Love for God

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 1 John 2:15-17 NLT

Love for this world impedes our love for God. Just like John, James gave a similar assessment to those who will prefer loving the world rather than loving God. “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). This is why from the text, John gives a stern warning to those who will abandon their love of God and in exchange love the world. Christians are commanded by Jesus to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). What the world offers are contrary to godly living. “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions” (1 John 2:15). John is not advising Christians to abandon this world and live in seclusion. He is repeating what the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for when He was on His way to the cross and while in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed for the believers: “The world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one… Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” John 17:14-15, 17). We should seriously consider what God wants us to pursue for the things of this world are fleeting: “this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave” (1 John 2:16). The cravings for physical pleasure and the things of this world are here today and will be gone tomorrow. Those who will insist on pursuing these desires will find themselves unstable and stumbles in darkness. Since these worldly desires are transitory, those who pursues them will face a similar end. Those who “buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away” (1 Corinthians 7:30-31). Let us always remember that the One who gave us meaning and purpose in life also gave us a sense of security for our eternity will be spent with Him.

Blessings,