John reveals somethings about his audience in these verses of scriptures…
• In verses 12-14. John is writing to "little children” of God because their sins are forgiven.
• He refers to them as “Little Children” because spiritually they have not been saved very long.
In verses 12 and 13 he uses two different words for “Little children”.
1) Verse 12 refers to all believers as the words “Little children” means literally "born ones." That is these are young converts that recently have been born into the Kingdom of God.
• That is to enjoy living in this life on earth, we have to be born in this life
• To enjoy living in the kingdom of God, we have to be born in the Kingdom of God.
This is why God’s Word teach “Ye must be born again” if you are going to live in God’s Kingdom.
2) Verse 13 he uses a different word for “Little children” to describe those just starting out in the Christian life. They have been born again but are still immature in the faith but they have known the Father.
• So, John is addressing a congregation of young converted immature Christians.
• To all of God’s children, in whatever stage of spiritual development they are in, John gives a strong warning!!!
Look at verse 15. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
In verse 15 the word LOVE is used 3 TIMES in 3 different ways.
Have you ever thought about HOW IMPORTANT THE WORD LOVE IS TO US CHRISTIANS?
Is there anything more important than LOVE?
• What would it be like to live in a world where there is NO LOVE!
I WOULDN’T WANT TO LIVE IN SUCH A WORLD.
• What would it be like to have a home where there is NO LOVE!
I WOULDN’T WANT TO LIVE IN SUCH A HOME.
• What would be like to attend a church where there is NO LOVE!
I WOULDN’T WANT TO BELONG TO SUCH A CHURCH
There is not anything more important than LOVE!!!
Illus: All the problems in the WORLD, in our HOMES, in our NEIGHBORHOODS AND IN OUR CHURCHES mostly come from two things…
(1) LACK OF LOVE
(2) MIS-UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT LOVE IS
In this IMPURE WORLD we need to make sure we really know what the word LOVE REALLY MEANS?
The apostle John agrees with me and this is why he is addressing these young converts.
Why?
As new born babes in the Lord we all have different meaning of the word LOVE.
Illus: For example, teenagers develop a definition of the word love as a teenager when they fall in love. ALL OF A SUDDEN YOU CANNOT TELL THEM ANYTHING ABOUT LOVE, THEY KNOW ALL ABOUT LOVE!!!
They know more about love than their parents and grandparents put together…THEY THINK!!!
However, most of the time their love is an EMOTIONAL LOVE,
Illus: For example they can believe in this kind of emotional love and have ten different girl friends in ten months.
And what a shame about this kind of love some adults grow up and still all they know is an EMOTIONAL LOVE!!!
To know what love is we have to know God, because the Word of God tells us…
I. GOD IS LOVE
LOOK AT “Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s love is an everlasting love
JEREMIAH 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. '”
Illus: God loves me today and I do not have to wonder if God will love me tomorrow. GOD IS LOVE!!!
Illus: God love is not a Love like a spike” that turns “On and off”!
Illus: It is like when a man truly falls in love with his wife and she no longer have that school girl figure and her smooth skin is replace with wrinkles, if he TRUL LOVES he will love her till the day she dies.
Illus: The Billy Graham movie "A Vow to Cherish" illustrates the COMMITMENT of PURE LOVE in a powerful way.
• The lead character’s wife contracts Alzheimer’s at a very young age, devastating the family and threatening to destroy a long-standing marriage.
The husband is reduced to a caregiver for a wife who can no longer physically or mentally fulfill him.
• She doesn’t even know his name.
• In the meantime, he strikes up a friendship with an attractive woman he meets while jogging.
• The climax of the movie takes place when the husband, on the brink of compromise and close to walking away from it all, renews his COMMITMENT to his wife.
• In an incredibly moving scene, he kneels by their bed, holds his wife’s hand, looks her in the eye and repeats his wedding vows
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.
These are not from the Father, but are from this world,
We can all be thankful for God’s incredible everlasting love.
God who knows all about love tells believer…
II. Not to love the world?
Some are confused as to the meaning of the word “world.”
The word “world” is used in at least three different ways in Scripture:
(1`)The word “world” often refers to the physical world, the earth which God made.
In Acts 17:24 "God that made the world and all things therein." speaks of our planet.
(2)Sometime the word “world” often refers to the world of mankind:
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world.”
(3)The word “world” often refers to the world system.
In this context the world is an enemy which is opposed to God.
This is the meaning of “world” in this passage.
In John 12:31 Satan is described as "the prince of this world".
In this WORLD OF IMPURITY GOD IS TELLING BELIEVERS NOT TO LOVE THE WORLD
• Lost people do not think the way saved people.
• Lost people do not dress like saved people dress
• Lost people do watch what saved people watch on television and on their computers
• Lost people do not all together love what saved people love.
The world then is not a natural habitat for a believer for his citizenship is in heaven.
Philippians 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:
The words “OUR CONVERSATION” may be rendered, "our citizenship is in heaven".
Christian fellowship and the world are incompatible because of the moral pollution of sin.
HOW IS IT INCOMPATIBLE?
• For example, all of us are concerned for the pollution of the environment, but we Christians are also concerned for the moral pollution of the world. The lost world is not!!!
• Christians are not to love the world because of what the world does. Love for the world is irreconcilable with love for the Father.
God’s Word tells us, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Look at what the world does to believers.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
• The Lust of the flesh includes anything that appeals to man’s fallen nature.
• It refers to the basic nature of unregenerate man that makes him blind to spiritual truth.
Let me explain…
Illus: You can ask a sinner a sensible question such as:
1) Do you want to serve GOD WHO LOVES YOU and has prepared a place for you in heaven?
2) Do you want to serve the devil that HATES YOU and has a place for you in hell?
And the obvious answer should be GOD!!!
But Satan has blinded the mind of the lost and they continue to serve a devil that hates them!!!
Lust of the flesh is an illegitimate expression of a basic desire.
For example…
• Hunger is not evil, but gluttony is sinful.
• Sleep is a gift of God, but laziness is shameful,
• Sex is God’s precious gift when used rightly in the context of marriage but used wrongly it becomes immorality.
Look at Galatians 5:19-21 for a list of the deeds of the flesh.
Everything God said about the flesh is negative.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The lust of the eyes refers to the unlawful cravings which entice our eyes.
• The eyes are the gateway into the mind. So much modern entertainment appeals to our eyes.
• Advertisement appeals are often made by things that are immoral and materialistic. This leads to covetousness.
• The lust of the eyes pressures us to think as the world thinks. It is to see things in the light of the world rather than with the eyes of God.
The Psalmist prayed, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity” (Psalm 119:37).
Our eyes can get us into trouble.
Illus: Remember King David a great man of God his eyes got him in trouble on the roof top lusting for Bathsheba which led into an adulterous relationship.
What a great price he paid for his lusting!!!
The Bible speaks many times about love, and what it is.
Let us look at a biblical definition of love and see in what ways it is different from its worldly counterpart.
(1) God’s love is all-encompassing
Illus: God does not select only the beautiful people, or the rich, or the successful to love; He loves the world.
He loves us so much that He gave His Son in order that the world could be saved,
John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(2)Notice that God’s love is for everyone in the world; whoever believes in Him.
We are to love others as God loves us. We are not to pick the nicest looking, most prestigious and popular people to love.
(3) God’s word even tells us to love our enemies (Luke 6:27-36).
Jesus is our example and, as He was being crucified, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”.
Many times, the world’s idea of love is to love those who can further our career or those from whom you can get something that you need.
This is not a godly love!!!
God loves the world but not the sin that has corrupted the world.
God allowed Jesus to sacrifice his life in order to reconcile the world back to himself.
He did not allow gross darkness to take over the world; Jesus came as the light of the world and left his light in the heart of all believers.
You are the light in a dark sinful world.
John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Conclusion:
I want to close with this true illustration,
Illus. - Iris Blue always wanted to be a lady but she was a big girl and awkward. At 12 years of age she was 6’3" - bigger than her teachers! The world told her as a girl that if she didn’t have certain kind of body, she wasn’t a real woman. All she wanted was someone who
would open the door for her and treat her like a lady. She just wanted to feel valuable, like she was special. She tried to bury her feelings inside but began to struggle because of her size and because she didn’t feel pretty.
She came home from church one day and asked her mother, "Why I am so big mother?" And her mom said, "God did it."
This young Baptist girl with parents who dearly loved her was eventually arrested for armed robbery and sent to prison.
She was not only locked up behind bars, but she was also locked up in a body and a life that she could not stand.
She wasted 7 years of her life daydreaming in prison.
Her parents were told to give up on her after psychological tests and personality evaluations conducted in prison determined that she was, "incorrigible and a degenerate".
When Iris got out of prison, within hours she was back on drugs.
She began working in bars again.
But momma didn’t give up. She began to pray. She invited Iris over for dinner one night and before Iris left, she looked her in the eye and told her, "Iris, you need Jesus." Iris made fun of her mother and God.
It didn’t seem like the prayers of this mother were doing anything at first.
But in two weeks, a young man heard a message that we’re to go out and look for the hurting and bring them into the Kingdom. And he picked Iris.
He started witnessing to her. He would call her up and tell her how valuable she was saying, "If you had been the only person in the whole world, Jesus would have died for you. God loves you, Iris."
He’d call late at night, and she’d be high and have to plug her ears and go in the bathroom just to hear because it was so loud in the bar. And he’d say, "I just called to say, ’Jesus loves you.’" And she’d hang up on him.
He witnessed to her several times and then one day he called her up and said, "Iris, would you meet me outside. I want to tell you goodbye."
So, he came and she went out and sat in his car. He said, "Iris, you think I’m not even a man because what you girls are trying to get me to do, I won’t go for. I’m more concerned about your eternity than a moment’s pleasure for me."
Then with tears running down his face, this man said the words that changed her life. He said, "Iris, Jesus can make you a lady." When he said the word, "Lady" something broke open inside her. All her life she’d wanted to be a lady.
They got out and knelt on the street corner as this man led her in the sinner’s prayer, explaining that it was like a preacher giving a young bride and groom their wedding vows.
He said, "Jesus, do you want Iris?" He said, "Aahh, He said He wants you Iris, whatever it takes…"
He said, "Iris, do you want Jesus?" And she said, "Yeah…I do."
Today she’s in the ministry with her husband. They travel around the world telling what Jesus has done for them. Her testimony: On March 31, she knelt down on a street corner an old tramp but stood up a lady; clean, pure, forgiven, innocent, blameless…She found Pure Love in an Impure World.
We all know that we are not going to be in this world all that much longer. The end is fast approaching and, knowing the signs, no one knows that better than Christians who walk closely with the Lord.
YouTube: This World Is Not My Home - Jim Reeves (with lyrics)
