Now that is what John calls the pride of life. There is nothing the Christian life suffers more from than the subtle and indescribable worldliness that comes from the cares or the possessions of this life. Just one lucky hit and you will have it all! We participate in discussions of religion. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. What a thrill it gives us! The love of God, and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity, and that so irreconcilable that they can not dwell together in the same bosom. This is one of the secrets of the Christian life, that the more a man holds of God as a pensioner, the greater is the payment of service that He renders back again. - J. I. Packer But if you are walking with Christ, if the things that he loves are most important to you, if a cup of cold water given in his name is of far more value than another dollar in the bank, if time spent in comforting or encouraging some lonely person is to you a far greater treasure than a killing in the stock market, then you are building, you are gathering, you are building that which will endure, which will last forever, you are laying up treasures in heaven. Worldliness and Christianity are two such ends as never meet. It is dangerous dressing for another world by the looking-glass of this world. Bible Commentaries / John Gill's Exposition of the Bible / 1 John / 1 John 2 / 1 John 2:15; Share Tweet Save. Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of—and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind as hunger is to the natural system. This system has its basis in human nature. There's no room for double occupancy It is given to some—as a snare. If it pervades everything around us, where does the battle begin?" In fact it is exactly the reverse, for as John says in 1Jn 2:17 this world is passing away (and that would include its "things"). Love to the creature, whenever it is inordinate, it is an idolatrous affection. is significant. Do Not Love the World - I strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, for the transcript does not pick up the passion of Dr Piper regarding this crucially important message for the Church of Jesus Christ in these last days! - A. Lindsay Glegg God has given us the gift of acquisitiveness, i.e., the desire to own things, to possess things as our own. “The love of the Father,” could mean His love for us. What is meant by “for the purification of the Jews” (John 2:6)? - Vance Harmer We may use it as an inn where we take a meal—but it must not be our home. Everything on earth, however fair, laudable and excellent in itself, everything besides God, is the world. - C. H. Spurgeon Make Jehovah the joy and rejoicing of thy spirit. This quality of love is awakened by a sense of value in an object which causes one to prize it, in this case the fallen, evil world system! Subject to permissions policy, all rights reserved. The greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). Master of the Feast knows, is concerned about it, and is trying to resolve the - Malcolm Muggeridge Daily Portions, Illustration of 1Jn 2:15-17 - Today in the Word - When rescuers were finally able to pull a middle-aged man from the wreckage of a horrible car accident, he was taken to a nearby hospital. All the issues of life funnel down into those two things. You say, "Now wait a minute!" He gives a list of them and says, "these are not of the Father but are of the world." (NASB: Lockman)Greek: Me agapate ton kosmon mede ta en to kosmo. --H W Robinson, I would live for Thee, Lord Jesus, (Our word “cosmetics” comes from the word. The prohibition (15 a) is followed by a view of its overwhelming necessity. Notice what the world wants from us: love. 4:23-note), “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”. (1Jn 4:3), You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world (evil world system). A pleasant duty is here rewarded with another pleasure. - Thomas Brooks "There is nothing better, there is nothing higher, there is nothing more precious than what this earth can give you: its money, its pleasures, its fame. Oh, the subtlety with which this whole philosophy makes its appeal to us! We surely need to pray daily, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Mt. Many pass undiscovered until death and judgment bring all to light. John wrote this letter to churches that were being infected and confused by certain heretics. Remember children of God, that this is the language of John, the apostle of love; but true love is honest, outspoken, heart-searching, heart-trying. It is only when, as in the gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a present, without money and without price, that the security which man feels in God is placed beyond the reach of disturbance, or that he can repose in Him as one friend reposes in another; or that any liberal and generous understanding can be established betwixt them, the one party rejoicing over the other to do him good, the other finding that the truest gladness of his heart lies in the impulse of a gratitude by which it is awakened to the charms of a new moral existence. As the chaplain comforted him, the man, who was a Christian, exclaimed, “As I look squarely at eternity, I realize now just how much I wasted my life on things that don’t matter.”, What a sad revelation! For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. The world is no friend to grace; it chokes our love for heavenly things—the earth puts out the fire. - Ralph Venning These you must search carefully for, and take them as black marks wherever they are found, revealing a graceless and unconverted state; and as you love your lives, read carefully with a holy jealousy of yourselves, lest you should be the people concerned…, (Secret Sin #8) The predominant love of the world. run out? John MacArthur comments that Demas "loved the world system, with its sin, human wisdom, and satanic deceptions, more than he loved God’s kingdom. They have some vague conception of its being quite enough that they acquit themselves in some decent and tolerable way of their relative obligations; and that, upon the strength of some such social and domestic moralities as are often realized by him in whose heart the love of God has never entered, they will be transplanted in safety from this world, where God is the Being with whom, it may almost be said that, they have had nothing to do, to that world where God is the Being with whom they will have mainly and immediately to do throughout all eternity. AND Well, what is wrong with all this? (NCV). The world uses ridicule and scorn to deter those who venture to prefer another path. But the flesh wants to indulge this in any direction at any given time. -- Sper, Do not love is a present imperative coupled with a negative particle (me agapate) which can have one of two meanings. TEV: Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. Agape is undefeatable goodwill; it is the attitude towards others which, no matter what they do, will never feel bitterness and will always seek their highest good. He may give intellectual assent to the claims of Christ and may have had emotional religious experiences; however, he is not truly converted until he has surrendered his will to Christ as Lord, Savior, and Master. ISV: Stop loving the world and the things that are in the world. From this enemy Jesus makes the believer free. [Agape] is self-giving. Are you daily taking in the Word? To love and to adore are sometimes both one.