Tony Evans - Loving the Wrong World (05/10/2017)
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In 1 John 2:15–17, the Apostle John commands believers not to love «the world,» defined as the Satan-led system that excludes God. Loving this world—manifested through illegitimate pleasure, possessions, and pride—causes a believer to lose the experiential love of the Father. This choice is foolish because the world is temporary and fading, while those who do God’s will live forever.
Defining «The World»
God wants you to understand a principle. First John was written to Christians, so what I’m sharing with you today applies if you are a believer. The book is not telling sinners how to get saved; he’s telling saints how to experience intimate fellowship with God and how to lose it. And so, he wants to unveil to us a number of principles that, if you get them, would be life-transforming on earth because you’re looking at your earthly existence from heaven’s perspective.
«Do not love the world.» So the first question we must answer is: what do we mean by «world»? The Greek word is the word *cosmos*. When you talk about the physical cosmos, you’re talking about the earth. But in this context, he’s talking about the spiritual cosmos. He’s not talking about the physical place; he’s talking about the spiritual reality located on the physical place, and he calls that «the world.»
The world can be defined as that system, headed by Satan, that leaves God out. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 5, verse 19, that «this world lies in the hand of the evil one.» So the reason God doesn’t want you to love the world is that His enemy runs it because it is operated by Satan. So it’s no wonder that He doesn’t want us to love somebody that doesn’t love Him and actually doesn’t love you either if you love Him.
It is that organized system, headed by Satan, that leaves God out. «World» relates to a central theme surrounded by spokes. If I talk to you about the world of finance, well, I’m including banks and I’m including credit unions and I’m including savings accounts and I’m including money in your pocket and I’m including the Treasury of the United States, because all of those things have one thing in common: money. Different aspects surrounding or plugging into one thing.
So when God talks about «loving the world,» it’s talking about one thing, but it’s got different spokes coming at it. And that one thing is that it leaves God out. It is that organized, pre-planned system that wants to draw you out from the will and the way of God. That’s worldliness. It is Satan’s job to get you to not merely be in the world but to fall in love with it.
Jesus made it plain in John 17: «Father, don’t take them out of the world.» You can be in it; you can benefit from it; you can utilize it. But what He does say is, «You are not to *love* it.» That is, when you are faced with a decision between Me and this world order, the question is who you love, because that will be reflected in the choice made. God does not want to compete with His arch-enemy, the devil, because this world lies in the hands of the evil one, and the evil one’s goal is to get you to fall in love with the world.
The High Cost of Loving the World
The Bible says in Romans 12:2, «be not conformed to this world.» The word «conform» means to be pressured by it to exclude God. He says, «You are not to love this world.» To love it is to seek its good over and against God’s will. He says, «do not love it,» which means, «don’t leave Me out. Don’t exclude Me. Don’t choose it over Me when you are faced with the decision.»
Why? Why is it a big deal that God does not want you to fall in love with the world? He tells you in verse 15: «If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.» He says there is a cost to loving the world, and that is the loss of the love of the Father. Please notice there are no exceptions here. He says, «if anyone.» So it doesn’t matter who you are, from pulpit to pew. He says if you love the world, you lose Daddy—the love of the Father—because he’s talking to His children.
He’s talking to, as he says in verse one, «my little children.» He’s talking to believers. So a believer can retain, and will retain, his legal relationship with God while at the same time losing his experiential relationship with God. That is, you can never lose your salvation once you’re truly born again, but you can lose your experience of the God who saved you. What he’s saying is, to love the world draws you from experiencing God’s presence, love, and His will operating in your life.
Galatians chapter 1, verse 4, says God saved us to deliver us from this present world. So He did not save us to fall in love with the world; He actually saved us to deliver us from the world while we are still operating inside the world. So the question is, who’s your Daddy? The question is, do you want your Father?
One of the reasons many Christians cannot and do not experience the manifest presence of God, His reality in their lives, is they still want to hold on to the world, demonstrated by the decision to leave God out of the equation. This is more than a feeling; it’s a decision that, «God, You’re not part of this one; I choose that world.» So the question is, do you really want, do I really want, do we really want the closeness of God we talk about? The answers to prayers we desire? Or do we want the world?
He says, «Do not love the world, because you lose Me.» In fact, he said that more strongly in James 4:4. He says, «friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God.» So not only do you lose the experience of God’s reality, you now join Satan in becoming God’s adversary, even though you’re God’s child. Friendship with the world puts you at enmity, in conflict, with God. So not only are we not experiencing God, we’re in perpetual battle with God if you love the world.
Paul says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10, he says, «Demas has forsaken me, because he’s fallen in love with this present world.» Today we battle with this thing of worldliness because we want the world to like us. We want the world to accept us. We want the world to embrace us. When Jesus made it clear in John 15, verses 18 and 19, «if the world hates Me, it will hate you.» But we’re so desirous that this world does not reject us that we embrace it and we hold on to it, and we lose the love of the Father—that is, His experiential, relational tie with us.
What’s «In the World»? The Three Temptations
That’s how the world is; it wants to crowd out the reason for the relationship with God to begin with. None of those things are wrong in itself unless they crowd out the relationship with God so that you *love* the things in the world. Please don’t misunderstand; he’s not talking about *having* the things in the world; he’s talking about *loving* them.
Why should you not choose the world over God in terms of your love? It gives you three reasons. He says, «for all that is in the world.» For all that is in the world. If Paul were writing in our contemporary language, Paul would say, «It ain’t all that and a bag of chips.» If Paul were writing this phrase «all that is in the world,» he would say it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. That’s what he’s saying: «all that’s in the world.» He says the three things that are in the world. He says, «let me tell you that.» He says they are «the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.» That’s what he says. These are, he says, «let me tell you what’s in the world.» Everything in the world, he says, falls into one of these three categories.
First of all, the lust of the flesh. Lust means to crave and to desire. He says it is the craving for pleasure outside of the will of God. The lust of the flesh is the craving for pleasure outside of the will of God, either because the thing in itself is wrong, or the thing is right but you use it in an illegitimate way. The Bible makes it clear: drinking wine is not a sin; drunkenness is evil. The Bible says sex was given by God; immorality is evil. But what Satan does is he makes us fall in love with the pleasure, the desire for it, so we fall in love with it and we lose the Father—the lust of the flesh: the desire for pleasure illegitimately.
Secondly, the lust of the eyes: that is the illegitimate desire for possessions. Lust of the flesh: the cravings of the body. Lust of the eyes: the craving for stuff. Many who are sitting here today are drowning in debt because you had to have it—that desire to have it at the expense of taking care of my family, having my priorities straight. Many cannot honor the Lord with their finances because they have to honor MasterCard and Visa and American Express because «I gotta have it.»
And notice how Satan stirs up the desire. Every time you look at TV, you «gotta have it.» So we wind up spending money we don’t have to get things we don’t need to impress people we don’t know. And then he says there’s the pride of life: that is the illegitimate pursuit of position. So we connive to get ahead; we lie and cheat to be promoted; we hook up with folk who can advance us, even though their value systems don’t agree with us, just so we can get ahead.
'Cause after all, we know it’s a dog-eat-dog world—that ain’t no lie. We know to get ahead in this world you gotta… you gotta compromise your values, you gotta compromise your priorities. You can’t just be… you can’t be a Christian and get ahead in this world. And so the boastful pride of life: my desire to advance independently of God, even if it’s not God’s will. And so we let our pride—unwillingness to submit below the mighty hand of God—and we allow our pride to cause us to love the position outside of the will of God.
This is the same temptation that Satan gave to Eve in the garden. It says, «when she saw the tree"—lust of the eyes—"and it was desirable to make one"—that was the lust of the flesh—"to make one wise"—the pride of life: «I could be as smart as God.» It’s a temptation Satan gave to Jesus in the wilderness: «turning stones into bread"—the lust of the flesh; «jump off of these buildings"—the lust of the eyes: let everybody see you Messiah; «bow before me and I will give you all these kingdoms"—the lust of possessions, pride of life.
He constantly, see, he uses the world to get our attention because it looks so good. It feels so good. I want to have it. Got to have it. And don’t get me wrong, He is not condemning *having* it; He’s condemning *loving* it. And you love it when it trumps Him. It doesn’t trump Him. And God has given you the basis for it. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6 to enjoy the good things that God gives you, but not at the expense of God, because you lose the Father. So the question is, how bad do you want Him?
The Ultimate Reason: It’s All Fading Away
In 1st John chapter 2, verse 17, you know why you shouldn’t love the world? He says, «because the world is passing away, and also its lust; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.» He says, «Don’t love the world because it’s temporary.» Are you loving something that’s going to leave you, or you’re going to leave it? The world is passing away, and its lust. You’re falling in love with something that’s going to lose its luster. It’s fading. It’s fading.
Now, I 'cite you all when you got that new car. Had the smell, you had to keep it clean even when it wasn’t dirty. But it fades. That new house becomes a house. Your clothes become clothes. They fade. It’s temporary. So don’t act like it does not fade. Not only does it fade, we fade. That’s why we spend so much time, money, and effort trying to pretend we don’t fade. There’s some ladies here with extensions—I ain’t losing my head, it’s my hair—ain’t nothing fading.
So we’re doubling, triple makeup: «I ain’t fade; I ain’t getting older.» One of the reasons I tried to lose some weight is because I needed to not look like I was having… but no matter what you do, this world is fading. Don’t act like it’s permanent. He wants us to live here, work here, play here, do all the things we do here, but with an eternal perspective. This world is fading away. In other words, don’t love the wrong world, because this is not the one you want to love. You want to love the world you’re going to, not the world you’re in.
The Submarine Principle: Internal Pressure vs. External
The further you go in the ocean, the more pressure you’re under. You get to the bottom of the ocean, and you’re under so much pressure it can collapse a whole boat, a whole ship; it will be crushed because the pressure is so great. When we walk out that door, we’re gonna hit pressure. When you go to work tomorrow, you’re gonna be under pressure. They’re gonna pressure you to think like they think, walk like they walk, talk like they talk. You’re under pressure. You’re under pressure. And I don’t want to be super-spiritual; it can be rough because there’s so much pressure. And the more secular your world, the more pressure you’re under to conform to this world order.
And like the bottom of the ocean, it seeks to collapse you into its image. But one thing the ocean can’t do is collapse a submarine. A submarine can go all the way down to the bottom floor of the ocean and not be crushed. Why? Because it’s been pressurized. That means that the pressure on the inside is equal to or greater than the pressure coming at it from the outside. So there is so much pressure on the inside that the outside, while still pressuring, does not overrule what’s taking place on the inside.
You may not be able to change your co-workers. You may not be able to change your environment. You may not be able to change the circumstances that are pressuring you. But if you get enough God on the inside, He can neutralize the pressure coming at you from the outside, that you can exist in that world without being crushed by it. And you get that pressure on the inside when you live life—I live life—with an eternal perspective.