1 John 2:15-19

The world

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. 16 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. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever. 18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:15-19, NIV).

I am joining John in my appeal to you to be able to discern between light and darkness, true and false, right and wrong. John had people who were part of the churches he writes to who were walking in darkness, false and wrong in what they said and did. We live in a society where you cannot tell what is in the church by the sign on the door. Nor can you tell that someone is a Christian just because they go to church. John is helping us make clear discernment in these areas. In our passage today we will look at a command, contrasts and a concern that springs out of this.

First, the command: Do not love the world or anything in the world

Jesus tells us not to love the world. The word “world” is used in three ways in scripture. First, it speaks of the earth. God created the heavens and the earth. Second, it speaks of people. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son. The third is the things of this world. Not the people, not the terra firma, but the things that we have in this world.

These things are everything else. This would include material things. It would also include the way people think. We call this a worldview. The way people around us look at life is different than what God wants for us. We cannot serve God and things or false philosophies.

So what kind of things is John talking about? 16 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.

The things in the world or worldly things are these: cravings or lusts and boasting. The Greek word that is translated “cravings” in the NIV is the same word translated “lusts.” The word “lusts” actually means desires.

So we could say, “For everything in the world, the desires of the sinful man, the desire of his eyes and the pride he has—does not come from the Father but from the world.”

Will you find gold on earth? Yes. Will there be gold in heaven? Yes. Will you find beautiful art on earth? Yes. Will there be beautiful art in heaven? Yes. Do you find people desiring what sinful man wants on earth? Yes. Do you in heaven? No. Do you find people on this earth looking at things they should not look at nor should they have? Yes. What about in heaven? No.

I believe we have trivialized this strong statement about the world in our church. Many people find something they do not like. If there is anything in the world like it, then they call it worldly and condemn it. We take music and call it worldly. I will agree that the words of music can appeal to the desires of the sinful man, put images in his mind that he can see and that many songs encourage us to boast about what we have and do, but the music doesn’t do that, the words do.

If we don’t like a certain kind of music, then say we don’t like it, don’t add God’s condemnation to it. That is not fair to the text that is before us.

Why is this trivial? We live in a world that is falling and fallen. We cluster in our circles and make applications of our teaching that shows we are out of touch. We have people who are deep in debt because they want the things of the world. We have families that are being ruined by pornography. We have people who ridicule and mock God by boasting about all they have done and are doing.

So what is our response? We talk about “worldly music” or “hair length.” Meanwhile, the world around us is facing the pain of sin, the pain of families breaking apart, the pain of people whose lifestyles bring them AIDS, of people who are hurting others with their greed, the pain caused by people living for the present and not for the future.

What did the first century Christians face? Paul says this, 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21, NIV).

Nothing trivial in that list.

Jude says, 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These men are grumblers and fault-finders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. 17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. (Jude 1:14-19, NIV).

Now look at the contrasts.

First, the person who loves the world does not love the Father. 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.

This is what John refers to when he said that the person who loved the world did not love God. The early church was penetrating society, changing people and in so doing changing society. In the same way, when a person made a commitment to Christ, the world was left behind. Baptism was a burial of the old life. Faith in Christ is what saved people, but when they came to Christ, the world was left behind.

Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin, not to allow us to sin more. We show tremendous disrespect for God and for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross when we accept the sin and perversion that are ruining our world to be present in our own lives.

This brings us to a second contrast. 16 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.

These things in the world, the lust, the desire to do what is wrong, the need to tell the world how great we are, what toys we own, how good our life is because of all we have done, do not come from God, this all comes from the world.

We all talk about the wrong messages that are sent to advertising. You can’t buy a car without seeing an attractive woman somewhere in the area. We ask, what are they trying to sell us? Or when we hear that you need to be thin to be acceptable. Or when you hear the message that if you want to have a good time you have to have Miller Lite? All these messages are from the world, they are not from God. The messages of the world say that college students will drink, do drugs and engage in sex. This is like a rite of passage. Or the message from the world is that if you are in the military, that drinking and sexual promiscuity are ok. This is a message from the world. These messages are not from God.

God says, “I have called you out of darkness to live in the light. I have called you from self-destructive acts to acts that build and encourage.”

A third contrast is this: The world’s offerings are temporary; God’s are eternal.

17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.

Every year we hear new theories about how to live life. We hear new ideas on how to raise children, how to better educate our young people, how to get ahead in life. Yesterday’s ideas were supposed to fix all the problems the new ideas address. Who got it wrong?

How many homeowners who sacrificed and scrapped and worked hard to get a home feel the same love for the building that they did ten years ago. After the initial thrill, the discussion turns to how the home can be improved. All the desires we want, all the things we own, all are going to pass away.

But, and this is the contrast, the man who does the will of God lives forever.

We have to be careful here. It does not say that the way we live forever is to do the will of God. No, the person who does the will of God is one of those people who will live forever. Who is that? Those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. The outward evidence is that the one who trusts Christ will do the will of God.

This outward evidence is important to John. He had a group of false teachers who were in the church. They promoted a secret, special knowledge known only to a few. They didn’t care about moral issues. Knowledge of God was what was important. The body was evil so live evil if you want to.

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

These people who were professing to know God, who were in the church, were really of the world. They encouraged lust and had great pride. We know they were really for the world for two reasons.

First, though they professed to know Jesus, they didn’t. So they were anti-Christ. They were against Christ. They did not believe that he was both God and man. They did not believe he came in the flesh. If anyone promotes the wrong Christ, they are anti-Christ. This is slander against Jesus. This is telling lies about Jesus. When anyone does that, they are anti-Christ.

The Bible tells us that the anti-Christ is coming in the final days. John believes it. He believes it because he has seen many antichrists coming in his day. Some had been in these churches. They left because they did not belong.

The concern is this: We can do little about Maine. We can do even less about America. But we can make an impact in this congregation.

What a blessing to know God and to know Jesus. The outward signs of this are people who want to do the will of God. The outward signs of this include people who have broken from the world’s way of acting and thinking. They don’t boast about themselves. They are not chasing men or women. They are not going out and getting drunk on Saturday night. They are not using illegal drugs.

So what are they doing? They are following Christ. They are living for God.

We can be that kind of people. So when we talk to others about Christ, we can tell the real story of God’s love for us, how he has changed our lives for the better.

Some of you were raised in Christian homes. Thank God that you didn’t go the way of the world. Listen and look. There are people all around who went the way of the world and they are people in pain.

Some of you were there. You know the pain of following the desires of the world. You have agreed with how temporary, how wrong that life was. But you left there and came to Jesus. He forgave your sins and has given you a new life.

Don’t go back. Or, as I have been told, “Don’t go there.”