09/03/25

Sunday school:

1John 2: 15-17:

This passage is so unique and controversial, looking at all the scriptures it stands out because it talk against
Love.
As a Christian we are called to Love like no other. All our scripture is filled with Love.
1. We love because God is Love, God loved us first, we love the lord wit all our heart mind and soul, we
love our neighbours, loving one another, we even love our enemies.
2. By love we fulfill the law (Paul Romans 13: 8-10) – you shall love your neighbour as yourself.

And now thers the issue of the world – It contradicts our beloved passage ( John 3:16)

It comes as a shock when we read “ Do not Love” – command – violation means sin.
From this we can confirm that “Love can be Sinful”

We need to proclaim this in our culture today – they need to hear it.
Todays Love is Love mentality – How can you be against love – Nobody can be against love – certainly
Christians cannot be against love cause God is love. And we are called to love, therefore how can you stand
against two people who love one another?

But our text today tells us that there are instances when Love can be sinful.

Now question is what could make love sinful? Under what circumstance is love considered sinful?
1. Love is sinful when directed to wrong object. (V15)

The word “World”

Johanian literature – 3 different ways of using the word “World”
1. all creation – cosmos – (John 1,3,4,6,8 over and over) – all created universe.
Here John is not saying not to love the creation, or universe.
2. People who inhabit the world – Mankind – Here also God does not talk about not no loving people or
mankind – great commandment love your neighbor as yourself. So John is not talking about this kind of
word or the first kind of word, however there is a 3rd use of word world..
3. 3rd use of the term world refers to the spiritual realm that is in opposition to God and is rebelling against
God’s kingdom. John is talking about this kind of World. 3rd sense of world is discussed here.

When John says do not Love the World he means – do not love the 3 rd kind of world which is anti-God and
system that is anti Kingdom. System that is satanic.

He makes it satanic he uses even in 1John 5:4-5, We can overcome the world by faith. 3:1 – the
world is ignorant of God. And in 1John 4:1, he says it is the abode of false prophets; in 4:3, it is
the abode of the antichrist; and in 4:5, it is the abode of unbelievers.Lastly, the whole world is
controlled by the evil one. It is obvious here that when John refers to "world" in this text,
he is referring to that world that is under the control of our adversary, the devil—a world
that is spiritual and ideological and at war with our King and His kingdom. And we are
told, "Do not love that world.
" Not at all! Listen to Calvin. He had said before that the only rule for living religiously is to
love God, but when we are occupied with the vain love of the world, we turn away all our
thoughts and affections another way. This vanity must first be torn away from us in order that
the love of God may reign within us. Until our minds are cleansed, the former doctrine may be
iterated a hundred times but with no effect. It will be like pouring water on a ball; you can
gather, no, not a drop, because there is no empty place to retain the water.
Like pouring water on a ball, when your affections and love are pointed toward the world, there
is no room for the love of God. When your love and your affections are directed toward the
world, they are directed toward that which opposes God; thus, love can become sinful when it is
directed at the wrong object.

James says something similar in James 4:4: "You adulterous people!

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes
to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. " "No man can serve two masters.
He will love the one and hate the other. ".
You cannot love the world and love God simultaneously.

In fact, in our regeneration, in our salvation, we are taken out of the world. We are taken out of
that system. We are brought out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
We transfer kingdoms. We transfer commitments, but if our love is still for the world, our
allegiance has not legitimately been transferred, which is why in 2:19, just after our passage,
John says, "They went out from among us because they were not of us. If they had been of us,
they would have remained; but they left so that it might be known," so that it might be obvious,
"that we might see that they were never ours.
" They were never His because their love, their affections, were pointed at the system that is
opposed to God.

1 John 5:4 states, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the
victory that overcomes the world—our faith.

John 15:19, it is written, "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates
you.

John 17:16 says, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. "

John 17:18, He states, "As You sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
" Again, we have been sent into the world to proclaim the gospel, but we are not of this world.
We are in this world, but not of this world, and most important we are not to love this world.
A great way to see this picture is to think about the love that a man is commanded to have
for his wife: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for
her.
" There is a love that husbands are called to give exclusively to their wives, and the moment you
turn that love onto another, you are guilty of idolatry. It is the same point here.

The moment you turn that love we are called to have for God—the love that has been shed
abroad in our hearts—to the world out of which you were saved, that minute you are
communicating the fact that you do not have the love of God or love for God.

we must constantly examine our hearts for the presence of this love for the world. Now, be
careful here because there is a tendency to take this in very wrong directions. We have got to
fight worldliness, and so what that means is you don't drink, smoke, cuss, chew, or date the girls
that do, right?
That is not what this is. That is the enemy's deception, because..
I can love alcohol and not drink it, I can love drugs and not take them. I can love many things.
My passions and my affections can be pointed in these directions, and yet my legalism and my
moralism say, "I'm better—not just than I was, but I'm better than you," because I fight the urge,
because I don't participate.

I still love it with every fiber of my being. John is not saying here, "Don't participate in the
world. " He says, "Don't love the world.

We must develop discernment in order to determine the difference. Love becomes sinful not
only when it is pointed in the wrong direction, toward the wrong object, but also when it arises
from the wrong source. Verse 16 states, "For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the
desires of the eyes, the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

So there is a problem first with the object, and now there is a problem with the source. This love
for the world arises from the world, just as our love for God and for the things of God arises
from God. It is God who gives us the capacity to love Him, but here we have a love that arises
from a different source.

The first two categories that are mentioned here—cravings and lust—are sinful desires;
boasting, however, is sinful behavior: The first two are internal and hidden. Sin.
The last one is revealed. The first two effect individual person. The last one effect this person
relationship in community with others.

Three categories: cravings, lust, and boasting. These things arise from the world: cravings,
inordinate desires for things. And, again, we have to separate these.
When we say cravings and lust and boastings, we have to recognize that we are talking about
this third "world" and not the first two. For example, in that first "world," I can love the beauty
of a sunset; I can love the beauty of a perfectly cooked chicken.
I can love the beauty of music, art; again, those things in this world that God has made. I can
and I must love the people whom God has created in this world, but the kind of love that I have
for those things is a love that arises from God Himself. However, even those loves can be
perverted, and so now, instead of me loving the beauty of a sunset or the beauty of God's created
order, I worship God's created order. I worship the creature rather than the Creator. Rather than
loving the beauty of those things that God has given us, now, all of a sudden, those things
become means to to satisfying myself, to gratifying my flesh, to quenching my lustful desires.
That is when they have crossed a boundary.

Boastings: That is when it gets outward: my cravings, my lust, and then my pride. True love can
lead me to share my testimony, and pride can make me exaggerated.
True love can cause me to use my voice to proclaim the truth of the gospel. Pride makes me love
the sound of my voice so that I just talk too much. True love can lead me to share my story, but
my pride causes me to make myself the hero of every story I tell.
It can make me one of those people who constantly gives you their résumé. That is what it looks
like when it becomes outward. True love can show gratitude for the things with which God has
blessed me, but my pride can make me constantly give you the price tag of those things so that
you can be impressed.
Are you smelling what I'm stepping in? So, our love can become sinful based on its direction
and based on its source.
But, finally, and ultimately, and most importantly, our love becomes sinful when it
produces the wrong fruit, when it leads to the wrong ends.

verse 17: "And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of
God abides forever. " Here you have these two opposite ends. On the one hand, you have this
world that is passing away, and on the other hand, you have our God who abides forever.

Love becomes sinful when it leads to wrong ends and produces wrong fruit. Our passions
become sinful when they are pointed in directions that lead to death and destruction as opposed
to leading to life.

1 Corinthians 7:29 to 31: "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very
short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who
mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not
rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as
though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. " There
is no life there.

And this leads us back to what I was mentioning earlier: the upsetting way in which this is
so pertinent to our times, because of the "love is love" crowd, particularly in the area of
same-sex marriage. How can you be opposed to same-sex marriage when same-sex
marriage is just about people who love each other being allowed to express that love? But
that is a love that is pointed at the wrong object.

That is not a love that comes from God. Whether it brings glory and honor to God, it is pointed
at the wrong object. It is a love that arises from the wrong source.

Romans chapter 1:18 - "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and the unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can
be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible
attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since
the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For
although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they
became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they
became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man
and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to the lusts of their
hearts to impurity.
Here we are; these lusts, these desires, "to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. " Dishonorable passions; the
desires themselves are dishonorable. There is no gay Christian stuff!

If a man comes to me talking about a desire for a woman who is not his wife, I cannot tell him to
just go ahead and embrace the desire, because the desire in itself is okay. It's not! "God gave
them up to dishonorable passions.
Romans 1:26-27 : For their women exchanged the natural relations for those that are contrary to
nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations. "With women and were consumed with
passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with men and receiving in themselves
the due penalty of their error. " There is the bad fruit.

It is pointed in the wrong direction. It is arising from the wrong source, and it is producing bad
fruit. Therefore, it falls into the category of love that is sinful.
It falls into the category of love that does not glorify God. It falls into the category of love for
that third version of the word "world;" not the first, "God's created order," not the second,
"people in the world," but that third, that system that is openly opposed to all that God is and
that rebels against the reign of God and His kingdom.

And that is precisely where we are.

And not only that, this rebellion is no longer secret, but it has become open. It is out there and it
is in our faces and, unfortunately, it is being urged along by people within the church who are
essentially arguing that love is always righteous, love is always godly, love is always
appropriate, because God loves everyone and God loves everything; and right here, the Bible
says, "Do not love. " There are some loves that are out of bounds.

There are some loves that aren't acceptable. In other words, there are some loves that are not
truly love. And if you are here today and you wrestle with that, let me say to you that the last
thing you need to do is to give into that love and define yourself by it, because that is the love of
the world.
Do not love the world.

We Do not love based on our passions and our desires. But love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, which means your passions are to be
turned in His direction and no other.

We must reject the lie that says there is no love that is out of bounds, because ultimately that lie
that says there is no love that is out of bounds is a lie that says there is no truth in God. We can
see this example from every family – the fact that love is not defined by allowing those whom
you love to have what they want, when they want it, just because they want it. Some of the most
loving moments between parents and children have been moments when they have said
authoritatively, "No. for the betterment of their children.
" Amen. And we see that here in this text. Why?
We'll end with this. Look at it again. "The world is passing away along with its desires, but
whoever does the will of God abides forever.
" Do you see what is happening here? This, "Do not love the world," is not God saying, "Listen,
there is good stuff out there that I want to keep from you. " That is the lie of the serpent.

This phrase "Do not love" tells us, "That looks good to you and may even feel good to you, but
in the end, you will perish. I am calling you away from it because I actually do love you and in
loving you I want you to abide in God, to remain in God, and to not perish. " Because our desire
is that Christ indeed may have the fullness of the reward for which He died.
So, do not love the world.
Let us pray: Our Gracious God and our Heavenly Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the God who created this world and everything in it, the God who is the King and ruler
overall, God, we bow before You as a humble and grateful people, and we bow before You
recognizing that we have a tendency to love the world. Ironically, we have to fight to love that
first world and fight to love that second world and fight not to love that third one, because we
are fallen and frail human beings.
Grant by Your grace that we might have not only the wisdom to see the difference and the faith
to trust You to transform us, but that we might also have the will to deny our flesh and to not
love the world. Father, I pray that this would not cause us to flee out of the world, but that we
would be wise enough to be in the world and not of it, and that in doing so we would be distinct
and continue to be those who are known by and marked by our love; love for God, love for the
brethren, love for mankind, love for the lost, even love for our enemies, but not love for the
world. Grant by Your grace that this may be true of us.
For we ask it in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen.