"For Such A Time As This" (Esther 4:14)

"For Such A Time As This" (Esther 4:14)

Life in a Perishing World

The Apostle John in his first epistle or letter to the early Christian church gives them, and us, a very clear and specific command in 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 perishing – passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

 The term world here, although it includes the Earth we live on, primarily represents or refers to the system of beliefs, institutions and human relationships that form, order and govern the society in which we pursue the fulfillment of our human needs and desires and our ultimate happiness and well-being.

Thus, the most notable and Biblical reason for this commandment is that this present world is not the world that God created in the beginning which was a world of exquisite beauty, excitement and adventure, a world of unbounded joy and happiness populated by beings created in the image and likeness of an infinitely glorious, holy and righteous God.  Thus, it was to be (and one day will be again) a God centered, righteousness driven, Holy Spirit controlled system of institutions and human relationships, wherein men and women would be governed in their hearts and in all that they did by the love of God, through the law of God, for the glory of God and for our eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction in intimate relationship with God and with one another.

The world we live in today, the world we are being commanded not to love, not to set our affections, desires and hopes upon, is far from the world God created and called good.  The world we presently live in is a sin corrupted, disordered version of that world – just as we are sin corrupted, disordered versions of the glorious beings God created in His image and likeness, all of which together He called very good.  It is so as a result of mankind’s sin, our rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over our lives.

As such, the Bible refers to this present world as evil (Galatians 1:4) and the one who has the greatest influence over it as the wicked one (1 John 5:19), who, beginning with Adam and Eve, convinced mankind that our greatest joy, our greatest, pleasure, our greatest happiness is found in our pursuit of it in the creation rather than in intimate relationship with our Creator (Romans 1:21-25).  In our believing this lie, the world has become a man centered, pride driven, satanically controlled system of institutions and relationships whereby all of mankind are governed in our hearts by, as we are told here in 1 John 2:16, the lust of the flesh (the passionate desire for pleasure and comfort), the lust of the eyes ( the passionate desire for things we see or imagine will enrich or delight us), and the boastful pride of life, (the passionate desire for power/prestige/control), all for the achievement of our own personal and private happiness independent of God and in opposition to God.

Lust is revealed in the Bible as the precursor, the driving force behind not only the sin of Adam and Eve, but the sin of all men and women since. We are told in James 1:13-15 that lust, which is the antithesis of love, leads to sin which ultimately leads to death – ultimately eternal death in Hell, as well as to all the misery and sorrow that proceeds physical death in this world.  All of the corruption that produces so much misery and sorrow as well as all conflict and wars are attributed to lust (James 4:1-4) (2 Peter 1:4).

Lust is thus the governing authority of our sinful heart, the ruling principle of life in this satanically controlled world, a world that offers us everything we think we want, but absolutely nothing we will ever need to satisfy the deepest needs and desires of the heart and fulfill the desperate longings of our soul, which only God can do.

Lust envelops and clouds our minds in spiritual darkness. The power that God gave mankind in the beginning of clear discrimination in our thinking so that we would make knowledgeable, thoughtful, God-honoring decisions and choices is lost once lust takes control.  When we are controlled by lust, everything within us rises up against God, wherein we thus live our lives in this world disdaining His word, doubting His goodness, disobeying His commandments, disbelieving His promises, and ignoring His warnings of judgement and eternal misery for all who continue in their lust motivated sin, under the influence of this man centered, pride driven satanically influenced system of institutions, beliefs and relationships (Revelation 14:6-11).

And all of this is to the delight of the one we have looked at in the past few posts, referred to as Satan or the devil, who has deceived the whole world into believing that fulfilling our most passionate desires independent of or in opposition to God, will provide greater freedom and thus greater joy, greater pleasure, greater satisfaction than we would come to experience in our submission to and trust in the love of God (Revelation 12:9).  The great influence he (and his demons) exert over the whole world (1 John 5:19), is emphasized in the titles he is given in the Bible, such as in 2 Corinthians 4:4 where he is referred to as “the god of this world” and in John 14:30 as the prince or ruler of this world.

The freedom, joy and fulfillment that Satan promises us in our rebellion against God is an illusion, an illusion that continues to be perpetuated through the governmental, educational and even religious institutions of this world, as well as the media and entertainment networks. All of these are under the influence of the wicked one, striving to convince us that if we conform to this world’s fashions and passions and values; if we agree with what the majority have determined is right and wrong – good and evil, we will find our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure and satisfaction, our true significance as human beings, apart from God.

The Bible makes it clear, however, that lust and its accompanying sin result in bondage, that we are slaves to our sin (John 8:34), having been taken captive (willingly) to exercise our will in opposition to God (2 Timothy 2:24-26) (John 8:44).

This bondage is revealed most clearly in what we nicely refer to as “addictions”, wherein even after it becomes apparent the addiction is bringing nothing but misery into our lives and the lives of others, we continue in it, even to the point of physical death.

So, we come to the most important question a person can ask while they are still in this world and have answered correctly; namely, how do we defeat/overcome the lust in our heart that separates us from God, that brings corruption and misery into the world, a world that will perish under God’s fiery judgement one day (2 Peter 3:10-12), and that will result in the eternal damnation of our soul?

I will attempt to address what the Bible has to say in answer to this most important question in future posts.  However, you do not have to wait for that.  All you have to do is desire and pursue as the object of your deepest love and source of your greatest joy the one whose birth we celebrate each year on December 25, the man, Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5-6).  Don’t let the lust of other things get in your way.

Grace and Peace ×