00:00
00:00
00:01
ប្រតិចារិក
1/0
Today we're going to be looking at 1 John 2, verses 15-17. I'd encourage you to open your Bible with me there. Last time we met in 1 John, we discussed an interruption in the train of thought. As I read it and as I preached it, I believe that this interruption is due to the Apostle's awareness of the weightiness of what he's saying right now. The apostles' purpose in writing this letter was to encourage the church, who was being buffeted with the heresy of the forerunner of the Gnostics, the Docetists. They were being told that their salvation was incomplete, that the gospel may have more or less been true, but that it was only the first step of many needed to be saved. And so you see John interrupt himself multiple times when he's dealing with these challenging sections. Whether it's regarding to our need to live a life not marked by sin at the beginning of chapter 2 verses 1-6, or here in the middle of the stark contrast starting in verse 7, the stark contrast of the one who loves and is in the light, or hates and is in the darkness. Remember, John didn't allow room for gray here. You love or you hate. You're in the light or you're in the darkness. Which is just another way of saying that you're in Christ or you are not in Christ. And this argument was interrupted by an encouragement. Namely, the Apostle's position of believing the genuineness of the faith in those he was writing to. Now we jump back into that argument after the clarification that he's not calling into question the reader's salvation like the Docetists were, but believes that the preaching and hearing of the gospel had been effectual in their lives. So if you would look with me at our text today, 1 John 2, we'll start with verse 7 and we'll skip the poetic encouragement and focus our attention today on verses 15 through 17. 1 John 2, beginning with verse 7. Beloved, I am writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Verse 15, 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 desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the light that You give to Your people. God, I pray that You would open our eyes to Your Word. God, I pray that You would set me aside and that You would put Your Word in front of Your people. God, I pray that all of us would be benefited by the hearing and understanding of what You have to say to us. Thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen. As I've already mentioned, verses 12 to 14 were an interruption into the Apostle John's train of thought. The Apostle had just finished describing the Christian's love for his brother, how this is part of them being in the light, and is a necessary part in the life of the true Christian. And that one who claims to be in the light while hating his brother is either a liar or self-deceived. This was one of the first exclusionary tests that we encountered. This was the test that said that if you fail this one, then you are not a Christian. The Apostle then continues in our text today that same train of thought. This loving of the brothers is juxtaposed against loving the world and the things of the world. The Apostle John asked the question when faced with this decision, Will you choose to show love and compassion to your brothers and sisters in Christ, a la Romans 13, 8-10? Or will you pursue the temporary, fleeting, transient pleasures of this world at the expense of showing love to another Christian? Verse 15 serves to anchor this text in the exclusionary test that we saw in verse 9. It says that anyone who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in that person. and the challenging truth of verses 7-11? Love and hate are not on a spectrum, but are a 1 or a 0, a true or a false. We tend to view love and hate as if there's this large span of gray in between. But John doesn't give us that out. He tells us that a Christian will love his brother. And if you hate your brother, then you are not a Christian. There is a negative relationship, a dichotomy between loving the brothers and loving the world. As a reminder, what does the love that we're supposed to have look like? At its fullest expression, in its ideal in our lives, it looks like the love of Christ. Well then, is the apostle then saying that unless we perfectly love like Christ, then we're not saved? Of course not. The latter half of chapter 1 and the first half of chapter 2 lay out that while we are expected to live life differently because of our conversion, we continually need an advocate. We continually need forgiveness for sin that will surely crop up in our lives. Remember how love and sin are interrelated. Romans 13, 8-10 said this, Oh no one anything except to love each other. for one that loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Paul says that love is fulfilling the law, or to put it negatively, sin is to fail to love rightly. In his arguments at the end of chapter 1 and in the beginning of chapter 2, John says that we will need and are graciously given forgiveness while being a Christian. And that if we deny this continued need, we're fooling ourselves. If the Spirit-inspired apostles agree that as Christians we need forgiveness for continued failures in love, then it's only obvious that there will be lapses in our love as Christians. There will be inadequacies in our love. But at the same time, there will be a way in which we clearly love our brothers, imperfect though it may be. Those of you who know us know how dearly I love my wife Sarah. It shouldn't come as a shock that there are times that I'm less than loving to her. Frankly, there are times that I act unlovingly toward her. Again, sinning against her and failing to love her go hand in hand, right? But despite this, I don't know of anyone here who knows us that would doubt the love I have for her. Do you similarly love the brethren? Though imperfect, is it a recognizable pattern in your life? So that's where we left off. Contrasting love for the brethren as a Christian versus hating them and not being a Christian. And so we come to our text today to continue that thought. And now John in chapter 2 verses 15 through 17 tells us that not all love is good. Some love must be resisted. And so as we'll see, there are three things that are said in our text today. First, there's the imperative or the command of the text. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Second, there is an incompatibility between loving this world and loving the Father. And third, what you love reveals your destiny or reflects your destiny. The first thing we have to understand in order to be able to obey the imperative is, what does it mean to love the world? We're commanded to not love the world. What does that mean? We can at times be so used to this kind of language that we fail to see how a verse might, or even should, come off as shocking. And the entirety of this passage of Scripture relies on us understanding this command rightly. I mean, doesn't John 3.16 tell us that the Father loved the world? You know it. What does it say? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And don't get distracted by so loved versus loved in this way. By virtue of God choosing to love the world in this way, He demonstrates that He so loved them. He so loved His children who were still among the world so as to choose them in this way, to demonstrate His love by dying for them, didn't He? And elsewhere in John's writings, Jesus makes clear that this demonstration of love was the greatest of any demonstrations of love. In John 15, 13-14, he says this, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. And Paul takes it a step further, doesn't he? Romans 5.8, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The Father loved the world. And this is the kind of love that we are explicitly commanded to demonstrate as well. In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5, Jesus goes so far as to tell us to love our enemies. Elaborating on this, to include those who persecute us. Not limiting our love to those who are clearly and currently our brothers and sisters in Christ, but the world. And our text today says that loving the world is a sure sign of not being a Christian. So what then is the difference between the good kind of loving the world and the bad kind of loving the world? We have to be careful with our definitions. We've already looked at many of the texts we need to know how we ought to love the world. Namely, it's loving the people who are in the world. And a part of this reason for that is because we who are in the faith, every one of us, begins as people who are in the world. We may be predestined from the foundations of the world, I truly believe that, but there's no way for me to look at my two-year-old son this afternoon and know whether that's him or not. And who would have ever thought that the great persecutor of the church, who later was to be the Apostle Paul, would one day come to saving faith? And so it is with us. In this life, there is never a guarantee that any of those in this world that we're interacting with, that we have the opportunity to love, will not one day stand beside us as brothers or sisters in the faith. But our love should not only be church-serving or some kind of Machiavellian love, but also a kind of love that displays the generosity and glory of the Father to us as undeserving people. Scripture shows demonstrations of love toward those who may be believers or may not be believers. For us, the command is given in Galatians 6.10, So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Paul here says, especially to those. And if especially, then it also means not limited to. We are to do good to, to love, even those outside the household of faith, the world. Part of the reason that we're to show love like this is because we are to emulate the Father. Again, in Matthew 5, 45-48, Jesus says, the Father makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. By loving the world, that is, the people in the world, we can demonstrate to the world the love of the Father, which He pours out on both the just and the unjust to His glory. So then, if this is the sense in which we are to love the world, what is the sense in which we are not to love the world? Both Paul and James refer to a love that is problematic. Paul spoke of Demas, the man who had served in missionary work alongside the likes of Luke, who wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the books of Acts. Mark, who penned the first Gospel account as relayed by Peter. Aristarchus and Crescens and Titus, and even the Apostle Paul himself. And yet, what was the issue that ultimately arose with Demas? 2 Timothy 4.10 tells us that he deserted Paul. Why? Because he was in love with this present world. He traded a life of persecution and possibly martyrdom, things that Paul had come to accept, for a life in the comfortable and cosmopolitan Thessalonica, He would rather have cosmopolitan peace with the world than a dangerous peace with God. It's only comfortable or dangerous in this life, but that's what he wanted. The transient now over the eternal tomorrow. Sounds like what John's talking about here, doesn't it? And what of James? He warned his readers like this. James 4.4, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And the context? Not getting what you pray for because you're praying to receive your own passions as opposed to the things of God. And James calls them adulteresses for that. This is imagery that's very common in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 21.11, Moreover, He made high places in the hill country of Judah, and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem into whoredom, and made Judah go astray. The same things are spoken of Israel and Judah in Jeremiah 2 and 3, where you can hear the anger of God in graphic imagery that He chose to describe the unfaithfulness of His people in pursuing things other than Him, their husband. And throughout Hosea as well, where God even instructed the prophet to marry a prostitute to represent His marriage to the unfaithful Israel. So what do these passages reveal to us about what John means by the world and the things in the world? It demonstrates that this love of the world is a love that's focused on the transient or ideologically at odds with the things of God. Again, Demas chose to pursue the things of this world, the comfort of life over peace with God in the next. James warned his readers to not use prayer as a way of accumulating stuff for our own selfish motives. And his link to the Old Testament demonstrated a love for foreign gods as opposed to Israel's true husband, God Himself. The world is, as John MacArthur put it, the invisible spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan and all it offers in opposition to God, His Word, and His people. Paul's word to the Ephesians is in keeping with this. Ephesians 2, 1-3, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Back to our text in 1 John 2. We'll come back to the end of verse 15 momentarily, but quickly we'll see in verse 16 just what it is about the world or what is in the world that's so enticing to us. 1 John 2.16 says, For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life. These three things are all that the world has to offer us. What are they? Now there are different views on this. People cut it up different ways. But as I see it, what the world offers here in 1 John 2.16 is best summed up in two categories. the things we crave and don't have, and the things that we take pride in and do have. The phrase at the end, pride of life, is what I'm referring to for this second category. Throughout the New Testament, two Greek words are frequently translated as life, zoe and bios. These words are where we get the prefixes in our words, zoology or biology. In 1 John, bios is only used twice. Here in this passage and only one other place, for all 13 other uses of these two words, zoe is used. The other instance of beos is found in 1 John 3.17. There it's translated as goods. 1 John 3.17, But if anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Outside of 1 John, we see beos used of the widow who donated her last penny to the temple, the woman with the issue of blood who spent all she had on physicians to no avail, of the prodigal son who squandered all of his inheritance, and concerningly also in the parable of the sower. Luke 8.14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature." The pride of life here is in reference to a pretentious or ostentatious display of and valuation of the things of this world. Most clearly, possessions, money, clothes, house, food, transportation. But I would argue as well that what we have in life and what we sinfully take pride in isn't limited to our physical, material possessions, but also the immaterial things that we have as well. Things like our intellect, or our education, titles, our skills, or our appearance, the idle factories that we are. We can even take sinful pride in good things like maintaining a clean home, or working hard at our job, or how obedient our kids are. We hoard up physical and non-physical stuff, and then use that stuff to make other people glorify us. In Corinthians, Paul writes, What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though it were not a gift? Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. The antidote to this, as we already read in 1 John 3.17, if we have the world's beos, we should use it, not to glorify ourselves, but to help our brothers. This world offers the pride of life. Pride in what we have. The counterpart to this, the world entices us to crave what we don't have. John splits this into two parts. Things we crave with our flesh, and things we crave with our eyes. The lust of the flesh are a person's perceived needs. Our baser desires. Things that please the body. Things like food, clothing, shelter, sleep, companionship, even water or air. This can include other strong biological urges like our God-given desire to reproduce. In and of themselves, these things may or may not be sinful. In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul tells us that there is a way to eat and drink to the glory of God. In Proverbs 5, 18 and 19, husbands are not only encouraged, but commanded to enjoy our wife. Acts 17, 25 says that our very breath is a gift from God. But we have a way of warping good and natural desires into sinful desires, don't we? Perhaps by pursuing the gross carnalities of various forms of sexual immorality, or overindulgence in food or in drunkenness, It is good for us to plan and to work hard for our families. But sometimes we can so refuse to trust God for our needs that we can even pass from simple anxiousness into sinful disbelief. The world offers the lust of the flesh and all of its accompanying anxieties. In contrast, in Matthew 6, in gentleness, Jesus encourages us to not worry, to trust Him because He cares for us. Verses 31 and 32, Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them all. Our other desire for what we don't have is craving with our eyes. It is the lust of the flesh. Or if the lust of the flesh is our inordinate desire for our perceived needs, then the lust of the eyes is our lusting for things that we don't need. There are things that are appealing to the eye. You might call this the aesthetic or intellectual lusts or the cultured lusts. It's our keeping up with the Joneses. It's accumulation for accumulation's sake. It's the pursuit of riches that lead to the choking and death of our faith. It's the obsessive pursuit of increasing our station. It's pursuing selfish ambition. It's the reason that we cheat on faithful spouses and deceive honorable employers and take advantage of hard-working employees. It's the rotten core of covetousness. It's what Paul warned Timothy about in 1 Timothy 6, 6-10. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. There is another fairly simple pattern that you can see in this text, if after understanding the meaning of these phrases, you then go back and look at them in the order that John wrote them in. To those who have nothing or are fighting for their basic needs, whether in general or in specific areas, the world entices with the lusts of the flesh, the lust of our perceived unmet needs. To those who are not fighting for their basic needs, or perhaps in areas where this is not the case, the world entices with lusts of the eyes, the lust of bigger barns, self-sufficiency, and the aesthetic lusts. And to those who seem to have abundance, the world entices with the pride of life, a hoarding and displaying for our own glorification. And there are certainly overlaps between all three. But suffice to say, no matter where you fall in this, the world is gunning for you to entice you to pursue finding the satisfaction of your love in what it can offer. And verse 15 tells us not to love this. To resist loving this. That our affection should not be set on when we're able to fulfill these desires. And it warns us that if we do love the world in this way, then the love of the Father is not in us. That is, as I mentioned, the second thing that the passage teaches us. There is an incompatibility between loving this world and loving the Father. I told you earlier that we would get back to the latter part of verse 15. Here it is now. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This is our second look at the exclusionary test, first seen in verse 9. If you hate your brother, you're not a Christian. If you love the world, you are not a Christian. If we willingly harbor affections for the enticements that the world has to offer, then where is our repentance? If the world offers us self-aggrandizement, self-advancement, self-preservation, and we gobble it up, Where is our love for our brothers? It isn't there. In Luke 16.13, Jesus said, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in money. And in light of our passage today, I believe it would not be improper for me to add, you cannot serve God in the world. What is this love of the Father that we see in verse 15? While this is a faithful translation of the Greek, most commentators agree that it is in reference to our love to the Father rather than His love to us. Philo, the ancient first century B.C. Jewish philosopher, had said something very similar which this passage may have been an allusion to. He said this, It is impossible for love to the world to coexist with love to God, as it is impossible for light and darkness to coexist. Further, some of our manuscript evidence of the passage, such as the Alexandrian and Ethiopian variants, substitute the Father that you see here with God that you see in Philo. Now, it should be pointed out that this is more likely to have been due to the knowledge of the copyist of Philo than influencing an error, instead of the text originally having been similar to Philo and then deviating from it. That is, father is likely original to the pen of John. However, I bring this up because it helps to make clear that early Christians were aware of this verse's similarity to Philo's writing, which would strengthen the idea that John may have had him in mind when writing this phrase. His substitution of father in place of God then would be significant. We as Christians have been adopted into the family of God. Romans 8, 12-17, So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him. In 1 John 2.15, this love to the Father that is in us is not merely an affection, but is a filial love. It's a family love. We are His child, and we love our dad, our father. That being said, the phrase, the love of the Father, is found nowhere else in Scripture. But with the understanding that we have of this filial love being found in this phrase, we can then look for the love of God. And we find John describing it himself later in this epistle. 1 John 5.3, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. It all keeps coming back to the same thing, doesn't it? And what is keeping His commandments? Loving God and loving your neighbor. The person who has been born of God loves God, loves God's truth, loves God's people, and such love cannot coexist alongside an intentional embrace of the enticements of the world. Verse 16 elaborates on why the love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible, and it brings us to our last point. Third and finally, what you love reflects your destiny. Verses 16-17, for all that is in the world, all that we just talked about, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. the world is passing away, not merely in the eschatological sense in which this universe will either be annihilated and replaced or otherwise destroyed, redeemed and restored, but also in the sense of eternal destiny. Every day, it seems, the world is getting bolder in its sin and bolder in demanding that everyone, including the church, celebrate that sin. Whether we're talking about the anathematization of family roles in complementarianism, rampant sexual perversion of every sort on what seems like every channel, a wholehearted embrace of materialism, self-promotion, false teachers tickling the ears of people who come in droves to be inoculated against their own conscience that is bearing witness against them. And the world is increasingly hostile to anyone holding to the standard of God revealed in Scripture. And I tell you, absolutely none of it is surprising God. The latter half of Romans 1 shows us the spiraling descent of man when left to our own wickedness. God, in judgment of our suppression of clearly seen truth, turns us over to our own self-destruction. And that is how the world is passing away, given over to their desires, storing up wrath as they hurdle towards eternal damnation. John says that the one who obeys the Father abides forever. Not so of the world. As John Piper put it, if you love the world, it will pass away and take you with it. If you are in love with the world, you're on a sinking ship. It's going down. It's sinking into the ocean. Stop exploring the halls and admiring the woodwork and tasting the buffet. Stop enjoying the music and dancing in the halls. The ship is sinking and you have to get off the boat or it will drag you down to the depths with it. Our destiny is tied to what we love. I'll conclude with this. John doesn't leave us with only the exclusionary test. As true as it is, He doesn't stop at saying that loving the world means your doom. Certainly, if you continue down that path, it does. But He doesn't stop there. John tells us that whoever does the will of the Father, what? Abides forever. Forever. In John 6.40, Jesus says this, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day." If you're not in Christ, if you do find yourself loving and clinging to this world, and delighting in it, and pursuing all that it has to offer, know that there is a Judge. And you will one day stand before Him either in love or in terror. but He is also a Savior. And He delights in being both just and the justifier of all who turn from their sins and trust in Him. And I would encourage you to do that today. If you are in Christ today, be encouraged. Though our love for the brothers and our avoidance of love for the world will be speckled and spotted with failures along the way, we have an Advocate a great high priest who is compassionate in his understanding of our weaknesses and delights to lift our head and continue to mold us into his image. Either way, whether in repentance unto faith, or in faith unto sanctification, I invite all of us to resolve today, to resist the lure of the world, to love it and all that is in it, and instead to pursue a deeper and sweeter love of the Father through Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Dear Lord, Thank You for being the sacrifice that we so desperately need. And God, not only the sacrifice, but the great High Priest who has walked this earth, who has wrapped Himself in flesh, who cares about our weaknesses, who gives us His Spirit to be strengthened and to walk in You, Lord. God, I pray that you would work on our hearts, that you would help us to no longer love the world, whether in long, persistent ways, or in our continual and hated turning backs to embrace our old slave master. God, help us to love you. This I pray in your name, amen.
The Indwelling Love of the Father
លេខសម្គាល់សេចក្ដីអធិប្បាយ | 6262404537448 |
រយៈពេល | 40:31 |
កាលបរិច្ឆេទ | |
ប្រភេទ | ព្រឹកថ្ងៃអាទិត្យ |
អត្ថបទព្រះគម្ពីរ | យ៉ូហាន ទី ១ 2:15-17 |
ភាសា | អង់គ្លេស |
© រក្សាសិទ្ធិ
2025 SermonAudio.