NO LOVE
1 John 2:15-17 NKJV
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
If it seems that I had the wrong devotional passage yesterday, you are correct. I have no idea how I jumped to James, but today we are back on track.
The first epistle of John has a great deal to say about love. John is called the apostle of love, and the divine love of God is a big theme of this epistle. However, our verses for today are talking about what not to love.
John clearly states to believers not to love the world or the things in the world. When John is speaking of the world, he is not talking about the earth. Although loving the earth has become a religion in itself. The scriptures make no reference to Mother Earth. The scriptures only acknowledge and honor our Father God, the Creator of the earth. But these verses are talking about this age, this natural world without God, and the way it operates. John makes it clear we can't love God and the world's system. I know there was a song in the '70s called Torn Between Two Lovers, but that should not be happening with us. We love God, and we can take or leave the things of this world.
The things of this world are the lust or strong desires of the flesh. The desires of the eyes and the pride of life. The best definition of all of these three desires that I have heard explained is passions, possessions and positions.
The passions would be the strong fleshly desires that can drive us. All of the New Testament authors dealt with people coming out of a very pagan world system. Much less moral than even in our current environment, which has seen a decline. The environment many of the new believers came from was unrestrained. Paul talked about adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, drunkenness, and revelries or hard partying. No need to go into detail about these passions; almost all of us have experienced or encountered the desires of the flesh. No love here.
The possessions are the material things we own or have a strong desire to own. Jesus warned us to beware of loving these things too much. He said our lives do not consist in the abundance of things we possess. So, no love here.
And the third thing of the world we are not to love is our position, how we rank against other people. Who has the most power and prestige. There are warnings to those who are rich not to become arrogant and prideful. There are warnings to all of us not to love money. And Jesus spoke of the deceitfulness of riches. The deceit is that money makes us more special than we really are. In Christ, there is no special place carved out for the rich. James, which I will get to later this month, warns against treating the poor with contempt and the rich as privileged. God's kingdom does not work that way, so we are to love God, not our position with men.
All of these listed desires are of this world, not of God. God has different standards and ways of operating. And His ways are higher and better. After all, the lusts of this world are temporary and are passing away. In a few hundred years, no one will care about the party we missed, the car we drove, or the respect we had from others. What will matter is those who have done the will of God, advanced His kingdom and lived in obedience to Him. Now those things are things we can love.
PRAYER
Father, I love You and Your ways. I do not love the weak temporary things of this world. My heart is to live for You and live in Your will for me.