Do not Love the World
1 john 2:12-27
Key Verses 15, 16
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does- comes not from the Father but from the world.”
Last week we learned that anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness while the one who loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. In this last part of 1 John 2 we discover some of the New Testament’s strongest spiritual assurances provided for those who have fled to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for salvation. Connected to this encouragement John warns the believers not to love the world. Where in this world can we hear someone teaching: “Do not love the world?” It is less painful to hear “Do not love sin.” Nonetheless John does write “Do not love the world.” As believers in Jesus living in a world with anti-Christ on one hand and the cravings of our sinful man on the other hand, we will discover we need to hear both this message of assurance and a message “Do not love the world.
Part 1. Do Not Love the World
In the past every time I read over verses 12-14 I always thought John wrote a lot of words without really saying much. Now after closely reading and prayerfully re-reading these verses I discovered these are some of the most encouraging and assuring words found in the Bible, at least for us who have placed all their confidence in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As you study these verses you quickly learn John is writing to three different age groups: children, young men and fathers. We can say accurately John is writing to three different stages of our Christian life. Maybe no stage applies to you if you don’t personally believe in Jesus Christ. I would say among our church at least the first two stages apply to most of us, children and young men. For older people like myself all three stages are meaningful. As a side note let me mention even though John doesn’t mention he is writing to women, after studying this passage with at least five women in our group study we realized these stages apply both to men and women.
John begins by sharing in verse 12: “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” Notice John didn’t write this letter to people who were in need of having their sins forgiven. His words apply to those who called on Jesus Christ to save them. This is the first stage of anyone who has fled to Jesus Christ for salvation. When we believe the Gospel of God that Jesus Christ died for our sins and God raised him from the dead we can be absolutely assured all our sins are forgiven. One sincere lady who believed in Jesus called up a radio preacher to ask why even though she believed in the saving work of Jesus she never could find assurance from his preaching. He replied that is the way it should be. We see John the Apostle of Jesus Christ disagrees. He tells us even as early as the day we first believed Jesus died for our sins we can have assurance our sins are completely forgiven. Look at verse 12: “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” How could John confidently write that their sins were forgiven? It is because God forgive them base on the name of Jesus Christ. He could confidently give this assurance because it was not base on account of what they did or didn’t do. Our forgiveness is entirely based on the name of Jesus Christ. In other words the reason we can be assured our sins our completely forgiven is because all the work need to forgive our sins was completed by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago when he died on the cross for our sins. No more work needs to be done to achieve forgiveness. People who are trusting in themselves to find forgiveness with God should be haunted with doubt. I find every good I do is infected with evil and imperfection. The only way we can have confidence God has completely forgiven our sins is if we are only putting 100% of our confidence in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Jesus Christ and yet are lacking assurance your sins are forgiven? My advice is stop listening to the confusing words of men and start listening to God’s word written here which tell us “I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.”
The second stage is young men. Look at verse 13b:“I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.” John addresses the work of God in these young men’s lives in the present perfect tense. He says because they have overcome the evil one. I remember when I was a young Christian man trying to do the will of God. Waking up every morning was like waking up to fight a great spiritual fight. My favorite hymn when I was a young man was Martin Luther’s hymn: “A Mighty Fortress is our God”. Especially I identified with his words: “And tho this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim- We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure.” Luther’s last words teach how young Christian men overcome the evil one. We endure it by enduring the rage of the evil one. In verse 14 John writes about the word of God these young men struggle to hold on to. When we struggle to hold firmly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and obey the teachings of the bible we in effect place ourselves in the boxing ring against the evil one. During this spiritual fight we may feel far too weak. John’s words on the other hand tell us we will overcome in the end. This happens when we endure the rage of the evil one.
Back in the 1950’s there was a boxing champion named Sugar Ray Robinson. Pound for pound most students of boxing believe this Sugar Ray was the greatest boxer of all time. He won something like 125 straight boxing matches. Nevertheless one of his most stunning losses was against an opponent named Maxim. How did Maxim overcome Sugar Ray? By enduring the Sugar’s machine gun punches for 12 long rounds. For 12 rounds Maxim was pummeled like a punching bag hanging in the middle of the ring. When the 13th round began Sugar throw one punch and suddenly his whole body went limp because of heat exhaustion. The referee ended the fight giving the victory to Maxim. Maxim didn’t out punch Mr. Roberson. What he did was endure and stay on his feet. Sugar’s corner tried to comfort him by telling him the heat knocked him out. Sugar Ray humbly replied: “It wasn’t the heat that beat me; it was God! He is exactly correct how we overcome the evil one. God wants us to endure holding firmly to the Gospel. In this way Jesus Christ will overcome the evil one. Young men may feel like they are being pummeled beyond endurance as they struggle to obey the Holy teachings of the Bible. Not withstanding when we endure we are assured God will overcome the evil one.
The third stage is fathers. Look at 13c and 14a: “I write to you dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.” John assures both children and fathers they know the Heavenly Father who is from the beginning. Some people teach we need to know the Bible from front to back before we know our Heavenly Father. This is a noble life goal but this has no bearing on today’s emergencies when we need our Heavenly Father right now. The unfortunate fact of life is many children do not have earthly fathers. Other children have fathers who do not even try to be a role model for them. John shows children who have faith in Jesus can have God to be their Heavenly Father every day of their life. Missionary Jacob’s earthly father died in the Korean War when he was a very small child. We see God became his Heavenly Father. His Heavenly Father raised him and placed him as pastor of this church.
John assures fathers they too know Him who is from the beginning. He doesn’t tell them they first have to study the Bible from beginning to end before they know him who is from the beginning. By faith we Christians fathers know very personally him who from the beginning. As a father myself of five children practically what does this mean? It means I can go to God for wisdom, help and courage. I can be assured he will provide all I need. Fathers should be good spiritual role models for their children. When we fathers maintain a close relationship with our Heavenly Father we become role models for our children.
After reading and re-reading John’s words in verses 12-14 we find they provide some of the most reassuring encouragements for Christians. The question we might ask is “Is there any need to struggle any longer? God’s word assures us victory.” The problem of being assured of victory in this world while we live in it, we often end up loving this world. When WW1 ended in 1918 people every where believed that it was a war that ended all wars. This caused people to live a very over indulgent life in the 1920s. Endless parties, no restraint on buying and constant quest to pleasure seek became the norm of the day. Most economists may explain the cause of the Great Depression in the 1930s in economic language. As a preacher of the Bible I explain the Great Depression with God’s word found in verse 15: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I personally believe God caused the Great Depression to help us love him and not this world. God’s word through the gospel assures us victory but we must be very careful that this sense of victory does not cause us to love this world. John reveals at least three reasons why he warns against loving the world.
First, when we love the world the love of our Heavenly Father cannot live in us. John teaches “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” God in is great wisdom and power through Jesus Christ wonderfully designed our bodies. Many parts of our body he gave us a backup part for them. My sister-in-law cut her finger very badly while making dinner yesterday. A large bandage was put on it and she could no longer use it. Still she could finish making dinner because God gave her a second arm and hand to do the work. However God has only given us one heart. God who gave us two lungs could easily have given us two hearts. I feel God gave us only one heart to teach us we cannot love God and this world at the same time. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” How then can we maintain a love relationship with God and Jesus Christ? One word: Time: spending personal time with our Savior in bible study and prayer. Certainly many of you have heard unfortunate stories of married men and married women going to work and spending the whole work day with someone of the opposite sex at work. Often this leads to divorce to their spouses, whom they had only had been spending five to fifteen minutes a day with. If we spend all our time in this world and give God 5 to 15 minutes a few times a week, I don’t think we need to be a bible theologian to know what impact this will have on our love relationship with Jesus Christ.
Second, we should not love the world because it causes us to crave the very things that can destroy us. Look at verse 16: “For everything in the world-craving of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world.” As Christians we are saved by grace. Nevertheless we still posses our sinful man. When we love this world our sinful man begins to crave those things that destroy us both spiritually and physically. We read about people addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, gaming, gambling and overdoing on all types of worldly activities. Any of these can happen to us if we love the world. John has a shepherd heart for his readers. He doesn’t want to see us destroy our relationship with Jesus, our families and our lives. Therefore he tells us: “Do not love the world or anything in the world.”
Third, loving the world causes us to steal the glory of Jesus and give it to the world. John talks about the boasting of what we have and do. He tells us this boasting does not come from the Father but from the world. I remember once a number of shepherdesses from Chicago stayed over at my home after a summer conference. I ate breakfast with them in the morning before heading off to work. I boasted how the College Park Woods neighborhood was the safest neighborhood in PG County. Short time later I headed out to my car and noticed someone had stolen the right front tire of my vehicle. I had to come back inside my house and eat humble pie in front of these shepherdesses as I called the police to report the theft of my tire. What I should have shared with them was how my wife and I prayed to Jesus for a home to move our humble family into. I should have shared how Jesus was faithful to his promise whatever we ask for in his name he will give us.
Look at verse 17: “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” I have owned four brand new cars. Each one I drove spanking brand new from a new car dealership. Of those four vehicles three no longer exist. As John wrote they have passed away. We have all heard of the Titanic. It was suppose to be a monument of man’s power over the sea. Experts in the ship building business boasted it was unsinkable. On its maiden voyage it plowed into an iceberg, opening a 300 ft hole in its hull. Two and half hours after its accident it sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. In the wake of its sinking 1500 people died.
Look at verse 17 again. “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” In the end only the man or woman who does the will of God John teaches will live forever. If we are wise we will learn what the will of God is and then do it. 1 These 5:18 teaches; “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This verse teaches each person, young men, women, children, and fathers how we do the will of God in all circumstances. When we are joyful always people will ask us: “Why are you joyful always?” We can testify about Jesus and share with them too the will of God. When we pray continually we will be spending more of our time with God and not in pursuits that please our sinful nature. As we all experience daily in most circumstances people are moved to curse God and take Jesus’ name in vain. We must use these as an opportunity to proclaim the wonderful sovereignty over all matters. 1 John as a whole teaches us the will of God is also to love our brother. In fact to accomplish this end is why God placed us in this world.
Part 2. Remain in Him
John warned believers about not loving the world. Now in great humility he also warns them about the danger of being led astray. Look at verse 26: “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” Exactly who are those who try to lead the believers astray? Verses 18-19 John calls these people who try to lead astray antichrist. Some even have come from among sincere believers in Jesus Christ. A taste of the deceptive message they give according to verse 22 is that Jesus of our Bible is not the Christ. Maybe some of us might say to ourselves: “This is a no brainier, I would never listen to anyone denies Jesus of the bible to be the Christ.” I have heard of second generation missionary children who all their lives were raised up around bible believers. They go off to a big name college such as Harvard and in the first year they give up their personal faith in Jesus Christ. Last Tuesday in the front page of the Washington Post they had a two page article about a false Christ who has led 5000 people to follow him into Siberia and begin a community centered around worshipping him. In the article they make this guy about be a harmless man claiming to be the Christ who was crucified and is preaching peace to the world. Instead of being overly confident we will never be led astray we should learn how not to be led astray. Verse 24 teaches what we must do so as not to be led astray. “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does you also will remain in the Son in the Son and in the Father.” To not be led astray we must see to what we learned from the beginning of our walk with Christ remains in us. If we don’t take serious the first bible truth we first believed we very well can become the kind of people who believed a lie if our ears become itchy to some new teaching. The first bible truth I believed was 1Corinthians 15: 1-4. This clearly taught me Jesus died for my sins. God raised him from the dead. It promises I am saved as long as I hold firmly to this truth God.
I can’t tell you how many people have tried to tell me this is no longer the good news of God. They tell me this is old school teaching or they now have more updated teaching of God. When people tell me this I shut them off immediately. I close the door in their face. I’ll shut their book and never read one word. Maybe it’s because I am not as strong as most Christians. All I know I learn back in Genesis 3 long ago I should never carry on a conversion with Satan.
What then is the final result for those who remain in Jesus Christ? Look at verse 25. “And this is what he promised us-even eternal life.” When the final bell is rung and we have fought the good fight to remain in Jesus Christ, God’s word promises us eternal life. With God’s sure promise to possess eternal life let us hold firmly to the assurance and confidence the Gospel of Jesus Christ has given us. Let us also pray God may use the power of today’s word of God to help us overcome any love of this world and give our first love and allegiance to God our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ.