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Title: Do Not Love The World (Part Two)
Today will pick up where we left off last week. Again, I felt it very important to clearly define “love” as John used the word “Agape” in 2:15 last week. Once we have a proper understanding of the type and depth of love that John means, the next two verses fall into place rather nicely.
I. What is in the world?
If we look at verse 16 we see John list three things that we are NOT to love in the world: I think it’s interesting to note the order that John lists these three things in, and I’d like to expand upon that a bit, if you’d allow me.
A. Lust of the flesh
This is actually the “last” of the three sins, and John writes it first. The final step of our sin is that it gives birth to action, the lust of the flesh. It may be a physical action, like adultery, it may be a mental action, like lust or pride, or anger, but this is the point where sin culminates in action. But it doesn’t start there.
B. lust of the eyes
Before it culminates in action, it is rooted in what we see. Now, for some sin this is obvious. You are up late one night flipping channels before bed, you have no intention to sin, no plan to sin whatsoever, and then bang! You find yourself landing on a channel with sensual imagery. If you dwell, and do not avert your eyes, you are committing to lusting with the eyes, which Christ tells us in committing adultery already.
Now, if you do this long enough, or often enough, chances are very good that this sin, lust of the eyes, will manifest itself into some sort of lust of the flesh. And let us not forget “lust” isn’t necessarily sexual.
Let’s change the parameters a bit. Mike Gleason, who years ago was the director of Religious Life at Ashland University, before Dan Lawson came in, told me a story about lust that had a bit of a different spin on it.
Mike loved old roadsters, small, convertible sports cars. And he used to keep a picture of his dream car: a 1993 Mazda Miata on the dashboard of his old, beaten down station wagon. He’d look at that car every day when he drove to work, wishing that instead of his wagon, he was driving with the top down and enjoying all the joy that this car could bring him.
Then one day a thought hit him, he wasn’t at all sure that this car was in God’s plan for his life, it definitely wasn’t in God’s plans right now, and very possibly it wasn’t ever intended to be part of God’s provision for Mike’s life.
Now, Mike soon thereafter replaced that picture of the Miata with a picture of Jesus, something he KNEW was part of God’s plan for his life.
But what if Mike hadn’t done that, what if he hadn’t been that mature. Mike had two daughters in college at the time of this story. What if Mike, one day just became completely fed up with his station wagon, and traded it in at the dealership for that Miata, and the Miata’s brand new higher car payment.
Now he’d finally have the car of his dreams, that can only fit two people, and may seriously jeopardize his financial ability to get his daughters through college. Don’t think this story is extreme, we all know people to whom this has happened, it’s happened to some of us.
Sadly, it happened to me, with a TV just HAD to have when Mary and I were living in a one bedroom government housing apartment in Louisville while we were attending Seminary. It took me six months to pay off that TV, and to pay it off in six months I had to write a monthly check that was higher than our rent! Idiocy.
Now, God was gracious, and delivered us out from that very poor financial decision. I didn’t buy that TV on a whim. I had been lusting after it in magazines and online for months, and convinced myself, “It was an investment.”
But it didn’t begin there. It began with my Pride. Which brings us to the last point.
C. Pride of Life.
All sin in rooted in Pride. All sin in rooted in the idea that we know better than God. Once we’ve determined what is best for us, we then decided what we like. Once we decide what we like, we often go get it, and then get ourselves into a heap of trouble, because we didn’t begin correctly.
What if we began every scenario in our lives by saying, “You know what, I really don’t know anything.” Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but it’s end is the way of death.”
And what is death? Separation from God. If we sought the answers not just to our questions, but to our longings through scripture and prayer, we’d avoid many of the pitfalls that we get ourselves into.
It begins in our mind, it exercises it’s will in our eyes, it culminates in our hands.
If we take care of our minds, it can never get to our eyes or hands.
I have a friend who had a very torrid past before he became a believer. And for years after becoming a believer he was bombarded by images in his mind that would cause him to think about the past, then desire the past, and then, often, repeat the mistakes of the past.
After years of battling this issue, God blessed him with a rather simple yet profound insight: He had no right to think of these images from his past. He conditioned himself (slowly at first, but soon it became second nature) to literally, shake his head and say, “I have no right to think about this!” And when he stared doing this, 90% it never got to his eyes, it never got to his hands, he killed it before it had a chance to take root.
What I’m telling you it two-fold:
1. Pride is the root of sin.
2. We need to kill the root, otherwise, we are just managing symptoms.
II. We last, sin dies.
Lastly, John reminds us in verse 17 that the world, and all that is in it, is mortal. It will die, it won’t last. But we, who does the will of God, will abide, will remain forever.
So, let me close with this thought for you:
We understand two things about sin:
1. It can’t satisfy us for more than a moment.
2. Even if it could, it can’t last, sin will eventually vanish.
Then, the next logical question is simple: Why do we, as eternal beings in Christ, destined to live our eternity with Him in Glory, give any attention to that which is temporary?
It’s like loading up your huge SUV with 6 people, for a cross country trip to visit the Grand Canyon. You’ve got money, you’ve got clothes, you’ve got food. And the last stop you make, before you hop on I-71, is at Goasis for some gas.
You have an SUV with a 34 gallon tank, and you put in $1 worth of Gas. You drive 14 miles, pull over, and put another dollar in. Can you get to the Grand Canyon like that? No. The SUV will break down, or you will die, before you can get within 100 miles of the Grand Canyon.
Don’t put your energy into things that will die before you. But your energy into the one thing that was, is, and will be forever, there you will abide.