1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Have you ever read a passage like this one and started to freak out about whether you were loving the things of the world too much that maybe the love of the Father wasn’t in you? I used to. I used to read this and start soul searching, am I watching too many rated R movies, do I need to cut back on listening to secular music, maybe I need to go on a food fast or skip the sports and talk radio? Maybe I’m not reading the Bible enough and reading too many fiction books and enjoying the pleasures of this earth too much, working too hard on my business? Oh woe is me! I never questioned my salvation but just questioned whether I was still in His fellowship or not. Some read these passages and would question their salvation or others salvation, they call it the litmus test of whether you really are a Christian. But remember Jesus said “Come to me and I will give you rest.” If you are reading the scripture and a verse doesn’t give you rest to your soul but a restlessness and you find your eyes on you and what you have to do to perform, prove or keep your salvation or fellowship with God, then you are reading it wrong. Context is key and sometimes as in the case of John’s writings he is not so on the nose, so you can’t take everything he says simply and plainly. His language is very ambiguous, “The Word was with God and the Word was God.” For example John’s view of commandments is not what you would think, if you just read it plainly. He is not talking about the law of Moses, or rules to live by but a living commandment who is Jesus kept in our hearts through the Spirit, 1 John 2:8, “On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you.” The commandment is to believe the Gospel and love one another, 1 John 3:23, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” When we believe in His love for us and not make it about our love for Him, the second command is not a burden or a work because it is an identity truth. His love lives in us and we become love because that is who He is. 1 John 4:16,”God is love…” and then in the next verse, we read, “because as He is, so also are we in this world.” By receiving His love by simply believing in Jesus’s love for us, we are identified now as children of LOVE. It is not by our behavior but by our birth and now it’s in our spiritual DNA that we are lovers of God and lovers of one another. We now can love God and others not trying to achieve His love but we love through and from His love which is already secured and already dwelling in our hearts. So there is no condition if we fail to love well or not, but when we rest in His love for us we will manifest His love because we know we are perfectly and always will be unconditionally loved forever. “Love as I have love you”, is different from the Mosaic law to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Before it was a command to try and be on good terms with God but now it is a command within us kept by the Spirit when we believe the Gospel. Non-believers can love those as themselves, that’s easy to do. You can love someone with similar interests to you and that also likes the same things you like but this love is AGAPE, and it is only possible if you have AGAPE living already in your heart by faith in Jesus. It is also true that in the context of John’s letter that to love one another is also referring to recognizing other believers who share the same testimony of trusting in the forgiveness of the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross. We are told not to love in the way of Cain, 1 John 3:11-12. Cain slew his brother Abel because his deeds were righteous. Cain offered a sacrifice of works, the fruits from the ground and Abel saw himself as a sinner, received forgiveness through the bloodshed of an animal sacrifice. Cain did not recognize his sin, did not recognize his brother or his need for forgiveness and killed his brother. So loving your brother in the context here is to not hate and despise someone on the sole basis that they believe in Jesus. That’s what the antichrists were doing that had infiltrated the church whom John was writing about. So, it is the same idea when we come to the words “Loving the world”. It is in the way of Cain. To love the world is to be like Cain who fled from the presence of God and built a life of cities, a system of life like an orphan having to fend for himself apart from God, Genesis 4. The world has many aspects but the one in particular that John is referring to is the religious world. This is the same self righteous world like the Pharisees that hated Jesus and hates us today, John 15:17-25. We are as believers to be careful not to be seduced by the world into building our lives, our identity apart from trusting in the Father’s love for us. So loving the world here is not am I drinking too much beer, smoking, cussing, doing chew and dating girls that do, it is simply saying don’t build your righteousness, your identity apart from trusting in Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Don’t be like Cain and deny you are a sinner and hate those that believe in Jesus and build your identity through your own strength, your own merits, your own sacrifice of fruits from the works of your own hard labor. That ground which is your flesh is cursed. Instead, recognize your sin and need for a Savior and be like Abel who offered a sacrifice and received forgiveness from the blood shed of an animal, all foreshadowing the perfect lamb of God who was the ultimate sacrifice for us all. So if you love the world that way, boasting in your own righteousness, then the love of the Father cannot and is not in you. We do the will of God and live forever. What is the will of God? John 6:40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” If you make this verse about your bad moral behaviors that sometimes as a Christian we fall into either every once and awhile or habitually, then you will have no assurance if you are right with God. There is no Christian who has all their behaviors lined up perfectly. But our identity in Christ is sinless, perfect and complete and that is how He sees us. Well, what about those verses that say, children of the devil practice sinning, and children of God practice righteousness? Again even with those words, John is not talking about your behavior because how do you know you are practicing enough righteous behavior or are sinning less enough to be good with God? No, this is about believing in Jesus as well. The sin that the children of the devil practice is the sin that leads to death, not a sin the believer can commit. We can commit sin as John says we can but never that sin that leads to eternal death because we believe in Jesus, 1 John 5:16-17. We practice truth or practice righteousness because we simply believe not in our righteousness but in His and therefore we are righteous as he is righteous. Remember, John tells us it’s obvious, 1 John 3:10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.” So put to bed any doubts you have! If you have put your faith in the blood, in Christ’s love for you not your love for him, and you don’t hate Christians and wish they would die because they believe in Jesus, then rest in your identity in Christ. Remember, it’s obvious, you don’t love the world as Cain, you keep the commands, you practice righteousness, you have the Father’s love in you, you have overcome the world because you have been born of Him! 1 John 5:4, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith.” It’s through faith in the finished work of Jesus and as you now live out the Christian life don’t let the World influence you and steal your crown, Revelation 3:11. This is not your salvation you can lose but John is talking about not letting your joy and confidence get stolen by the philosophies of deceitful men. Don’t forget who you already are because of His finished work on the cross. Don’t let the World influence you to think you’re not enough and that there is something you still have to do to fend for yourself. Loving the world even the religious world will always produce anxiety because for the world to love you back you have to always perform. Listen to the world cry out, “What have you done for me lately? “Are you practicing enough righteousness?” “Faith without works is dead”, “there is too much talk of Grace in the church, we need to balance it out with more of God’s fear.” Yes, all of that I have heard and that’s not the Heavenly Father’s voice, that’s the voice of Cain and unfortunately it’s coming from behind the pulpits in the church today!!! We may not take the way of Cain as far as our justification is concerned but in our Christian walk we can still be influenced and therefore live out miserable joyless lives on the treadmill of religious performance getting nowhere. But receiving the Father’s love means it’s finished, Christ satisfied the requirements, now walk out your identity in Him as one who is unconditionally loved, and live through and from His love. Never do you have to fear am I good enough because perfect love casts out all fear of judgement, 1 John 4:18. If Christ’s work was good enough for the Father then it should be good enough for me too, 1 John 2:2. No, you are not an orphan having to perform to be accepted going from family to family but as John would say, we are “little children”, forever beloved in the Father who has built His home in us. We just need to remind ourselves daily that our home is also in Him.