Introduction

Since we are between sections of the Sermon on the Mount, I want to take a break and revisit our theme for 2021, “Devoted to God.” So far, I have preached 4 sermons on our theme. I’ve emphasized the fact that God purchased us on the cross; therefore, he has the right demand that we “present our bodies a living sacrifice.”

We’ve also seen that it is a wonderful privilege to be set apart to God. We shouldn’t lament God’s call to holiness; we should be thankful. We’ve also seen that in Christ we have the power to pursue genuine change. So, we have spent 4 sermons talking about where we are going. The Christian life is about pursuing Christ. I want to emphasize that you will only think rightly about holiness is if you begin there.

But it is also true I will only truly understand how to pursue Christ if I also have a keen sense of what I must leave behind. Hebrews 12:1–2 says I can only run to Jesus if I “lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us.”

Frankly, this is where pursuing holiness becomes extremely difficult. We love our sin, and we often struggle like Lot’s wife to leave it behind. And believers don’t always agree about what aspects of the world we must leave behind and what we can take with us as we pursue Christ; therefore, debates about holiness and worldliness often becomes divisive.

Therefore, our text is vitally important for understanding how to live devoted to God (read). This passage is truly profound. In a few short words, it says so much about the human heart and about the cultures humans produce, and it gives vital guidance for living holy lives in a godless world. It begins with a very important command…

I.  The Command: Do not love the world (v. 15a).

At first glance, this command sounds simple enough, but the simplicity ends as soon as you begin to question what John means by world. Obviously, John cannot mean the world of humanity because John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world.” God would not ask us to despise something he loves. John is also not forbidding love for our planet. That would be odd.

Rather, the passage as a whole is clear that John is forbidding what we call worldliness. Worldliness is a word that we throw around often; however, we aren’t always clear about what it is. But this text does a great job defining the concept. Here is my summary of what it tells us. Worldliness is an anti-God, temporal value and philosophy system that shapes life in rebellion against God. Let’s take some time and see it in the text. First…

Worldliness is a philosophy and value system. This is important because our discussions about worldliness often focus entirely on external activities. We want to draw lines about what music, clothing, and behaviors are worldly and which are not.

To be clear, those discussions matter. Verse 17 praises the one who “does the will of God.” At some point you must define what that is and is not. But John also teaches that worldliness is fundamentally about what I love, not what I do. Verse 15 says, “Do not LOVE the world.” Verse 16 adds that worldliness arises from our lusts or desires.

As a result, worldliness is primarily a heart condition. It is a philosophy of life that drives our values or priorities, which in turn drive behavior.

We’ll talk about this more on Sunday nights the next few weeks, but this means that if I am going to do a good job of identifying worldliness in myself and out in the culture, I must first look at the philosophy and values that drive whatever it is I am examining. It’s more complicated than simply asking, “What’s wrong with it?” Second…

Worldliness is anti-God. Verse 15 says that you cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Therefore, worldliness exists anytime anything rebels against God, rivals his place in my heart or simply doesn’t account for God. Afterall, anytime I do not give God his rightful place at the center of my thinking, I will fall short, I will be worldly.

For example, you can listen to the most morally and socially conservative political commentary on the planet, but if it does not come from an expressly biblical worldview, it will be fundamentally worldly. That’s not to say you can’t listen to it, but you must do so discerningly. Everything for a Christian must begin with God and his priorities. Third…

Worldliness is focused on the temporal rather than the eternal. Verse 17 says the “world is passing away…but he who does the will of God abides forever.” That means that a worldly mindset is consumed with the present. It means living for this world rather than the next. So yes, something like Playboy is clearly worldly, but anytime I prioritize this life over the next, I am being worldly. Fourth…

Worldliness does not necessarily mean pursuing bad things. It can simply mean having priorities in the wrong order. Verse 15 includes a prohibition against loving the “things in the world.” This is because anything can become sinful if it becomes more important than God. For example, doing well in school and at work are important. But the moment that success becomes a god rather than a means of honoring God, I am worldly.

In sum, worldliness means to adopt an anti-God, temporal value and philosophy system that shapes life in rebellion against God. It means that rather than basing our values and priorities on the reality of God and the truths of his Word, we get our values and priorities from a world which is opposed to God and focused on the moment rather than eternity.

Therefore, God commands us, “Do not love the world.” We must reject the philosophy and values of lost humanity. Instead, we must instead embrace a radically different value system that drives us to different lifestyle.

Again, the difference is not always obvious. Therefore, I must work hard to identify the worldliness in my own heart and in the culture at large so that I can live a life that truly pleases my Savior. Lord willing, starting next week, we’ll spend several Sunday nights talking about this. Come join us.

But maybe you think, “I don’t know, Pastor. Is the world really that bad? Why is it such a big deal that I identify and root out worldliness?” John knew you would ask, so he follows with two reasons why we must reject worldliness.

II.  1^st Reason: You cannot love the world and God at the same time (vv. 15b–16).

Verse 15 concludes, “If anyone…” John is clear that love for God excludes love for the world and vice versa. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt 6:24).

So, both Jesus and John say that worldliness is incompatible with true Christianity. This is a big deal for a longstanding debate within Christianity about how Christians relate to culture. The classic expression of this debate is found in the book, Christ & Culture, which Richard Niebuhr published in 1951. He identified 5 Christian views of culture.

On one end of the spectrum is the view, “The Christ of Culture.” In this view, human cultures are essentially an expression of Christ. Yes, there are bad things in any culture, but they are mostly good, and we should embrace whatever clothing, entertainment, and customs that come from our culture.

Niebuhr calls the other end of the spectrum, “Christ against Culture.” In this view, everything in culture is essentially evil and should be rejected. If the world does it, it’s bad.

Hopefully, you can see immediately how practical this debate is. It radically shapes my stance toward the world and what we do and don’t do.

For example, another view is “Christ the Transformer of Culture.” It says that culture is basically good, so we just need to clean it up a bit and then we can bring its music, dress, etc., into our homes and churches.

On the other hand, if you believe that culture is essentially evil, then our homes and our churches will look radically different.

Now, our text does not directly answer Niebuhr’s question, because worldliness and culture are not necessarily the same thing. Afterall biblical values and philosophies do shape parts of our culture, and to the extent that culture reflects Scripture, it’s not worldly.

But our text teaches that worldliness is deeply imbedded in all of us, and that worldliness is deeply imbedded in the cultures sinners create. Therefore, our text is very important for helping us identify worldliness and for discerning how to live holy lives in our culture. Verse 16 identifies the 3 core values of worldliness that we need to watch for carefully.

Lust of the Flesh: This phrase refers to sinful passions which arise from within us. Much of the time, the lust of the flesh begins with the natural desires of my body—food, rest, and sexual pleasure. These things are not bad in themselves, but because of sin, they are often way out of order. We want them more than we want God or want them in ways that God calls sin. Therefore, we are drawn toward laziness, gluttony, substance abuse, immorality and many other forms of rebellion.

John warns that these lusts are deeply imbedded in all of us, and they shape the philosophy and values of the world. So, when we see the lust of the flesh driving a song, a movie, or a cultural practice, we need to recognize it as wicked, reject it, and go the other way. A 2^nd core value

Lust of the Eyes: This concept is closely related to the first one. The difference is that rather than sinful desire arising from inside, this phrase speaks of sinful desires which arise from the outside, what we see with our eyes, and by extension experience through all our senses.

For example, you walk into a store loving Jesus, but then see an outfit you must have. You won’t be content until you get it. Maybe you see another person and grow jealous to look like them or have what they have. Maybe an advertisement causes you to lust after a certain car or truck or a luxurious vacation. Of course, pornography feasts on the lust of the eyes.

The thing itself may not be bad, but I am not seeing the world with eyes of faith. God and his eternal glory and inheritance are not consuming my vision; instead, what I see with my eyes dominates my values.

The advertising industry has mastered the ability to manipulate the lust of the eyes. That doesn’t mean that every advertisement is evil, but it does mean that I must identify the values that are being portrayed and make sure that faith, not sight, drives my philosophy and values. 3^rd core value…

Pride of Life: John uses unusual terms for both pride and life. The term for pride, alazoneía, speaks of a boastful pride that wants everyone to see me and glorify me. And the term for life, bíos, emphasizes physical life vs. spiritual life. Therefore, the phrase especially highlights the desire to boast in the things of this world and thereby to build my image and my glory.

I want to emphasize that we don’t all manifest the pride of life the same way. Some people boast loudly while others hide behind their insecurities. But all of us naturally care a lot about how others see us. We want to be respected as smart, funny, stylish, athletic, tough, or spiritual.

Regardless, the pride of life is always an evil impulse because a Christian’s only boast should be in the cross. God made us to glorify him, not ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we should feel guilty any time we look good or feel good about ourselves, but a godly heart always seeks to turn attention back to the Lord through thanksgiving and praise.

However, the pride of life drives so much of the world. We just saw several examples in Matthew 6:1–18, where the hypocrites used religious piety to glorify self. We often do the same with fashion. It’s okay to enjoy fashion but the industry feasts on the pride of life. The same could be said for many other aspects of culture.

In sum, these 3 little phrases provide a genius summary of the sin nature and of how Satan draws us away from holiness and into sin. John then follows by warning that these desires are not from God but from the world.

That statement repeats the ending of v. 15, and it drives home the fact that worldliness is opposed to godliness. You cannot love God and be enslaved to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And you cannot love God and be at home in a world that is dominated by these values.

Yet, we often try to hedge ourselves. We want to serve God, but we also want to indulge our passions and conform to world’s values. But Jesus said in our text for next Sunday, “You cannot serve two masters.”

This world is not a friend of grace. It is enslaved to sinful, temporal passions; whereas, Christians must be driven by the character of God. Therefore, we have to make a decision. Are we going to be driven by things that God values or the things that the world values?

Now, I recognize that you can’t just decide to never pursue the lust of the flesh, and you cannot decide to just get rid of sinful lusts or pride. As long as we have a sin nature, we will fight these things. But while you can’t remove these things all together, you must set a direction.

In fact, within the broader context of 1 John, John is ultimately warning that if you chose love for the world over love for the Father, it probably indicates that you have never been born again. It’s a big deal. So, commit yourself to the pursuit of God and say “no” to worldliness.

And before we move on, let’s return for a moment to Niebuhr’s question about Christ’s relationship to culture. How should our text affect the way you look at our society’s entertainment, media, fashion, and various customs? It clearly means that we should have a cautious perspective where we are very careful about what we embrace.

I’ll add as well that we want to do that as a church. Our goal is not to be as much like the world as possible; our goal is to be like Jesus. Now, we also don’t want to create unnecessary roadblocks to ministry. We don’t want to be weird just to be weird. But we have to be careful about getting too friendly with a world system that is opposed to God.

So, the first reason believers must not love the world is that you cannot love God and love the world at the same time. The second reason is…

III.  2^nd Reason: The world is temporary (v. 17).

Explanation: Verse 17 sets up a contrast between the temporary and fading nature of worldly passions and the eternal life that belongs to God’s children.

Two things are at stake with this contrast. First, Jesus has already defeated the world system through his death on the cross and his triumphal resurrection. As a result, sin is a defeated enemy moving toward complete annihilation.

In contrast, those who possess Christ’s eternal life are victorious and will live forever (5:3–5). When we look at the world around us, it oftentimes appears to be winning. But it is not. The world system is on a death march, and we are moving toward glory. Do not forget that Christ’s side is the winning side.

Because of that a second implication is that the pleasures this world offers are temporary while the pleasures of God will last for all eternity. They will never end. Therefore, the choice couldn’t be clearer. When you love the world, you are embracing a defeated, dying system that can only offer temporary happiness; whereas loving God means that you are on the winning side and will enjoy the life of Christ for all eternity.

So which option will you choose? Will you love the world, or will you love God? Maybe you have never been willing to truly repent of your sin and be saved because you love the world too much. It might be that you have done a great job playing enough of the Christian game to convince people you are saved, but you know that the world owns your heart, not God.

I hope you will see that you are staking your soul on the losing side. Repent of your sin and cast yourself on Jesus. He has overcome the world. He is a loving master, and his rewards are eternal. Give your life to him today.

Of course, even after we are saved will all struggle to some extent with loving the world. John gets that, which is why he commands us not to love the world. We all know how the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life pull on our hearts.

Satan is the master advertiser, and our flesh is a magnet for his appeals. We desperately want to satisfy our passions, and we so easily begin to believe that the cares and concerns of this world are all that there is.

But v. 17 really puts things in perspective. “The world is passing away.” No matter how fun a sin may be, that pleasure never lasts and it’s never enough. That’s why addictive behaviors generally spiral into more and more severe problems. We always want more.

And if you love “the things in the world” or the approval of the world, you’ll face the same problem. You may have some great moments, but they always fade quickly. That’s because all of it is a defeated foe.

So, why would we waste our lives chasing a defeated and fleeting goal especially when an infinitely better option is available? Christ has overcome the world, and we can overcome in him. He satisfies our hearts in a way that sin and earthly pleasures never will.

So, by God’s grace develop a God-centered and eternal philosophy and value system that drives you to leave the world behind and to do the will of God. Live a life devoted to God, reflecting his holiness and beauty.