All that is in the world

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.”

The sum total of the attractions of this fallen world are summed up here in this verse. We love the things of this world because they appeal to our fallen humanity. Our human flesh is always at the forefront of our daily considerations and the comfort of the body is paramount to our thinking – eating, drinking, clothing, sleeping, sexual needs, intellectual needs, etc. We seek every day to fulfil these needs and if we are not Christians, that is all life is about. We seek the fulfilment of our psyche as human animals, for that is all we are and how we live without the Holy Spirit of God. There is no Spirit in us, for we are dead to God. To overcome this total preponderance with the flesh, we need a work of God in our life to change us and enliven our souls to God.

Our eyes are the first port of call for temptation and the tolerance of the call of this world’s goods. We see things we like and our covetous hearts desire them. This ranges from people, things, lifestyles and mindsets. We see what we like and we want it and the wanting drives us to pursue our goals to get what we want. We cannot help it since we are hard-wired to desire the things of this life. Only an act of a God can break the chain and give us desires for spiritual life, rather than “stuff.” We seek the eyes of contentment.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”

1 Timothy 6:6

To live life in this way is only achievable through the Spirit of God, who teaches and empowers us to live such worthy lives for God. We stop craving and start living and being thankful for such things as we have been given. Anything else is just following the natural inclination of our human hearts to seek the folly of pride and being regarded in this life by other people and our own conceits.

The lust of our fleshly self, the constant craving of the eyes and the heart full of human pride is not of the Father in heaven. We reject these ways of thinking and being and follow the pathway of repentance for sin, resisting temptations and humility of thought and deed. This is the supernatural way of God and those who belong to Him will live in it. We only realise this as we draw close to our Lord Jesus and gain understanding of the way He walked through this world. This is how we follow Him and glorify Him in our daily life.

Don’t love the world

“Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.”

The undermining effect to our faith by the things of this world is insidious and often goes unnoticed until God pulls us up about it. I am not speaking about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, but the seemingly innocuous things of life that take us away from our love of God. It is the dedication to duty and the daily hum-drum that can fill our life with activity and squash out all consideration of God. We have no time to read, pray or meditate on the Word, but it all becomes part of a daily chore and a series of hurdles we must get through to feel in control and living life well, in our own considerations.

We are not to love the things of this life above our beloved Father in heaven. We are to subjugate all our involvements to the will of God, which is a living fellowship with Him and not a series of religious duties we must perform. We can praise God in all the standard things of life, and we should be living our lives for His glory whatever we are doing.

It is too easy to be the dutiful Christian, with no spiritual life in Christ at all. We can seem so good on the outside, but inside there is no love for God and not much love for others either. We look after our families, do our jobs really well, perform our Christian service and find ourselves just going through the motions of life and not really living to God. We can become taken up with the activity and not with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We become focused on achievement of goals and finished jobs, and cease to live life in the power of the Spirit. It quickly becomes too much for us and we crumble. God must teach us to trust Him for our lives and not the incessant activity.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”

Psalm 46:10

Unless we stop and take account of our faith, it will eventually fail us. We will find it to be in the things of this life and not on our Lord and God. The whole purpose of our life is for Him, as is all things, therefore we must serve Him and wait on Him for all we need. If we follow after the mindset of this world, we are showing we do not know the Lord at all, and have no living faith in Him. We are dependant on the success we feel as we accomplish our tasks. This is not living faith and we are yet dead to spiritual life. We need to change our minds and hearts and humble ourselves before the Lord and seek Him.

You are strong

“I have written to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

In this verse and the previous verse there is a a progression. This verse is also an reiteration of the previous verse. It is repeated to bring home the truth of the grace of God in the life of older Christians and younger Christians too. We are to stand strong in knowing the Lord and in living for Him. We overcome the attacks of the evil one and the weaknesses of our own flesh. It is too easy to give in to ourselves and think we are just satisfying a justifiable body need, but in reality we are feeding our fleshly desires and they go against the spiritual desires of the Holy Spirit within. It is too easy to grieve Him away and become worldly minded.

We gain our strength in the Word of God and not in other people, or our own feeble resolve. If we know the Lord and love Him, we will not want to grieve Him and cause Him pain. We turn from sin and live God-orientated lives that bring glory to Him and not just for our own comfort. Our comfort comes from the work of the Holy Spirit within us and if He is silent, it causes us grief too. But if the Word of God remains in us, we will have the resilience to overcome the evil one.

We are strong when we are focused on the Word of God, not just to read and study, but to put it into practice and live worthy lives to God. This is our public life and our inner private life too. We walk daily before the face of God and should not be ashamed. If the Word remains in us we are invincible and will overcome the power of the evil one. Let us also watch our own evil desires, that we are not led away into sin by them, but are victorious over the indwelling power of self.

You know the Father

“I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.”

We, the little children, know our Father in heaven for He has revealed Himself to us. We live our lives in His loving and peaceable presence and He allows us to serve and worship Him for our good and His glory. As children we relate to our Father in heaven as our loving God who has made it possible for us to have spiritual life and growth. He has bought our place in His loving and eternal family, through the death of our Saviour and brother, Jesus Christ. He is the one who has made it all possible so that we can be so familiar with the Lord our God. To know God is the greatest of privileges – to be on loving terms with the God of the Universe is beyond blessing. To know that our sin is dealt with and we can stand in His presence because of Christ, is the most liberating fact of all.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Romans 8:2

When we grow and become stronger in the faith, we are better able to overcome the evil one who troubles us and tempts us to give up and give in. He will stop at nothing to destroy our peace with the Father and tempt us to fall into sin and destroy our faith. It causes us such problems and takes great battles to renew our place before the Lord. We fight against the forces of self that we have allowed to build up and take us away from the presence of the Lord in our life and tempting us to settle for the things of this life, rather than the joy of the Lord. We keep close to the Lord and walk daily in peace with Him.

“For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition…”

Ephesians 2:14

Eventually we become mature in the faith and we know God well and have walked with Him all our Christian life. We know the Word of God and have read and meditated on its truths for the many years of our Christian life and therefore see the God we love clearly in that same word. To know the eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth is an immense privilege and gives us strength and peace in Him. We face Him in the confidence of our faith, which will not fail, for He will keep us to the end.

“… being fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had promised.”

Romans 4:21

Little children

“I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.”

Before the throne of God we are all little children. If we are in the family of God, He is our Heavenly Father and we are His dearest of children. He will never leave us or neglect us or cause us a moment more of suffering than we are able to bear. There are times when the waters run deep over our souls, but His guiding hand and upholding love is always there. It is painful, but the Father of all mercies is at our side. He does not treat us as we deserve, but as a loving Father who helps us to bear our burdens and the burdens for others too. When the weight of trouble is too much, He will release us and provide a way of escape, that we will not be destroyed.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

John is writing to us as these little children of the Father, full of meekness and kindness towards us in our weaknesses and failings. He is a loving Heavenly Father and never fails, so we can trust in Him at all times. He has done everything possible to meet our needs and has given His only dearly beloved and begotten Son as a sacrifice to pay for all our rottenness, that He might have a redeemed retinue of people for His mighty names sake.

For that names sake we are completely forgiven from all our sins and made worthy to be in the royal family of heaven. We are sisters and brothers to Christ, the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. We inherit His kingdom with Him forever and will forever reign in the city of Zion. We will judge with Him and share in the eternal glory. This is the magnitude of the inheritance of the saints of God – the little children of the Father.

Blinded his eyes

“But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

We fall into hatred because we have started to walk in the darkness. Somehow we have given in to a temptation, or decided on a sinful way of behaving, and we set off into the dark road of disobedience again. We cannot be walking in the light of God, if we are hating other people, or hating anyone or any group of people. It is our natural inclination to be exclusivistic and leave other people out, but it is not the way of God.

This separate attitude lies behind racism, sexism, ageism, and any “ism” that keeps people apart and down. It is a kind of blind philosophy that makes us believe that we and people like us are better or more worthy. It is an entirely false premise and leads to the divisions in human society that lead to conflict and wars. We cannot see what is obvious, because we are blinded by our prejudice and foolish mindset. We are walking in the darkness.

Walking in the darkness of this world and it’s philosophies always leads to spiritual and emotional blindness and leads us ultimately to the darkened grave. We need to throw off every encumbrance that would keep us locked in these chains of darkness and confess our sin and start to walk in the light, as Christ is in the light. Only He can dispel the spiritual blindness and cause us to see our error and repent.

It is easy to get into the darkness. We just walk in the way of our own ideas and we will find ourselves in the deep water of moral blindness and spiritual despair. It takes a work of God to get us out of this trouble and get our eyes opened to the reality of our situation and seek forgiveness. There is no one more merciful than the Lord, for His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting and never fails us. God never gives up on His people and is long suffering, not willing that any should perish but that we will all come to repentance once more.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

Let us not continue in the dark, but throw off the weights of blindness and follow the Lord Jesus Christ and seek the good of all and witness to all of the saving power of God. Let us walk in the glory and peaceableness of the light and obey our Lord Jesus and emulate all His attitudes and ways that lead us into holy and loving lives.

Loves his brother

“He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.”

When we contend with our strong, hateful emotions, the Lord is gracious and gives us the victory through the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Word. When we deal with our inner psyche and get the victory over our sinful mindset and attitudes, we are set free to actually love people, even those who hurt us abominably. It is a life long fight and many battles will rage, but we gain the victory every time, through the love of Christ who has bourn our sin away in His own body on the tree.

What a loving Saviour we have who is willing to bear the consequences of our sin for us, and forgive us when we fall. His long-suffering is so wide and high that we can never scale it or bring it to an end of itself. His love is majestic and strong, stronger than sin and death, and has overcome these two enemies for our sake. We are free to live and have the ability to love because of Him. We love Him so much because He has loved us to the end. We show our love for Him by keeping His commandments and obeying our Heavenly Father. We put nothing else before Him and earnestly strive to be holy people.

“Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

John 13:1

Beloved, we must keep ourselves in the love of God. That means not allowing your psyche to become so low and oppressed that your own needs are not being met and therefore you cannot meet the needs of other people either. We must care for ourselves, that we can care for others, and express the true love of God. Love comes from God, because we naturally do not love and are selfish and unkind, but the work of the Holy Spirit in our life causes us to want this love for ourselves that we might share it around in our life.

If we are loving our sisters and brothers in Christ then we are walking in the light of God, and we are giving none the occasion to stumble or fall into sinful thoughts and ideas. We are sensitive to the needs of all others and do and say things that build up the body of Christ and are encouragers of the brethren. We are positive people with sacrificial attitudes towards other people and will give of ourselves to help sisters and brothers in all kinds of need. We keep out eyes fixed on the prize of gaining Christ and being with Him for eternity.

Hates his brother

“He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now.”

We have all hated someone at some time or other for some reason or other. It is not a pleasant emotion and is often dragged out of us at times of great stress, disappointment or let down. We feel the distress that the other person has caused us and it brings out powerful emotions. What do we do with them?

We bring our feelings of anger and even hatred to God, and ask Him to help us to turn away and deal with the distresses. God may take us into some quite difficult places and cause us to go through deep trials to make us strong to cope with it. We all have to gain control over our inner feelings and anger and hatred are part of that. We need the same repentance and faith we had at the beginning of our Christian life and bring all of it to our Father’s loving hand. He will freely forgive and give us strength to combat the hatred and even turn it to love. Love is of God, so as we seek Him, so we seek that love which covers the multitude of our sins.

It is possible to experience hatred as a Christian, but we turn away from every semblance and expression of it. The other party may never change, but we ask God to protect us from all sin and darkness. We do not let it fester or destroy the loving heart that we possess in Christ. We set aside all our differences and distresses and seek the peace, which we all crave for.

There are people we need to stay away from – people who distress and abuse others for their own ends. We can forgive, but protect ourselves from the distress caused by other people. We cannot live in the light while going around hating other people. As Christians we forgive those who do wrong against us and not let bitterness and rancour build up over time until it bursts our from us out of control. We need to deal with our hurts before they turn and hurt us. We must deal with our hatred before is destroys our life. We do not want to find ourselves walking in the darkness, but in the peace of God, who forgives and who will give the power to overcome this strong emotion.

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.”

Ephesians 4:31

We must be honest with ourselves and admit our feelings and thoughts and bring them to the Lord. When other people let us down, we need to keep ourselves in the love of God and keep friendships with people who are close to Him. Hatred thrives alone, peace is a shared experience. Even if we find ourselves alone, we have the Lord who is with us always and will keep us safe in His holy keeping.

A new commandment

“Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines.”

The darkness of the Old Testament Jewish law has now passed away with all its ceremonial rules and regulations. The moral law still stands, and will always stand, but the old sacrifices of animals for the forgiveness of sin has passed, being only a shadow of what had now come, or who has now come. There is no need for the pictures and signs anymore, for Jesus has come and died to pay the price of sin, as the Pascal Lamb of God. He is the true Saviour spoken about throughout the Old Testament and all the pictures we have of Him there, are now fulfilled in the reality of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Jesus the Lord is the true light that is now shining in the world and we know Him through the bright light of the message of the gospel. As people hear the message of salvation for sinners and respond to it, so we are brought into the kingdom of God where the new commandment is true. The new commandment is that we love one another. This is true in Christ, for He loves us perfectly and it is true in us, as we love our sisters and brothers in Christ.

“This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.”

1 John 3:23

The law or commandment of love now reigns in the kingdom of Christ, which is being built in this world every day. God is bringing people into His kingdom through repentance and faith as they come to Him. The true light is shining in our world, even though it is quite hard to see at the moment, for darkness and sin are everywhere, but the kingdom will come in all its glory and the commandment of love will reign supreme. The darkness will pass because God will put an end to it and the glorious light of the gospel will shine through.

The old commandment

“Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.”

John is telling us that he is not writing anything new, or telling us about a new commandment from God. This seeming new commandment is actually the same commandment that was instigated in the beginning in the garden of Eden. God loved His creation and especially His beloved humans, who He made to love each other, in His image and stick by each other always. We are not to use or abuse each other and simply do things for the good pleasure of ourselves, but to serve each other sacrificially. This is God’s love and is true love. We seek it every day, whether we know it or not and want to know forgiveness and peace with Him. To come to Him in repentance is the only way to find that true love of God and know His presence in our lives.

The old commandment is like the new commandment found in the New Testament.

“He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.”

Luke 10:27

To put God as number one in your life and love Him truly by keeping His commandments, is how we know this true love. Jesus preached it from the beginning of His ministry and tells us how we might find the Lord our God and Heavenly Father. He preached the word to the people and demonstrated His power that all might know who He is and that He is the Saviour of the world. This command of God does not change and stands forever as a testament to God’s grace and goodness towards us and His unfailing love that last forever towards His people. Let us take up the new commandment in the knowledge that is from the eternal God and obey it. Let us love our God and love each other as His people. Let us also love the outsider and bring people into our lives that we can help and encourage and point to Christ. Let us love the particular people in our life that God has given to us to love and cherish.

Even if our love should fail, and it will fail, we have a God who loves us still and will uphold us to the very end and bring us safely into the safe-haven of love.