John has an exhortation for us, whether we are young, in our prime, or reaching the end of our prime. “Love not the world, either the things that are in the world.” Then he gives us some reasons, such as: The world and the things of the world are not of God our Father. Also the world is temporary and will one day pass away. But God and we who are the children of God will, and do, abide forever. Then he adds, the children of God prove their relationship to the eternal God through their obedience.
In our last lesson, I pointed out that there are other reasons not to love the world. For example, Solomon tells us that out of our hearts come the truly important things of life, like our love. So, ‘keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” And that takes us back to what John says at the close of verse 15: “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
In this we have an important REALITY.
It is a fact, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” As if Jesus’ words needed amplification, the apostle reiterated the point in James 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.”
John says, “If any man love the WORLD, the love of the Father is not in him.” Remember, the “world” refers to the Satanically controlled world system in which we live. It is not referring to the enjoyment of hiking or biking in God’s physical creation – the earth. But admittedly there can be sin in these, when they temporarily come between you and the Lord. Mountain climbing can become a person’s idol, just as easily as stamp collecting or panning for gold. And John is not telling us that we shouldn’t love an aunt or uncle who is as ungodly as Ahab or Jezebel. We can love the lost as relatives. And we should love them as lost people just as someone loved us before our salvation.
Rather than these, John is exhorting against another kind of love and another kind of object for our love. He might have said, Do not love politics more than worshiping and serving and witnessing for Christ. If there is any part of the world that is more Satanically controlled than politics, then I am not aware of it. Don’t compromise your testimony for political reasons, even if the objective is reasonably good. John is exhorting us, or dehorting us, not to love sports more than we do the Lord. Football and baseball are not simply harmless pastimes and entertainment. The NBA, NFL and FIFA soccer are as much a part of Satan’s world system as the drug cartels. Remember, while being promoted as entertainment, they are primarily about making money. And they are designed and used to take peoples’ hearts away from the Saviour. Gambling on sports is a part of the world, and so is gambling in the stock market or on crypto-currency. Love not the fight over racism, sexism and classism, because they are not of the Father; they are of the world. A love of the world can be seen in people’s addiction to news casts, as much as to internet reals.
But here there may arise a question in people’s minds: What does it mean to my soul, if I do enjoy some of these things some of the time. Because I enjoy a good murder mystery on TV does that mean the love of the Father is not in me? If I spend a couple hours in the evening watching television, am I condemned by these verses? I spend a hour every day on Facebook and two hours in the ethereal internet; am I not of the Father? Because I listen to classic country music, or Blue Grass, or even the music of Beethoven and Chopin does this mean I’m not a Christian?
It is possible that the vast majority of everything outside the pages of the Word of God and the ministry of the church could be a part of Satan’s world system. So how much of it in a person’s life is proof of deadly worldliness? Does the Lord have a rain gauge to catch my mis-spent love, and when it reaches the point that one more drop will make it spill over, does that mean “the love of the Father is not in me?“ Let’s remember: we are saved by grace not by works or by self-empowered reformations and prohibitions. How much or how little of Satan’s world is in us, doesn’t create or eliminate our childhood in God’s family. But we still have these words of John before us.
You are going to have to trust me on this. But there are things in the original Greek which can’t be fully expressed in English. As I’ve told you many times, on the average cereal box in Canada where one message is expressed in both French and English, almost invariably the French paragraph is longer than the English. The same is true between Greek and English. Verse 15 concludes with “If any man LOVES the world, the love of the Father is not in him” – present tense. And even more than just being present tense, the Greek expresses present INTENSE. What John was saying could be expressed as: “If any man’s habit of life is the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “If any man LOVES the world SO MUCH that he refuses to cut off that love, it is proof that the love of the Father is not in him.” Remember to “keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
So what are the ruling principles in that heart of yours? What things are most precious to you? Where does your money go: to the world or to the Lord? Where does your time go; your energy? What dictates your love and behavior? If you would rather love the things of the world than the things of the Lord, then God is not your Father. Would you choose darkness over light? There is the reality: “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Many people have a hard time grasping Biblical principles, even when they are as direct as I John 2:15. Many people are much quicker at seeing examples and illustrations of those principles. So let’s turn to one of those Biblical examples:
In Israel and Egypt we have a glimpse of the CATASTROPHE of this misplaced love.
At some point early in the history of Christianity, some preacher pointed out that Egypt makes a very good picture of the world. It may have been Paul, or perhaps even Peter before him. When John speaks of “the world” here, he is talking about a society controlled by God’s enemy Satan.
Egypt is a microcosm of a much larger Satanic world. For example, it was ruled by a king, who knew who the Lord was, but who refused to include Him even in the pantheon of his many other gods. He shook his fist in the face of Jehovah. Pharaoh wanted absolutely nothing to do with Jehovah, the God of Israel. Because to acknowledge Him should have ended in surrender to him. The god of this world wants nothing to do with the true God of heaven and earth.
Egypt was a society with a well-ordered and well-oiled religious machine, but it was filled with lies. We’ve seen recently how Pharaoh, the king of world, brought out his wise men, sorcerers and magicians. But earlier, in the days of Joseph, we are told that Egypt had its bevy of priests as well. Yet despite its religiosity, Egypt was a secular society – in effect it was godless, and ungodly. It is a perfect picture of the country and society in which we live today. Educationally, Egyptian society was as highly ranked as high any on earth, but its educational system was anti-Christ. And economically, it was the most powerful nation in the western world, but that wealth was not intended for God’s use.
And what did that ungodly, Satanic society, think about the people of the Lord? Well, it honoured the Hebrew, Joseph, temporarily, as long as he was useful to it. The world doesn’t mind having a few Christians around, because they are often the most diligent and useful employees. But ultimately, it couldn’t have had more disdain and disgust for those who named the name of God. The Israelite at that time was so beneath the average Egyptian, they weren’t even worthy of hatred. “Do you want to take time off to worship your god Jehovah? Don’t be foolish; get back to work.” “Do you want to take time off to teach your children about Jehovah. We won’t permit it.” “After all, your children belong to the state; they are our slaves; they are not really yours.”
The world never leads people toward righteousness. I don’t care what is said about Bible verses on baseball player’s uniforms, professional sports is not a good evangelistic tool, and it doesn’t promote true holiness. I have never heard of a Christian football player who told his team he’d play only on Mondays and Thursdays because he intends to preach the gospel every Sunday. I have never heard any politician saying, “I vote that we adopt the Ten Commandments into American law.” No one has said recently, “Recommend that we slowly and carefully read Christ’s Sermon on the Mount before every session of Congress.” Egypt isn’t interested in better people, more spiritual people, more godly citizens.
Eventually, along came a God-commissioned preacher of righteousness – Moses. We might look at Moses as an illustration of Christ Jesus, or at least as one of Christ’s ambassadors. First, he had to convince Israel of his bonifides, and then he went to the Satanic king. After ten disastrous plagues, the world was made ready to expel the people of God. That lasted ten minutes, before its greed, wrath, vengeance and pride sprang up again like a knot of cobras.
The love which the world had for Isreal, only as tools for its enrichment, vanished and was replaced with wrath. The world has no love for the children of God. Remember what our Lord Jesus said in John 15:19: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, there the world hateth you.” As soon as Israel took its first few steps toward independence and obedience to God, the world turned on her. But the LORD protected His little children, or maybe we should say, He protected “his professed children.”
Here is where the illustration becomes more appropriate to I John 2. How many of the children of Israel were, at the same time, children of God? Hundreds of thousands of Israel were ready to leave the world when it looked like the smartest or the most pleasant thing to do. But the majority of the people of Israel left their hearts back in Egypt. They still loved the world, despite all its flaws and wickedness. And when they got out into the wilderness their improper love began to ooze from unregenerated hearts. At times we see their lack of faith: “Oh, Moses, where are we going to get any water?” But at other times, we see their ungodly hearts: “We don’t like this manna; we prefer meat, and we’d even take the old leeks and garlic over this food from God.”
Why did the vast majority of Israel die in the wilderness rather than in the Promised Land? Because they were people of the world and not of the Father. Their hearts revealed their true love. “And the world passeth away, and the people thereof; but they that do the will of God abideth for ever.” Even though there may have been exceptions beyond Joshua and Caleb, the Israelites, for convenience sake fled Egypt and joined Moses’ “church.” But they never stopped loving the world, and in that they proved that the love of the Father was not in them.
John could have said to us, “Don’t be like Israel.” He could have said, “Don’t be like Achan, who loved the gold, silver and ungodly garments of Jericho.” John could have pointed to other Old Testament examples, but the Holy Spirit didn’t lead him that way. What he said was simply, “Love not the world, either the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”