“Do not love the world or the things in the world.” If it were not a problem, John would not have warned us. The warning is because….
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
How can John be so assertive, maybe even offensive to our view of ourselves, Because the root of righteousness that we have been given in our new birth in Jesus, bears distinctive fruit.
The fruit of the flesh also bears its distinctive fruit. The fruit of righteousness, the fruit of Jesus, has its origin in the Father. The other, the fruit of the flesh, has its origin in the world, the world of lawlessness to God. The world of Satan.
“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.”
How do we measure this danger still resident within us and rising to action from time to time? What does it mean in daily living to love the world, even and especially for those of us born anew by the Father. How do we recognize its presence in us?
“It means noticing the self-regarding motives – self-asserting, self-advancing, self-justifying, self-gratifying – that fuel your everyday actions.” (18 Words J. I. Packer)
“Augustine analysed sin as pride (super-bia), the mad passion to be superior even to God, and as a state of being bent away from God into an attitude of self-absorption (homo incurvatus in se). Sin is thus the devil’s image, for self-exalting pride was his sin before it was ours (1 Tim. 3:6).” (18 Words J. I. Packer)
The battle for the born anew child of God is to recognize any vestiges of this “bent awayness” from God, and to chose daily to “bend” ourselves toward God, the image of His Son, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the daily refining that can come to us in and through His word.
It is a choice we make daily. For, “the real subject of every chapter of the Bible is what God does about our sins. Lose sight of this theme, and you lose your way in the Bible at once. With that, the love of God, the meaning of salvation, and the message of the gospel, will all become closed books to you; you may still talk of these things, but you will no longer know what you are talking about” )18 Words
J. I. Packer)
