In 1 John 2:15–17, God, through the Apostle John, gives us a very clear, concise and all-encompassing command, “DO NOT love the world nor the things of this world”. It is given as an emphatic warning such as one would give to a young child to not play in the street or touch a hot iron, or to the general public after a great wind storm where we are warned not to touch downed power lines, all emphasizing the grave danger and consequences in doing so.
Now in my mind (which still requires a lot of renewing) this should be the easiest commandment to obey that God has ever given since the command He gave Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden not to eat a piece of fruit.
I mean who could possibly love a world that is filled with all of the sorrow and suffering, strife and violence. frustration and futility, destruction and death that we find in this one?
And who could possible love a world where people, young and old, are afflicted with horrific physical disorders that slowly and painfully kill their bodies, or chronic mental disorders that result in them killing others or themselves?
And who could possibly love a world where there is an irrational prejudice toward or hatred of people because of their skin color, nationality or ethnic origin, a hatred that many times leads to enslavement, riots and wars?
And who could possibly love a world where governments and those in power manipulate, exploit, impoverish and even kill the very citizens they are empowered and entrusted to protect?
And who could possibly love a world where life is so devalued, so meaningless, so disposable that men and women publicly demonstrate for the right to legally kill their children in the child’s most vulnerable and naturally protected stage of development, and where all too many of those children that do survive the womb grow up in chronic poverty and fear, or are abused and neglected by the very persons who should love them most?
And who could possibly love a world where living in it is so miserable, so painful; a world where people feel so empty and unfulfilled, that they must medicate, intoxicate themselves with drugs and substances so powerfully addicting that they literally take control of their lives; destroying their minds and bodies, their families and relationships, and ultimately their souls?
Or, who could possibly love a world that is so boring and uninteresting that people, at least in this society, spend hours of their day in unreality; entertaining themselves by viewing on a flat screen graphic images of gratuitous violence; images of people killing, maiming and destroying other image bearers of God; being aroused by images of people engaging in immoral and exploitive sex, or just plain filling their minds with mind numbing misinformation?
I mean could anyone in their right mind set their affections and desires and longings for true and lasting happiness on such a world?
Such a world, one would think, could only be desired, loved and embraced by demons and madmen – right?
Unfortunately, truth be told, this world is filled with demons (Ephesians 6:10-12) and mad men (Ecclesiastes 9:3), which is ultimately the reason the majority of the human race love this world and the things of this world – certainly much more than they love God. And they do so to their eternal peril.
More on this in my next post, including how and in whom we overcome a love for this world.
Grace and Peace ×