The World That Keeps Passing Away

* Why is it men cannot stop loving the world?

* Something in him (deception) tells him that the world will not pass away.

<1 Jn 2:15-17>: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

What does it mean “to love the world”?

* The World – A fallen sphere of influence on this earth where everything in it is in enmity with God.

* We love with our heart.

* But we make sense with our mind.

<Ro 12:2>: 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

* German Word: Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Age)

* Christian in every Era are called to resist the Zeitgeist.

Yet from church history, the call not to love the world often go unheeded.

* Abraham’s Era – Lot

* King’s Era – King Saul

* 18th and 19th century – A handful of Christian denominations support slavery

* World War 2 – Professing believers (in Germany) endorsed the radical nationalism promoted by the Nazi party.

* German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller:

“First, they (the Nazis) came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me”.

* Recent years – Well-known denominations (Presbyterian in USA, Methodist in UK) supported gay marriages.

Unfortunately, this trend continues in our own day.

E.g. The structure and message by contemporary churches.

E.g. Churches cave in to the demands of the world (E.g. Covid_19).

Why did believers conform so easily?

* The strongest reasons is that we think the world will always exist as it does now.

* Yet the big lesson for believers of every age: The World and its desires passed away.

Whoever does the will of God lives forever.

* Every act of obedience towards the Lord will be remembered by Him forever.

* Example: Abraham

* Example: David

* The World tries to learn the way of success, but it can NEVER learn the blessing of the heart.

What is the call to Christian then?

* <James 5:13-17>: 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

* Not just resisting the wrong, but what is the good we’re to do?

Reflection
1. What to you is the Zeitgeist (Spirit of the age) in our times?
2. Name one good that the Lord has instructed you to do but which you haven’t been able to.