The Love God Hates

The Love God Hates

1 John 2:12-17

Just before I preached one Friday morning a seven year old boy asked me a question when he saw the caption in our bulletin, " Does God hate love Pastor? What does this mean?" I just told him to listen to my sermon so that his question will be answered.

Actually, I kept on changing the title of my sermon during the week until I saw the sermon outline of David Owens that captivated my attention. I told myself that if it captivated me it will captivate others also and praise God I was right on my judgment. Everyone was listening to my sermon. Again, this sermon had been developed with helped of the Holy Spirit who inspired me during the week.

Introduction:

A group of first graders who had a tour in the hospital and the nurse who directed them.

A group of grade 1 pupils had a tour in the hospital . One of them asked question

“ How come the people who work here always washing their hands?” After the laughter had subsided:

A wise answer came. “We are washing our hands for 2 reasons.

We love health.

We hate germs.

In some areas of life, love and hate go hand in hand. A husband who love his wife will certainly hate anything that would harm her.

Psalm 97:10 (NIV)

10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Romans 12: (NIV)

Love in Action

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil;

cling to what is good.

John has reminded us to exercise love.

The right kind of love.

Now he warns us the wrong kind of love.

The “ Love that God hates.”

This love is what the Bible called love for the World.

"Anything that cools my love for Christ is the world."

-John Wesley

1 John 2:15

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

There are 4 reasons why Christian should not love “the world.”

1 John 5:19 (NLT)

19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

l. BECAUSE OF WHAT THE WORLD IS

The New Testament word world has at least 3 different meanings:

a). It sometimes means the Physical world. The Earth: God that made the world and all the things therein ( Acts 17:24)

John begins this passage with a clear command: “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” Why can’t we love the world? The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God loved the world, so why can’t we? In order to answer that question one must understand that the word “world” is used with several different meanings in scripture. The word “world” is used in the Bible to refer to the created world, lost people, and the world system under the evil influence of Satan. In John 3:16 “world” is used in the sense of lost people. However, in our text it is used in the latter sense. In 5:19 John writes: “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” This is the world that John commands us not to fall in love with.

Warning:

Love not the world is not about the world of Nature or the world of the men. Christian should appreciate the beauty and usefulness of the Earth God has made, since He gave us richly all things to enjoy. ( 1Tim.6:17)

And certainly we ought to love people- not only friends, but even their enemies.

This world named here as our enemy is an invisible spiritual system opposed to God and Christ.

We use the world in the sense of system in our conversation. The TV announcer says: World of sport. The world of sport is not a different planet. It is the organized system, made up of the set of ideas, people, activities, purposes, etc.

World of politics are likewise system of their own. It is the system that keep things moving.

The world in the Bible, Satan’s system for opposing the work of Christ on earth. And it is very opposite of what is Godly, holy and spiritual. 1 John 2:16

1 John 5:19 (NLT)

19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

Jesus called Satan the Prince of this world

John 12:31.

The Devil has the evil spirits ( Eph 6:11-12) working with him and influencing the affairs of this world.