Monthly Archive for March, 2001

1 John 2:15d

Published on March 31, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
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“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”


 the love of the Father is not in him

The love of the world and the love of the Father are mutually exclusive.  We cannot love both at the same time.  There is no median ground between these two.  If anyone habitually loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him as a vital constraining force. 

This person may love the Father but he no longer enjoys the Father’s love in his heart.  Preoccupation with the world prevents practical appropriation of God’s love to us.  God’s love as Creator is not in question here but the beneficent love that He bestows on His family.  Things of the world crowd out loving manifestations of the Father. 

The words “not in him” indicate that God’s belief system and values are not in him as a controlling force.  He sets himself up as the purpose for what he does. 

If we are in love with the world, we will not appreciate the love of the Father.  There can be no vacuum in the soul.  We always fill it with something – we fill it either with God’s system or Satan’s system.  There is always some ruling principle that governs our lives.  God does not allow for any middle ground.


PRINCIPLE:  Preoccupation with the world prevents practical appropriation of God’s will in our lives. 


APPLICATION:  The Christian marches to a different drumbeat than the world.  We live for different values.  Loving the Lord Jesus should spoil us for the world system.  Satan has his servants, ambassadors and representatives.  His kingdom is highly organized.  However, Christians in fellowship march to a different drumbeat.  We live for a different set of values.

Demas loved this present world.  He did not merely toy with it; he loved it. 

2 Ti 4: 10 “…for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world…”

Love is an attitude biblically.  It is not Pollyanna.  Neither is love romance or gushing over someone.  These may be manifestations of love but they are not love in itself.  Love is a value that we place on someone or some thing.  It is something we believe and not an emotional activity.  It is what we value.  What we value determines whether we are worldly or not. 

Ro 12: 1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Satan has a singularity of plan and a deliberate purpose in the world.  He operates with guerrilla warfare.  It is difficult to find clear lines of battle because he is so subtle in his systems.  Nevertheless, he has a system and a plan behind it all. 

Jn 12: 31 “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

Jn 14: 30 “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”

Jn 16: 11 “…of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Every believer has three foes: an external foe, an internal foe and an infernal foe.  The world is our external foe.  The flesh is our internal foe and the Devil is our infernal foe.  God has a different strategy to fight each foe.  It is possible to trust God to handle the flesh and the Devil but not the world.   The believer must take on the entire evil triumvirate.  This system is a sworn antagonism against God.  Imbibing the world system will keep us from amounting anything for God.  It will lead us into spiritual bankruptcy. 

1 John 2:15c

Published on March 30, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”


If anyone loves the world,

This phrase begins the first of three reasons why we should not love the world.  An absolute God cannot fellowship with a Christian who loves the world.

The word “if” indicates [in the Greek] that some Christians will love the world.  They do not love God for they love something else. 

PRINCIPLE:  Buying into the world’s value system puts our Christian life into great peril. 


APPLICATION:  Most Christians who talk about loving God do not actually love Him at all.  They are in love with love but not in love with God.  They may say, “Oh how I love Jesus.  Isn’t Jesus wonderful?” but not love Him at all.  This nauseates God ad infinitum.  All that is, is maudlin sentimentality. 

Christians who talk about loving God but do not engage with His provisions and assets do not love Him.  We need to know something about God before we can love Him. 

People who talk about loving God but do not actually love Him approach love as something casual.  It is not enough to sing, “Oh how I love Jesus.”  We must know why we love the Lord Jesus. 

2 Co 5: 14 “For the love of Christ [Christ’s love for us] compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

1 John 2:15b

Published on March 29, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”


 or the things in the world.

John adds a further qualification to worldliness – “the things in the world.”  These are the material things of the world put at the core of our value system.  Some Christians incorporate satanic integral systems of greed into their lives that advance the Devil’s evil ends. 


PRINCIPLE:  Greed is part of the satanic world system. 


APPLICATION:  Worldliness is buying into the value system of the world, its passions, pleasures, and pursuits.  We love the world system for its sin for we think it will satisfy our souls.  This is a love of indulgence, the system of indulgence that rejects Christ and the implications of an absolute God on their behavior.  It is rebellion against God’s values and priorities. 

Jn 17: 14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”

God warns us against developing a system of values that orient to Satan’s system of values.  Satan’s system is set in antagonism to God’s way of life.  We cannot hold to two opposing systems of values at the same time. 

1 Jn 5: 19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

Note that God does not present the concept of worldliness by way of practices but by way of principle.  However, it is possible to exercise worldly thinking without indulging in practices that the church labels as sin.  Worldliness originates in a love system that damages our fellowship with God.  It can be anything that dulls our spiritual orientation.  It may be a sinful attitude toward someone else. 

We do not love the world because we have a new love.  All our orientation, future, relationships are now new in Christ. 

Love of God must remain foremost in our system of values.  We do this when we rely on God’s set of values as over against Satan’s.  If we have a worldly system of values in our thinking, we cannot love God.  That is because we cannot distinguish between God’s will and Satan’s will.  If we do not know God’s will then we cannot love God.  We would not know how to please Him. 

1 John 2:15

Published on March 28, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”


Do not love the world

The word “world” occurs 22 times in this epistle.  There are four different words for “world” in the New Testament: 1) earth, 2) the inhabited world, 3) age or generation and 4) an adorned system of values.  John uses the fourth here. 

The “world” system is an enemy of God (4:4).  “Love” here is the love of fondness or devotion.  Some Christians love the arrangement of a world apart from God, a seductive system that lures people away from God. The “world” here is not the earth or the physical globe on which we live.  The “world” is the Devil’s system of values. 

1 Jn 5: 19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

Ja 4: 4 “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

The Greek forbids an action already in progress.  John’s readers were already in the process of loving the world.  They were in a system of values, priorities and beliefs that excluded God in their lives. 


PRINCIPLE:  A Christian in fellowship with God does not adopt the value system of this world.


APPLICATION:  Worldliness is not taking pleasure in the natural realm for God wants us to enjoy the spectacular Grand Canyon.  He wants us to enjoy sports and the symphony.  Taking pleasure in the earth is not wrong but yielding to the values of this world violates our fellowship with God. 

God expects us to love the birds and the bees!  He wants us to enjoy flowers and the world of nature.  We glory in God’s handiwork of nature.  We love people.  Neither does not loving the world mean that we are to become eccentric or odd.  It does not mean that we live like a hermit in a cave. 

Rejecting worldliness does mean that we do not enter its system of greed and develop an attitude of the survival of the fittest and might makes right. 

Secularism tries to ostracize God from the core of its life.  All they want is what they can taste, see, feel, hear or touch.  They want nothing of a God who has sovereign authority over them.  They do not want to take God into account for the values of their lives. 

1 John 2:14d

Published on March 27, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I have written to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

And you have overcome the wicked one.”


 And you have overcome the wicked one

These young men did not conquer Satan in their own strength but through the power of the Spirit.  This happened by allowing the Word of God to abide harmoniously, unhindered in their lives as an ever present source of prevailing power. 


PRINCIPLE:  We overcome Satan by the power of the Word. 


APPLICATION:  The Word of God teaches us the strategy and systems of the Devil.  Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (not into an angel of darkness).  Religion is his system for keeping people in the dark. 

2 Co 11: 14 “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”

We can resist the Devil by faith.  When we exercise faith in the Word of God about a situation, we take God at His Word.  Only on that basis can we resist him (Ja 4:7; 1 Pe 5:8,9).  We cannot resist the Devil in the faith unless we fortify ourselves with the Word of God. 

Ep 6: 10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Re 3: 21 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Re 12: 11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

When the Devil attacked the Lord Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus defended Himself by quoting from the Bible.  He said, “It is written.”  He did not read from a scroll.  He quoted the book of Deuteronomy.  He memorized Scripture.  He had it on the tip of His tongue.  He quoted three passages. 

Mt 4: 4 But He answered and said, It is written,

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Mt 4:5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

“He shall give His angels charge over you, and,

In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Mt 4:7 Jesus said to him, It is written again,

“You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”

Mt 4:8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  9 And he said to Him, All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.

Mt 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! For it is written,

“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”

Mt 4:11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

1 John 2:14c

Published on March 26, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I have written to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

And you have overcome the wicked one.”


 and the word of God abides in you,

The secret of the strength of young men was their knowledge of the Word of God and their ability to apply it to their experience.  They did not dissipate and debilitate their lives through sin.  On the contrary, these young men disciplined and directed their lives by the allowing the Word to indwell their lives and center their lives in Christ. 

Ep 6: 17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”


PRINCIPLE:  The basis of victory over sin is the Word of God.


APPLICATION:  One of the foundations of Christian living is the application of the principles of the Word of God to experience.  This is victory in God’s economy.  This is the way to gain victory over the world system. 

Ps 119: 9  “How can a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed according to Your word.

10     With my whole heart I have sought You;

Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

11     Your word I have hidden in my heart,

That I might not sin against You!”

Some people take cursory glances at the Word occasionally.  They do not consistently see its principles so they cannot apply them to their experience. 

1: 6 “… do not practice the truth. 8 … and the truth is not in us… 10 … and His word is not in us.”

Christians who develop affinity for the Word of God grow in the things of God.  We must hunger, thirst and develop an appetite for what God has to say. 

Dt 6: 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”

Dt 11: 18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

Ps 1: 2  “But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.”

Pr 7: 3 “Bind them on your fingers;

Write them on the tablet of your heart.”

Je 15: 16 “Your words were found, and I ate them,

And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;

For I am called by Your name,

O Lord God of hosts.”

Je 20: 9 “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him,

Nor speak anymore in His name.

But His word was in my heart like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

I was weary of holding it back,

And I could not.”

Job 23: 12  “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;

I have treasured the words of His mouth

More than my necessary food.”

Jn 15: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Co 3: 16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

1 John 2:14b

Published on March 25, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I have written to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

And you have overcome the wicked one.”


 I have written to you, young men,

John appeals to young men based on their energy and strength.  The previous verse said that the “young men” “overcame the wicked one.”  This verse shows how they did it. 

Because you are strong,

These young men developed spiritual strength. 


PRINCIPLE:  God makes available to us a strength beyond our natural strength. 


APPLICATION:  God wants us to be as strong spiritually as we are physically.  Some of us would land in the hospital if our physical strength were as strong as our spiritual strength.  God wants us to be strong in Him. 

Joshua 1: 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Ne 8: 10 “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Is 40: 31 “But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.”

Is 41: 10  “Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Ep 1: 19 “…and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…”

Ep 3: 16 “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…”

Ep 6: 10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Ph 4: 13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Co 1: 11 “…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy…”

2 Ti 2: 1 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

2 Ti 4: 17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”

1 John 2:14

Published on March 24, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I have written to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

And you have overcome the wicked one.”


John reiterates his point without repetition but with variations. 

I have written to you, fathers

John makes his appeal to mature leaders based on their fellowship with the Lord.  This is one of the reasons he writes the epistle of 1 John, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

The “fathers” came into an enduring experiential knowledge of God from the “beginning.”  John adds nothing new about the “fathers.”  John did not need to say anything new for they “knew Him.” 


PRINCIPLE:  God’s goal for every Christian is to move them to maturity in Christ. 


APPLICATION:  Some people know the Lord but do not live in fellowship with Him.  They follow Him at such great distance that no one recognizes that they belong to the Lord.  Others come to a point of maturity (not perfection).  They have grown up in the Lord.  They reproduce themselves. 

Some Christians stay in perennial infancy.  They never grow in grace.  They catch every spiritual disease that comes down the pike.  They never develop but remain spiritual pigmies for their entire Christian lives. 

2 Pe 3: 18 “…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”

Once a person becomes a Christian, they become a target of the Devil.  The Devil is unscrupulous.  He will try to stunt the growth of new Christians.  That is why it is important for a new Christian to get into the Word of God quickly.

1 Pe 2: 1 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”

New Christians are more vulnerable than at any other time in their Christian lives.  After we do our spiritual obstetric work of leading someone to Christ then we do our pediatrician work of helping baby Christians to develop in the things of the Lord.  Whenever we hear the sounds of new Christians in the maternity ward, we do not leave them lying alone in their cribs.  We move them on toward maturity by helping them to understand how to apply the principles of the Word consistently and persistently to experience.

The primary kind of nourishment that God gives for the soul is the Word of God.  Habitual appropriation of truth to experience brings a person to maturity. 

1 John 2:13c

Published on March 23, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I write to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

Because you have overcome the wicked one.

I write to you, little children,

Because you have known the Father.”


 I write to you, little children

The word in the Greek for “little children” here is different from the word in verse twelve.  The word here means a small child.  The word “little” applies to this word but not to the word in verse twelve.  This word also occurs in verse 28.  Matthew 2:14 translates this word “young Child.”

Mt 2: 14 “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt”

Luke 18 also uses this term for a small child:

Lu 18: 16 “But Jesus called them to Him and said, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.”

“Little children” in this verse are immature believers. 

Because you have known the Father.

Note the three uses of the word “because”.  After each “because” John points out an outstanding characteristic of each group.  There is an outstanding earmark of a child in the faith, a teen in the faith and an adult in the faith. 

This sentence gives us the earmark of a baby Christian.  Undeveloped believers to whom John writes knew God personally and initially as their Father; they knew Him more than as God. 


PRINCIPLE:  All Christians at the minimum know God personally. 


APPLICATION:  Some Christians stay in spiritual infancy.  They catch every childhood disease that comes along.  The spiritual infant morality rate is very high in modern Christianity. 

Little children spiritually play make-believe.  They often think that something is spiritual when it is not.  They sometimes are self-righteous, priggish or legalistic thinking that this is spirituality.  About all they know is salvation but not much more.  Quite often, they are confused about salvation itself.  They know 2 + 2 = 4 but they have not moved on to algebra and trigonometry spiritually. 

1 John 2:13b

Published on March 22, 2001 in 1 John. 0 Comments
Read Introduction to 1 John

“I write to you, fathers,

Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

Because you have overcome the wicked one.

I write to you, little children,

Because you have known the Father.”


 I write to you, young men,

Each of the three times John uses “to you” he points out an advantage of the group to whom he writes.  All three categories have an advantage, a hallmark of spiritual experience. 

Because you have overcome the wicked one.

The word “overcome” means to conquer.  It is a victory achieved by exploits.  The young men of this verse prevailed over Satan’s value system.  The perfect tense in the Greek indicates that their victory had abiding results.  They knew something about abiding results of victory in spiritual warfare. 

2 Co 2: 14 “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Re 12: 11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”


PRINCIPLE:  The outstanding characteristic of a growing Christian is that they have victories over the satanic system. 


APPLICATION:  Victory in youth makes for benefits for the rest of life.  A fruitful life comes from fighting many battles and deliverance from many heartaches and regrets. 

A teenage Christian is someone who moves beyond childhood spiritually but he has not yet made it to spiritual adulthood.  They are neither at the bottom of the spiritual experience nor at the top.  Yet, they are Christians on the move.  They are going places spiritually.  They are making a mark for the Lord. 

The outstanding characteristic of adolescent Christians is that they know how to battle in the spiritual war.  The Devil will try his utmost to put us in a state of spiritual retardation so that we never get to the place of victory.  He will do his diabolical worst to keep Christians at the spiritual babyhood level.  Some stay at spiritual childhood all their Christian lives.  This is his infernal work.  Growing Christians learn how to ignore Satan’s propaganda machine. 

In order to overcome the infernal work of the Devil we need to know how to meet him on God’s terms.  We do not overcome the Devil by chance.  We must know something about his strategy and how to resist that strategy.  Every Christian faces three foes: the world, the flesh and the Devil. 

Re 3:21 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

It is possible to overcome sin.  Jesus overcame the Devil by taking recourse in the Word of God.  He knew how to draw on the principles of the Word and apply them to His life.  He quoted three verses in Matthew 4 and the Devil left Him. 

Some Christians have been carnal so long that they blunt their consciences.  They no longer have a sense of conviction over their sin.  They live in perpetual defeat.