Do Not Love the World

On this blog, we have talked a lot about love. We have good reason for that given the importance that the Bible puts on love. Along with faith, love is a fundamental part of every Believer’s walk. However, the Bible does not just put a lot of emphasis on what and who we should love. It is also clear about what we should not love.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. – 1 John 2:15-16

These are strong words from John and they have led some to take strong measures in the way they live their lives. We see sects of Christianity where people live very simplistic and basic lifestyles in an effort to avoid the things that John mentions in this scripture. While such measures are certainly valid and fair, are they what God expects from all of us? The world has a lot to offer from music to art to sports and, for many, life might seem pretty empty if it meant abstaining from all those things. Believers should understand that life can never be empty if it is filled with God, but even still, many believers like and indulge in much the world has to offer. Is that wrong? Not exactly, but it may be worthwhile to explore what it means to love the world so that we understand where the line should be drawn. To truly love something or someone requires a number of things. Two of the most prominent are prioritization and commitment.

When we love, we inevitably give the subject of that love a higher priority in our lives. Most people would do things for their family that they would not necessarily do for a stranger. That is because most people love the members of their family and thus care more about the well-being of those family members. Even the Bible speaks about love in relational terms. For example it commands us to love God above all and love our fellow people as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). In other words, we should be giving God the highest priority and giving others the same priority that we give ourselves. For many, keeping those two commandments is hard enough. Learning to prioritize serving, praising, and obeying God over everything else in our lives takes effort. Overcoming our own selfishness enough to give the needs and desires of others equal priority to our own also takes work. How much more difficult would it be to do those things if we also loved the things of the world? Each of those worldly things would also require their priority. For example, Sunday is the primary day of worship for Christians. It is also the main day for NFL football. If a person loves football, how much more difficult is it for that person to give that day to the Lord? If a person loves acquiring and hoarding wealth, how much more difficult is it to give that wealth away to others who may need it more? The problem is not that we can’t enjoy some of the things the world has to offer. There is nothing wrong with liking some of the things the world offers, however when ‘liking’ is elevated to ‘loving’ then those worldly things become competition for that which is truly important – God and our fellow people.

Commitment is something that also coincides with love. When we hear that word we may think of weddings and other ceremonies that show our intent to commit ourselves to someone or something. However, committing to something doesn’t require such an overt display. At its base, commitment means investing some portion of ourselves into that to which we commit. When we are committed to something we stick with it even when such a course of action proves to be difficult. When we come to love something, we naturally commit to it in a way that we may not for other things. Going back to the football example, there are some who love the sport, so without fail they park themselves in front of the TV every Saturday and Sunday catching all the games they can. If anything or anyone gets in between them and watching those games, there may be problems. When you’ve committed yourself to something that strongly, it can be hard to break away to do anything else. That is troublesome when, as noted above, other things should be given greater priority.

However, there is another problem with committing ourselves to worldly things. As the verse from 1 John explained, sin is born from the things of the world. What if we’ve committed ourselves to something that causes us to sin? Jesus already told us how we should treat things that lead us to sin.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. - Matthew 5:29-30

That sounds gruesome, but Jesus’ point is that if there is anything in our lives that threatens to draw us away from walking a righteous path, we should remove that thing from our lives. That sounds easy, but it certainly isn’t for things that we love. Having a glass of wine everyday with dinner or for celebrations isn’t inherently sinful, but some of us can’t leave it there. Some of us love to drink. One glass inevitably leads to another and another may lead down a path to drunkenness. Drunkenness itself is a sinful state, but it can also lead to further sins. If you can’t drink without falling victim to that sin, then you shouldn’t drink, but anyone who loves alcohol and loves the feeling it gives knows how hard it is to give it up. When it comes to worldly things, we should not indulge in anything that we cannot give up immediately if that is what God wills. That requires us to never commit to any of those worldly things. Since commitment comes with love, it also means we can’t love any of those things.

Part of the difficulty associated with bringing people to the faith is the idea that Christians are against fun and can’t enjoy themselves. That is not true. The Bible doesn’t tell us to avoid everything the world has to offer. In fact, Paul suggests that we have to be flexible and sometimes engage those we want to reach on their own terms (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). That may mean walking a line of engaging in a worldly activity while avoiding sin all to reach someone in need of the Gospel. We Christians can enjoy some of the things this world has to offer, but we do have limits for that engagement. And there are things from which we have to abstain. That is a reality of living a Christ centered life versus a world centered life. It is also a reality that as we give up worldly things, we can happily replace them with godly things, and those are things that we can feel free to love to our heart’s content.

Chris Lawyer



 Image Courtesy of gotquestions.org