gifts are 'good'. Sometimes we think what we ask for is good but we need to allow God to determine that. The giving of good gifts needs to be in accordance to his will.
1stJohn 5:13-15,“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
Remember, the people in James 4 didn't receive what they were asking for because their motives were wrong. Sometimes our motives are wrong; I want what I'm asking for purely for my selfish pleasure.
And there are times when we think our motives are pure but we could be deceiving ourselves. I could ask God to win the lottery so I can get out of debt and bless others. And although that may be what I think I would do, who's to say I'm not deceiving myself? Because if my motives were pure why hasn't God done it? I think if you truly have the desire to bless others you will do it with what you have now, not only if you win the lottery. In fact, with what you've spent on the lottery you probably could've already gotten out of debt and blessed others!
But we can know that if what we ask for is in accordance with God's will we will receive it; in his timing though. It might be his will just not his time. We have to be patient and continue to love and serve him-regardless of what we receive from him and when. God is good all the time and he wants to bless us, we just need to look to him and allow him to bless us.
When we're not patient we get upset and decide to make it happen ourselves. And how does that turn out? When we go outside of his will to get what we want it will surely come back to bite us. If God's answer is, 'no' we can be stubborn and persistent and not take God's no for an answer. God may just give us what we want only to teach us a lesson to trust in the Lord and not lean on our own understanding. If our love is for God and not the world then we will find enjoyment and contentment in him first and foremost. Then we will be able to correctly and appropriately enjoy the blessings he gives us. What's love got to do with all that? Everything.
