Love Not the World

I John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

As we were waiting to board a horse-drawn hay wagon to go Christmas caroling, a little girl was crying—more like screaming. There was a young colt tied to the side of one of the big draft horses, apparently for training purposes. The girl’s dad was taking her off of the colt that was bucking. The dad had put her on, but was now taking her off. I said something about it to the dad. “She is not crying because the colt is bucking, but because I won’t let her stay on it,” he said. Needless to say, that girl loved horses.

In our text, John calls us to not love the world. What about John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”? Paul says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” We are always to love one another. Our text is talking about things that are in the world.

I just read in our Sunday school paper, that if we need God and anything else to be happy, we have an idol. It went on to say that if we don’t destroy our idols they will destroy us. Is this a call to not enjoy life? Ecclesiastes 3: 13 states, “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.” Paul said in Philippians 4:11-12, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” 

This world is not our home, and yet we have to live in it. What we want and what we need are not always the same. My dad told me of a man who was a rich banker. He met a young lady whom he was interested in marrying. He wanted to be sure that she loved him—not his money. He invited her to his house for dinner. She did not know he was a banker, or rich. He took her to a little shack in an alley, not his beautiful home. He had borrowed an old wreck-of-a-car. The table was set with unmatching silverware and plates. The chairs were apple boxes stood on end. That was the last he saw of her. If she had truly loved him, those things would not have mattered. 

What must God think when he gave us His Son, born in a sheep pen? Isaiah 53:2 says “…he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” God gave us the riches of everlasting life with Him in Heaven, and yet how quickly we turn from Him and love the things of the world.  

Satan’s last temptation for Jesus in the wilderness was to offer Him things. Matthew 4:9 says, “And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Jesus loved the Father. He loved people. As His followers, let us LOVE NOT THE WORLD!