The Spirit of the Age
(I John 2:15-17)
1. People go through great lengths to avoid being proud and worldly.
A rabbi and a cantor are standing in the largely empty synagogue one day, talking mystically about how, given the awesome glory of God’s Infinite Divine Presence, they are each really “nothing.” “Yes,” says the rabbi, “I am nothing!” The cantor also affirms, looking up to the heavens, “O God, I am completely nothing!” And they go on like this for several rounds—”I am nothing… I am utterly nothing.”
Meanwhile, the synagogue’s janitor is off in the corner on his hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. Filled with humble devotion, he has all the while been repeating in a gentle voice, “O Lord, You are everything and I am nothing… I am nothing.” The rabbi and cantor at one point bend their ears to listen and, after a few moments, come to realize what the lowly janitor is saying. At this, the rabbi nudges the cantor and smugly says, “Look who thinks he’s nothing!”
2. Spiritual pride can disguise itself as humility, and people who claim to not be worldly can be the worst offenders; worldliness is an attitude. . Why worldliness is bad. Worldliness interfere with (1) your love for God, and (2) your doing the will of God.
3. But if you are only half-hearted in your devotion to the Lord, you really aren’t all that concerned about your love for the Lord or doing the will of God in the first place.
4. Trying to convince a half-hearted Christian to forsake worldliness is worse than trying to convince a 5 year old that spinach is good for him. Logic is not the issue. Appetite is.
Main Idea: Although modern Christians seem to have abandoned any ethic of avoiding worldliness, the Bible has not. But what is worldliness, and why must we avoid it?
I. Do Not Love the WORLD (cosmos) (15)
A. Worldliness is CONFORMITY to aspects of society or culture that run contrary to God’s ordained ways.
What is worldliness? How the Amish might answer that question. How an evangelical in 1950 might answer that question (amusements).
“…it is neither the material world itself nor people per se that should be ‘hated,’ but rather ‘the spirit of the age.’” Ben Witherington III.
“…human society as organized under the power of evil” (C.H. Dodd, quoted Witherington)
“The world which God loves is His creature and Hid child; the world which we are not to love is His rival.” (Alfred Plummer)
1. Lot’s family is an example of a family conforming to the world. Lot’s wife looked back longingly at the destruction of Sodom; she love the city God hated. Lot’s sons-in-law would not leave. Lot’s daughters left, but their values were compromised, and even Lot himself never recovered from saying goodbye to his previous life.
2. Today it might be seen in Christians shacking up w/out being married, gambling, drunkenness or drugs, pornography, immodest dress, swearing, having to see the hit movies, even with indecent scenes, or music laced with swearing and profanity.
3. In churches we see waffling on gay marriage, the role of women, or teaching that people apart from Christ are lost.
4. We all must live in the culture, participate in our community, not isolate ourselves.
Jeremiah 29:4-7 talks about being in the world: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
1. We may need to adapt to the culture, but we shouldn’t be driven by the culture.
2. We are to focus on timeless truth, not today’s fads, morals, or philosophies.
“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (I Corinthians 2:6-7).
B. MATERIALISM is a sub-category of worldliness.
Materialism is like a drug. We tend to live in a state of moderate discontent.
C. Love for the Father and love for the world are mutually EXCLUSIVE.
Loving involves prioritizing: an alcoholic may love his children, but prioritize his alcohol.
II. The World TEMPTS Us Much Like Satan Does (16).
A. Satan is the “god of this world” and, within bounds, sets the course of this WORLD.
Ephesians 2:1-2, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”
B. The world offers to satisfy our DESIRES in inappropriate ways.
1. Thumia means desire, but the word epithumia here means a LUST or consuming, burning desire.
2. The world system seeks to INTENSIFY normal desires.
3. The desires of the flesh probably refer here to BIOLOGICAL desires.
4. The desire of the eyes probably refers to a quest for BEAUTY and POSSESSIONS.
5. The pride of life is a desire for MEANING and IMPORTANCE.
6. All of these desires are APPROPRIATE in balance, if directed appropriately.
C. We see Satan use these same three TEMPTATIONS in Eden and the wilderness.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [DESIRE OF THE FLESH], and that it was a delight to the eyes [DESIRE OF THE EYES], and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise [THE PRIDE OF LIFE], she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6).
Luke 4:1-13, And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” [DESIRE FO THE FLESH], And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” [DESIRE OF THE EYES], And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” [THE PRIDE OF LIFE],
And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
D. Our values and morals may be correct on paper, but what about RATIONALIZNG to conform to the world? Your values are tested when the godly choice brings HARDSHIP or ostracism.
An older woman one day had a question for me. She was a widow, thinking of moving in with boyfriend; if she married, she would lose her husband’s pension as a widow.
III. Genuine Believers Are Oriented Toward the Eternal Perspective, Not CONFORMITY (17).
A. One difference between the worldly and godly is related to short term vs. LONG term thinking.
1. Select things out of the world that are good (Philippians 4:8) and leave behind bad.
2. We try to keep ourselves form things that tempt us (movies, music, TV shows, clubs, peers).
B. Our homes and communities are just a temporary PARKING place.
C. Emotional maturity is measured in the ability to DELAY gratification. Same concept.
D. The opposite of being CONFORMED to this world in being TRANSFORMED by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). We need to unleash the SPIRIT’S sanctifying power.
E. We cannot do this on our OWN; we need fellow, like-minded believers.
2 Timothy 2:22, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
