A Daily Walk

John Randall: What occupies your thoughts? Your time? And desires? Do you find yourself more influenced by culture or by Christ? Are you in love with this world system or with the Savior? Is your life a walking contradiction or is it a living reality of a relationship with Jesus?

Guest (Male): Life is likened to a vapor in the Bible, and the older we get, the more we see how true that is. It sure goes by quick, doesn’t it? And today on *A Daily Walk*, we would like you to consider who you love: the world or God and His will for your life. While many are choosing to live for things that are temporary, Pastor John Randall will encourage us to consider what lasts forever and invest in that. We’re in 1 John, chapter two.

John Randall: 1 John, chapter two, beginning in verse 15, if you’d follow along with me as we read from the Scriptures: “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. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

We live in a world that demands our attention. We are constantly bombarded by screens, headlines, advertisements, and desires that promise happiness, success, or fulfillment. There is an internal struggle that tries to pull us toward the things that we know as followers of Jesus, we must fight against. But amid all the noise, God gives a clear, sobering word: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.”

And these words from 1 John, chapter two, strike at the heart of a struggle that every believer faces: the pull between the temporary pleasures of this world and the eternal promises of God. And in these few verses, the apostle John reminds us of a vital truth: the world and its desires are passing away, but those who do God’s will live forever.

This morning, I’d like for us to explore what it means to love the world and why that love can be dangerous to our spiritual lives, and how we can cultivate a heart that is rooted in God’s will. This text challenges us to examine where our affections truly lie and to realign them with what lasts forever.

First of all, let’s consider the command found in verse 15. It says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” Now, in the context of the previous verses in this chapter, the apostle John established that his readers had an experiential knowledge of several matters. They knew who their heavenly Father was, that their sins were forgiven, and how to overcome the enemy through the power of the word of God.

And not wanting them to lose the ground that they had gained, John presents a vital command: “Don’t love the world or the things in it.” It wasn’t a suggestion. It wasn’t open for discussion or consideration; rather, it was very clearly a command. Now, at first reading, this command may raise some questions in your mind.

I thought the Bible said that God so loved the world. Didn’t Jesus say that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself? I remember reading in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love, we’re actually nothing. Why, then, would he command us not to love the world? Is this a contradiction of Scripture? No.

John’s term for “world” does not refer to God’s created order in nature. Even though it has been marred by sin, the Bible does tell us in Genesis, chapter one, verse 31, that at the end of creation, we read that everything God created was very good. The wonder of creation still reflects God’s glory.

The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 19, for example, that the heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the skies display His craftsmanship. Day after day, they continue to speak, and night after night, they make Him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.

In writing to the Romans, Paul also commented on the wonder of creation in chapter one and verse 20 when he said, “For since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities: His eternal power and divine nature, so they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

So he’s not referring to the created nature, the created order. Secondly, when John uses the term “world,” he’s not referring to humanity. God loves the world. He created men and women in His image, and He sent His one and only Son to die for His creation in order that we could be saved.

So the term for “world” is the Greek word *kosmos*, which refers to the system controlled and governed by Satan. This system, this worldly system, is hostile toward Christ. It magnifies humanity, it celebrates depravity, and it rejects God’s word.

You may recall that when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would simply bow before him. Jesus did not debate with the devil about the world system being under satanic control; instead, he refused to bow.

In writing to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul said concerning this worldly system in Ephesians, chapter two and verse two, “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”

The world system is what Jesus referred to when he said in John, chapter 15, verse 18, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” Also, the word that John uses for “love,” it means to have a high esteem, satisfaction with, or to take pleasure in. Don’t love the world in that way, the world system that is opposed to God.

The apostle Paul had a fellow laborer in the gospel. His name was Demas, and Demas is mentioned three times in the Scriptures. First, in Philemon, chapter one and verse 24, when it says, “as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.” He was a fellow worker of Paul.

In Colossians, chapter four, Paul mentions him again in the 14th verse. He said, “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.” The last time he is mentioned, 2 Timothy, chapter four, in verse 10, Paul’s final letter before his martyrdom, and he says this: “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”

Folks, we are to love God. We are to love His creation. We are to love people. But we are commanded not to love the fallen world system, its values, and its desires that oppose God. But what is the reason for such a command? What is it about the world and its system that is so corrupt?

Here, the apostle John gives us a contradiction. Notice the contradiction in verse 15: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” If a person claims today to love the Lord, to walk with the Lord, to live for the Lord, claims to be a Christian, and yet at the same time clings to, pursues, applauds, joins in, defends the world system that is opposed to God, they are a walking contradiction.

John states very clearly the love of the Father is not in them. There are several examples that we could point to this morning that clearly delineate aggressive hostility toward biblical Christianity: an attack on the traditional family, an active promotion of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality, an increasing acceptance of violence, an emphasis on materialism and hedonism by the secular media, and a widespread corruption in leadership.

The love for the world system and the love for the heavenly Father are mutually exclusive. They cannot coexist. They are antithetical, diametrically opposed, fundamentally and biblically incompatible. Jesus said it this way in Matthew, chapter six, in verse 24: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

James also mentions this in James, chapter four, in verse four, when he declares, “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” If you want to align yourself with this world system, just know you are setting yourself on the opposite side of Almighty God.

What occupies your thoughts? Your time? And desires? Do you find yourself more influenced by culture or by Christ? Are you in love with this world system or with the Savior? Is your life a walking contradiction or is it a living reality of a relationship with Jesus?

The apostle John provides a command, he points out a clear contradiction, and then he presents for us a composite of the world system. In other words, he illustrates for us the elements that make up the world system. What does it look like, this system that we are not to love? Well, he describes it for us in verse 16.

He says, “All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” The apostle uses three elements to describe the world system. First, the lust of the flesh. The word “lust,” a word used here negatively for desire, refers to a craving or a passionate desire.

And it’s more than, say, for example, a person who is hungry and desires food. It’s more like an alcoholic who longs for a drink, or a drug addict who will do anything for another hit, or a hedonist who is never content and needs just another pleasurable experience to try and fill the void that is within them.

And these varied cravings of fallen human nature are pursued in the interest of self and self-sufficient independence from God. The word for “flesh,” used 147 times in the New Testament, is the Greek word *sarx*. And John uses this word “flesh” in its moral and ethical sense.

And the flesh refers to the totally depraved nature that governs the individual’s reason, will, and emotion. It describes an outlook, really, that is completely oriented toward self, prone to committing sins, opposed to God, pursuing its own ends in self-sufficient independence of God.

Folks, the flesh is the urge within us toward total autonomy and rebellion, aspiring to be our own little gods, accountable to no one, responsible to no one, running our own little worlds to suit ourselves, and living what the world calls “my truth.” You live your truth, I live my truth.

It’s the continual tug of self-centeredness and selfishness within each of us that fights to keep us from being wholly devoted to God. That is the lust of the flesh. And the flesh, well, it’s incited by temptations that appeal to the bodily desires and urges, often involving sexual immorality, gluttony, or any indulgence that prioritizes physical pleasure over spiritual or moral values. Oh, it’s a fight, isn’t it?

The Bible speaks of this in several places, this flesh that makes up the world system. In fact, Paul gives to the Galatians and to us a rather dark description in Galatians, chapter five, verse 16. This is what he says: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these two are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

It’s the battle. And then he describes what it is we’re battling. This is what the flesh looks like. Look at verse 19: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he talked about the fleshly mentality, the mindset. He called it being carnally minded: the flesh. And here’s what he said in Romans, chapter eight, verse six: “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is at war or at enmity against God; it’s not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

For those who adore this world system, this represents a way of life. However, for the child of God who loves the Father, we live in stark contrast to the world system. The lust of the flesh is a desire that is rooted in the fallen human nature, often triggered by what we observe in the next thing: the lust of the eyes.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes refers to a strong desire or coveting of things we see, especially material possessions or beauty, or anything that draws our attention away from God and leads to sin. It’s closely tied to greed, to envy, idolatry, wanting what is not ours, and being consumed by what we visually observe.

A man who had more than probably almost anyone in history wrote this. His name was Solomon, and Solomon said in Proverbs 27, verse 20: “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

Job realized the importance of protecting one’s eyes, what one sees, when he declared in Job 31, verse one: “I have made a covenant, an agreement with my eyes; why should I look upon a young woman?” Jesus also gave us a warning concerning our eyes and what we see.

You remember, in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “You’ve heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery within his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you; it’s better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

He said in Matthew, chapter six, verse 22, concerning the eye, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If, therefore, your eye is good, then your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, that is, what you are visually taking in is bad, then your whole body is going to be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”

The warning against what comes through visually, due to the fact that the lust of the eyes has a very powerful tendency to draw us away from the Lord. So it’s not like I can walk around with horse blinders; I just have to be very aware and cognizant of what I see and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and turn from that which could turn me away.

There are several biblical examples of this very thing. I’m sure you’re familiar. Let me cite a few. The first one, Genesis, her name was Eve. Chapter three, verse six, it says, “When the woman saw that the tree, saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, she took of it.”

Her visual desire played a role in her disobedience. Another example would be that in the book of Joshua, chapter seven, a man by the name of Achan. It says concerning Achan, when he confessed having been confronted by Joshua, this is what he said in his confession: “When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them, I took them, and there they are hidden in the midst of my tent with silver under it.” I saw it, I coveted it, I took it, I hid it. Where did it begin? The lust of the eyes.

Another tragic example of this seen in the life of the man after God’s own heart, David. 2 Samuel, chapter 11, a time when the kings should have been at battle, David decided to stay home. Up on the balcony, and visually, he took in a woman bathing, her name Bathsheba, entered into a relationship with her, which resulted in adultery and murder. Where did it begin? With the eyes.

Is there anything that you are currently observing that might entice you to sin within your heart and eventually lead you to sin in your actions? If so, repent of it, turn from it today. Someone once said that if you sow a thought, you will reap an action; and if you sow an action, you will reap a habit; and if you sow a habit, you will reap a character; and if you sow a character, you’ll reap a destiny.

The third element that is foundational to this system of the world: pride. Pride. The pride of life. The pride of life refers to those who glorify themselves instead of God. They create idols out of their possessions, their careers, their achievements, or their social status.

Many theologians believe that pride is the root of man’s fall, as it involves placing oneself above God. Some rank pride as the queen of all of the vices and a root sin from which others flow. Did you know that the Bible indicates that pride is directly linked to the devil and his downfall?

Guest (Male): Who do you love? That’s the question of the day here on *A Daily Walk*, and we hope and pray you were encouraged to have a heart rooted in God’s will. This is part of Pastor John Randall’s new study in 1 John. As we leave you today, we’d like to say how much it means to us each and every time we hear how God is at work in our listeners’ lives. It would be so encouraging to hear from you, so please write today while it’s fresh on your mind.

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