God is love!

If we hath not love, we hath not God, right? Love everybody! Love is an imperative. Love is the theme of the Bible. Love is the crown jewel of Christianity. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us while we were still in our sin. Out of faith, hope and love, the greatest is love. There is romantic love. There is friendship and brotherly love. There is sacrificial love. Love is the pillar and bedrock of almost every relationship that we have. I cannot overstate the importance of us loving God and one another.

Would it shock you to learn that we are commanded not to love as well? "Do not love the world of the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them." The same author we will study Sunday wrote 1 John as well as the Gospel of John. He used the Greek word for world - Kosmos in John 3:16 as he does in our text of 1 John 2:15-17. Jesus so loved humanity that He was willing to die to atone for our sins. We, however, are told not to love the system. The order of things is ungodly, devilish and evil. This system will destroy you, even though it may be friendly toward you. It is a friendly enemy that we must hate.

John gives us three reasons why we must not love the world:

The Character of the World (15)

The Corruption of the World (16)

The Condemnation of the World (17)

How could we love a system designed to destroy us, whose prince is Satan, whose philosopher, is dangerous and foolish and whose purpose is to draw you away from God? Satan has used the Roman Empire as an earthly enemy to the movement of our God on earth. We know that Satan is the antithesis to God, but do you recognize that Greek/Roman thinking and philosophy is the antithesis to Scripture?

Read not just 1 John 2:15-17 but also Ephesians 6:10-20.

Our Biblical world view is in stark contrast to the Greek world view. Rome has given us Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who gave us Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism. These people and their musings have shaped ethics, politics, logic, reason, science, law, the natural order, medicine, art, and life in all of history. There is really no aspect of your life that has not been touched by classical Roman thought. Remember, they didn't just give us Zeus, Athena, and Aphrodite, but also the Roman Catholic Church. Please hold the thought of a "Friendly Enemy" til Sunday. What vile influence has a world-prominent religion, considered by most to be Christian, that believes "the church" and their Pope to be infallible, had over what John calls "the world?" If you want REVIVAL, better love what God loves and hate what God hates.

In Christ,

Pastor Todd