1 John 2:15-17
English
Standard Version (ESV)
Do Not Love the World
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
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life[a]—is
not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is
passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides
forever.
In these verses John is
telling us what it means to love the world. When we hear that term, "The
world," we need to know what it means. To love the world is to love all
things that are finite and not of God. Things of this world will pass away with
time. Our money will last as long as we are alive, but after we die, our money
is meaningless. The glories of this world will fade away, but the glory of the
Father will last forever.
In verse 15, John tells
not to love the world and if we do, the Father is not in him. When we become
obsessed with worldly things like wealth, status, media, technology, or even
people, we are being less obsessed about Christ. It diverts our attention away
from what really matters and that is God. He defines what he means by the world
in verse 16, "...the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of
the eyes and pride in possessions..." So the things of this world are the
things that our sinful flesh desire. And when we long for these things, Christ
is being pushed aside to make way for new things.
He closes these verses in
verse 17, "And the world is passing away along with its desires, but
whoever does the will of God abides forever." John is telling us that
these desires will pass away, but if we remain faithful in the will of the
Lord, we will abide in Him forever. It comes back to us abiding, or remaining,
in Him. As worship leaders, we need to be on guard all of the time so we are
not enticed by the sinful desires of this world. It is so easy for to become
consumed with the coolest Apple products or any cool new toy that will
"help us" with our worship music. But if we try to say no to the
world on our own, we will fail. We must abide in Him always so that we can
overcome the lusts of the world. Because as we do the will of the father, He
will abide in us as we abide in him.
No comments:
Post a Comment