We are continuing with our teaching series on scriptural warnings this week, and today, I want to talk about this warning that God has given us, His children, against the love of this present world. Our text is 1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Friendship of the world is enmity with God.
In all places where we see these warnings in the scriptures, right from the Old Testament times, there is no ambiguity of any kind as to what God was saying. It has always been very clear.
Godliness and worldliness can never go together. When we choose to love the world, we create enmity with God because our heart departs from the Lord completely. God warned the children of Israel against this in so many places in the Old Testament as they left Egypt.
The Warning to Israel
In Israel, it’s a capital sin to go and marry the ungodly people around them. For instance, we read an account in Numbers 25:1-3, 6-9 where the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and joined themselves unto Baal-peor.
Why is it so serious? It’s simple: when you join yourself to the ungodly and the worldly things of this life, you will surely forget God and depart from Him. That’s crossing the red line - God cannot take it.
What constitutes the love of this world?
- Love for sinful ways of life, which is the hallmark of worldly people.
- Love and crave for worldly things that gratify the flesh.
- Love and greed for material things and worldly possessions.
- Love and pursuit of everything that makes one depart from godliness.
The Consequences
- Spiritual Barrenness: You can’t be productive again for God.
- Enmity with God: As stated in James 4:4.
- Target of the Devil: You give room for him to destroy you because you are now in his camp.
- Departure of Heart: Just like Solomon, whose heart went after idols until God was angry with him.
Solomon is a very good example of someone who loved the world, and he paid dearly for it. He was a man of peace, but later became a man chased about by his enemies. It is God’s wisdom not to love the world.
Shalom!