By The Rev. Dr. Paul A. Leggett
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Sermon Text: I John 2:15-17
Sermon Theme
A recurring theme in the book of John is God’s love for the world. God loves the world and sends Jesus to be its savior. How then does that relate to his demand that we are not to love the world? God loves the world but the world apart from God is unlovable. John is not concerned with the world in its immorality and degeneracy as is often thought. John rather is warning against the world as a substitute for God. The world is full of the many positive things that ultimately are part of God’s creation. Yet if the world, even with its benefits, preoccupies us we lose sight of God. Some have seen in John’s threefold warning his version of the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. We are to view the world as a gift from God but never as a substitute for him.
Sermon Outline
- Love. John, more than any other Biblical writer, focuses on the love of God. God’s love is not based on passion or emotion. God’s love is a thoughtful and intentional commitment. It is a love which values and respects the beloved. It sacrifices itself freely. It is supremely a love which forgives all brokenness and betrayal. God loves the world in a self-giving act of commitment and forgiveness. We are to love the world in the same way.
- Lust. Lust is possessive love. It arises out of intense desire. The desire in itself is not wrong. It becomes wrong when it leads in a direction contrary to God’s will. Jesus can speak of his intense desire to eat the Last Supper with his disciples (Luke 22:14-15). Inappropriate desire is what the Bible calls coveting (Exodus 20:17). Lust ultimately is desiring the world apart from God. Lust sees this life and this world as ends in themselves. The world is full of things that are good in themselves including food, clothing, shelter, sex, relationships and money. Yet to desire these things apart from God is to turn them into idols.
- Live. John makes it clear that true love leads to true life. The world often claims for itself an ultimate significance that it does not have. The problem with the world is that it is passing away. It cannot offer anything permanent. Jesus offers eternal life here and now (John 10:10). Jesus saw no obstacles to enjoying the earthly benefits of this world. The twin dangers we have to avoid are to reject the world on one hand and, on the other, to worship it. We live in a society that focuses almost exclusively on the “things in the world.” Over the past several decades our culture has been defined more and more by the Playboy philosophy of complete self expression and self indulgence. Yet things by themselves will never satisfy us. The will of God is to fulfill his commandments. And these are summed up as believing in Jesus Christ and loving each other (I John 3:23). By so doing we reap the best of the world both now and for eternity.
Questions for Us
- The root meaning of the New Testament word for love is to respect or to honor. How can we apply this in fulfilling Christ's command "to love one another"?
- What are examples for us of "the things of this world" which are good in themselves but which can nonetheless become idols in our lives?
- What are some of the ways we can present a Biblical view of the world that can challenge the idea that "the things of the world" are an end in themselves?
