Take your Bibles with me again and go to 1 John 2. 1 John 2.
I want to preach to you a message titled "The Love God Hates."
The last time I preached to you from 1 John, which would have been two Sundays ago, I preached through the whole chapter of 1 John 2 and I talked about how the chapter is intended to confirm Christians in their salvation. But I told you that there were several asides, several parentheses in this chapter, where John temporarily talks about something different and that I wanted to cover some of them.
One of those is a very famous and very important passage. 1 John 2:15-17 which I absolutely want to cover. Let's go ahead and read that.
1 John 2:15-17 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. 16. 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. 17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
There is a love that God hates. Christians are supposed to be known for our love. God is love. But here we are commanded to not love something.
The command is pretty simple: love not the world. Or, put into modern english "Don't love the world." Don't love the things in the world.
That's the command. The rest of these three verses are expanding that command and giving reasons for that command.
So I want to approach this this afternoon with four questions:
The verse says "love not the world." But that is confusing, because "the world" isn't always seen as something bad. In fact, the Bible tells us that God loved the world. Right?
John 3:16 16. 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.
If God loved the world, how can it be bad if we love the world?
And how can the world be bad if God created the world? John 1:10 tells us:
John 1:10 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
So how can we have one verse that says 'love not the world' and another verse that says "God loved the world" and another that says "God made the world?"
The answer is really simple: the word "world" means three different things in the scripture.
We use the word "world" to refer to a system in modern english more than you would think. Sometimes we'll say something like "In the college basketball world he's not that tall" or "in the world of finance that kind of thing happens all the time."
We aren't talking about another planet where college basketball players or wall street analysts live, we are talking about the system they operate in.
And when John says to us "love not the world" he isn't talking about the planet and he isn't talking about the people in the planet - both of those things we ought to love, he is talking about a system.
Specifically, he is talking about a system of the world that is setup against God. It is the anti-god system that is the default and dominant system on earth.
The Bible teaches that this world is dominated by an anti-God system. There are two verses in Ephesians that make this really clear.
Ephesians 2:2 says:
Ephesians 2:2 2. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
This world has a course. It has default programming. It's dominated by Satan and people who do not know Christ are living in the spirit of the world.
Another verse that speaks to this is Ephesians 6:12 says:
Ephesians 6:12 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So this system isn't just the default, it isn't just run by Satan, but Satan has various subordinates and they are really pulling the strings down here. They are the ones who are truly in charge.
I'm not into conspiracy theories. If you come to me and start telling me about how the jews are in control of the world or how the world is really being run by a bunch of billionaires who strip naked and do seances in the California mountains every year I'm going to yawn and say "That's nice."
The thing about conspiracy theories is that you can't prove them. You just stitch together this thing that could be true with this other thing. And 99% of the time you are wrong.
I'm not into conspiracy theories - but the Bible teaches there is a conspiracy. It's not a mystery. This world is run by Satan and run in opposition to God.
And the world is trying to conform us. It is trying to press us into it's mold.
Romans 12:2 2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
So when John says "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world." He's telling us that there is this system in charge of everything, it's antiGod, and the natural tendency is going to be to fall into that system and to love the things of that system. That's what humans do and have always done.
So another way of saying this is "Love not the world system" or "Don't love the world system." That's what the Bible is saying here.
And that brings me to our second question, now that we know what "the world" is in this verse, we need to ask...
Because again, it says "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." So we are commanded not to love the world system but we are also commanded to not love the individual elements of the world system.
I think there is a tendency among Christians to say "Yes, I recognize that this world system is bad - but this one part of it - I really like this one part of it."
Maybe we say
Ok. So this brings something up: are the things in the world bad? Is every part of the world system evil?
If entertainment is a part of the world system, then is entertainment always sinful?
If politics are a part of the world system, then is it wrong to be involved in politics? Is God anti-government?
I think we really need to understand how the world system works to make wise choices here.
Look at verse 16. Very important verse to help us.
1 John 2:16 16. 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.
This verse is telling us how the world works. It's telling us what John is talking about when he says "love not the things that are in the world." Specifically, we can tell if something is worldly if it falls into these three categories:
Let's look at each of these things:
The lust of the flesh is wanting to do something God doesn't want you to do.
What the world system does is take our innate God-given desires, which are not bad, and then twists them and abuses them into something God never intended for us.
We all have God-given desires: we want to eat and drink, we want to sleep, we have a desire for sex. Those are not bad.
None of those desires are bad. But all of those desires can be twisted into things God doesn't intend for us. Eating can turn into gluttony. Drinking into drunkenness. Sleep into laziness. Sexual desires can be perverted a dozen different ways.
And so this is how the world works, it takes these good desires, these natural desires and it twists them into bad things God doesn't want for us.
The lust of the flesh is wanting to do and experience things God doesn't want us to do.
So let's talk about the second thing...
They lust of the eyes is wanting to have things God doesn't want you to have.
My family was in Maine this week for my sister's wedding. We stayed in a rental house there (because it was the cheapest thing we could find) that was right on the ocean. It was in a line of beautiful houses. All of those houses are worth over a million dollars.
We saw lots of rich people. We parked next to a new Ferari at Dunkin Donuts.
Now, there is nothing wrong with owning a nice home on the ocean or even owning a ferari. But do you know what? That isn't God's plan for me. That probably isn't God's plan for you.
You see, what the world does is to try to tempt us to want things God doesn't want us to have right now.
A few weeks back we talked about the story of Achan. After the Israelites defeated Jericho they were told to take nothing. No spoils. But Achan saw a goodly babylonish garment and some gold and he just had to have it so he took it and he hid it.
He saw something that wasn't for him and he wanted it and thought about it and it caused him to sin.
It doesn't have to be things. It could be a woman or a man. You see some beautiful woman and you let your thoughts dwell on that and you are right in the thick of the lusts of the eyes.
Here is the thing, our whole society is built around the lust of the eyes. Most commercials or advertisements is telling you you have to have this or that to be happy. They are trying to get you to want something that God probably doesn't want you to have.
Part of being Christian on your way to the celestial city is not getting caught up in vanity fair.
So the lust of the flesh - wanting to do things God doesn't want you to do. The lust of the eyes - wanting to have things God doesn't want you to have.
The third thing in this verse is...
This is wanting to be something God doesn't want you to be.
Wanting power. Wanting fame. Wanting popularity. Wanting some exalted position. Wanting respect and honor. Climbing the ladder.
That is the pride of life.
Take a typical magazine off of the rack at the grocery store and start looking through the advertisements. I guarantee you that almost all of them are selling you these three things (if they aren't selling some new pharmaceutical product with 10,000 side effects).
This is the devils system, and he's worked it and perfected it now for thousands of years. It worked in the garden of eden when he told Eve that the tree was pleasant to look upon (lust of the eyes), good for food (lust of the flesh) and desired to make one wise (pride of life) and it has worked on billions of people since then.
These three things: pleasure, possessions and prestige are like the three legs of the stool of the world. They are propping up the whole system.
And we are commanded to not love it and not love them. So that brings me to my third question...
What does it mean to be worldly?
The word "love" in the command "love not the world" means "to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly, to be well pleased, to be contented with."
We are commanded to not love the world system or the elements of the world system. We shouldn't welcome worldliness in our life.
So, when you are evaluating whether something is worldly or not, you should ask some questions:
And if the answer is yes to any of those things: it's worldly. The thing itself doesn't have to be bad. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of eden wasn't bad. It was part of God's good creation. But wordliness is when the world, the flesh and the devil cause us to want things that aren't God's will for us.
So if something is driving you away from God and godliness, then you are commanded to not love it and loving it will make you worldly.
And that brings me to the last question I want us to consider today...
Let's look at our text today. It actually gives us two reasons why Christians shouldn't love the world. The first is in verse 15:
1 John 2:15 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.
The first reason we as Christians cannot love the world is because:
The two loves just do not and cannot mix. They are like oil and water. Like cats and dogs. Like electricity and water. Love for God and love for the world are completely incompatible.
You have to choose one.
The Bible often makes a marriage comparison. We are married to God and love for the world is like a mistress. It's adultery.
How silly would it be for me to say to my wife "I love you, but you know, I kind of love Karen too." No. For me to love my wife I have to love her exclusively.
For us to love God, there has to be an exclusivity to that love. We cannot love Him and love the system that is arrayed against Him at the same time.
That's like loving health and loving germs. Like loving jews and loving nazis. Like loving capitolism and loving comunism. They are exclusive of each other.
James 4:4 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
So Christian - you cannot love this world system because that love is completely incompatible with loving God. You have to choose one.
But John gives us a second reason why we as Christians shouldn't love the world and it is found in verse 17:
1 John 2:17 17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
So the second reason we shouldn't love the world is:
Everything in this world system is only temporary. The end has already been written, and our team wins. This world system is going to pass away. Everything you want from this world system is not going to last.
All the beautiful houses of today will be rubble in 100 years. The fashions and clothing of today will be hopelessly outdated 20 years from now. Almost all of the famous people will be forgotten soon. It's all temporary. It's all going away.
But one thing isn't going away and that is God's work on this earth, and you get a chance to have a part in that. That thing that will abide forever.
So to love the world is to choose the temporary over the eternal. To choose the fake over the real. To choose the lie over the truth.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Do you have a wordliness problem? Do you love the world? Don't let the world rob you of your love for God and doing things that really matter.
1 John 2:15-17 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. 16. 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. 17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Let's pray.