IT'S NOT WORTH IT: Love Not The World

Hello my beloved saints, I welcome you all to the glorious month of December. I know for sure that the Lord has been gracious to you. May God cause you to increase in the revelation of His word and open unto you extraordinary doors of testimonies. As we round off this awesome year and God opening us up to a much more glorious year, 2019, I will like to share with you what I titled “LOVE NOT THE WORLD.” 

The apostle John wrote “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Why? For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (1st John 2:15-17). In the first Chapter of his letter, John tells us it is not possible to claim fellowship with God and pattern our lives after the world. He repeats this theme throughout his letter. He tells us we must “walk in the light” (1st John 1:7), and that we cannot simultaneously walk in the light and walk in darkness. As believers, we are not to love the world’s way or the world’s goods. To John, the world represents everything that is contrary to a life of faith in God. 

What is this ‘world’ that we are not to love? John tells us it is characterized by three things: 

1. The lust of the flesh, 

2. The lust of the eyes; 

3. The pride of life. 

The first two refers to desires for what we don’t have, and the third refers to the pride in what we do have. The world is driven by a passion for pleasure and pride in possessions. Anything in the world that is not of God can rob your heart of the love of God, and draw you away from God. The way of the world can never completely satisfy the one who indulges in it. 

The reason for this warning is simply that the world drains down the heart from God, and so the more the love of the world prevails in us, the more the love of God dwindles and decays. Remember, the world loves darkness rather than light, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and man loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19). The Bibles says in James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Thinking, looking, acting, dressing, talking and responding like the world are not the marks of the followers of Christ, why then do we try to emulate the world? 

Perhaps a clear definition of love will make this concept more understandable. Love by definition means to be fully committed to someone or something.” One cannot have one foot in the world and the other foot in heaven. Don’t try to convince yourself that you are fully committed to Christ if you are not, because if you have a high level of commitment to the things of this world, you are not fully committed to Christ. 

Lot’s wife was a perfect example of a lover of the world, she was committed to her worldly goods and possessions, even after an instruction been given them. “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy life, look not behind thee neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed.”(Gen 19:17). But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Gen 19:26). God does not or expect us to look behind us, because in doing so there is a dire consequence for our action. The fact that God’s heart desire for lot and his family was for them to be secured and protected from the destruction of Sodom, lot’s wife chose to be committed to the world rather than to God’s instruction. The Bible says in Romans 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” 

If you don’t feel much love for God, you are either ‘not born again’ or your love has grown cold. Remember, love for the world and love for God cannot coexist. Every heart loves something. The very essence of our nature is desire. There is nobody alive on planet earth who does not want something. At the center of our being is a spring of longing, a craving, a desire, a want, a need. At the center of our heart we are endlessly thirty. God wants to satisfy your thirsty soul. 

Make up your mind now to be a lover of God in words and in deeds. Loving the world is enmity with God. 

May God bless you. Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year in advance.