Daily Bread - 1 John 2:15-17

We know that Scripture nourishes human understanding. The Holy Bible uses an organic metaphor to describe God’s intention. It likens God’s Word to water that nourishes a seed enabling it to sprout and grow. This is a "living metaphor". It compares the process of growth in nature with the process of growing in faith and understanding. It shows us that a mature faith is not static. It grows!

2 Timothy 3:16 -- "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"


Today's daily bread is 1 John 2:15-17.

1 John 2:15-17 -- "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. 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 for ever."

This is the challenge for all of us, isn't it? How do we live as Ambassadors for Jesus Christ as members in this world, but not becoming of this world? I have to admit that during my first steps in my spiritual walk with the Lord this was the most difficult thing to deal with.

Life is overflowing with things that are detestable to God, or at least with things that no Christian should probably have in their lives to the extent that many of us often do. For me, it was a radical change of my entire lifestyle that was needed! Movies, music, television, the kind of people I associated with and the kinds of things they (or I) did that was ok before, but not any more.

When people talk of being "born again" it's not just something that's reflected on the inside, but it should be something that people notice on the outside too. I recently came across a short commentary on this very subject from The Berean, which I'll include here in full below.

1 John 2:15-17 warns us that there is a profound gulf between the Father and the world, and that a Christian is faced with making a choice between them. Spirituality, morally, and ethically, Christianity does not allow for neutrality. God is bringing us into a position where we recognize truth, admit it is true, and make it a part of our lives.

We are learning a new way of life, so He does not want us to be ensnared by the attractiveness of many things that are in the world. We cannot presume that because something appears to be harmless, it would be fine to do "just this one time." Therefore, we have to learn to resist the urge to think and conduct our lives as the world does.

"World" in 1 John 2 is the Greek cosmos, and its basic meaning is "an ordered system." Because of the disparity between God and this world, it cannot possibly be the world for which God gave His only begotten Son. The world He created He called "very good." Nor is He referring to mankind, also part of His creation. He loves people and desires to save them.

Nevertheless, He does not like man's way of life. This ordered, human-centered system is anti-God and anti-Christ, and Satan sits at its head. This system occupies His creation and consists of people that God loves so much that He sent His Son to die for them, but He does not love the system! It produces people that need to be rescued, and it tends to make them worse and worse.
When God speaks of "the world," He is identifying all of man's purposes, pursuits, pleasures, practices, and places where God is not wanted. Much of this world is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual, but it is still anti-God and anti-Christ.

Through His calling, God puts us into a position where He forces us to choose between disparate ways of life, and both of them are realities. We must choose either the eternal and worthwhile or the temporal and vain.

God is not saying that this world is unpleasant, unattractive, or unappealing, but we have to choose between that reality and His. The sum of this passage is that this ordered system -- anti-God yet appealing and attractive -- has the power to seduce the believer, to ensnare him and turn him from God. We have to be vigilantly on guard against it.

It is a misconception that there are being saved means your freedom will be stifled or that you will be ruled by the trappings of religion. I've never been more free and more at peace in my life than I am now with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior!

(SOURCE: The Berean)