No Grey Area

 

DEVOTION

THR 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

NO GREY AREA

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

NIV

This love of the world is defined here by John. He tells us that the world consists of the cravings of the sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what we have and what we have done. The problem with this definition is that it is still a bit vague, leaving us to interpret just what those cravings and lust of the eyes mean. Regarding boasting about what we have and have done is pretty clear. It seems it is quite a natural part of life to be boastful. We have to boast about ourselves if we ever intend to secure the right position in life. That is what resumes are all about, boasting of our educational achievements and our record of successes and abilities in our chosen profession. The problem is this boasting has infiltrated the community of faith. However, the greatest of this boasting has been, and is still in progress, in those false teachers, or preachers. When they have built large edifices for themselves on the backs of the believer, fleecing the flock so they can live largely, it is boasting, but also fulfilling their sinful cravings and lust of their eyes. These people are to be kept far away from us, or we are to steer far clear of them. Yet, these three traits are also aimed at us as well.  Again, there is no grey area here whatsoever. We simply cannot pursue our cravings, which we have to admit exist. If we had no cravings for that which is sinful, we would not be human beings, we would be God. Even Lucifer, the most beautiful angel God ever created, had sinful desires, except he acted on them and it cost him dearly, but he still insists on fulfilling his cravings and wants to tempt us to do the same. Here is where we just have to say, No! We do not love those cravings, we abhor them, and cannot stand it if we give in at times. This also applies to the lust of the eyes. Usually, it is thought this has some sexual overtones, but the lust of the eyes can be for material possessions. Always seeing that expensive car or home, or wanting the best clothes. Looking at them with a longing for them, wishing we could have them, thinking what it would be like to own that thing or have enough money to buy whatever we want when we want it. All that is the lust of the eyes. Even the whole issue of money fits into this category, of the lust of the eyes. The lust for money, this storing it up so we can have more and more, and then it is never enough. We know that we have been told we cannot serve God and money, so we have to submit to God, love him above all else, even our desire for wealth. We also have to be careful about boasting about our accomplishments, if, in fact, we have any. But it can also apply to our service to the Lord. The community of faith has developed way too many titles within itself which could cause a believer to feel just a little boastful about having some title. OF course, it may be needed to have these positions defined by name, so we know who is who. But we need to be careful not to feel boastful because we have a task, an area of service to our Lord, which has a title. What is seems to come down to is what we spend most of our time thinking about. If we love the Lord, then it would be natural to think we would spend most of our time thinking about Him, about His word, about fulfilling our calling. How our life in Christ is the central theme of our lives such dominate our thinking. That would mean we have the love of God in us, and we would be doing his will. This comes to the idea of making choices in life. Where we live, work and church should all be from the will of God, rather than from our will, or desire. Even our skillsets should be from the will of God, as He directs the path of our lives. We should want what He wants for our lives, not what we want. Our wants can be driving by our cravings, or lust of our eyes, or for the reason to boast. It always comes to having the love of the Father in us, rather than our love for the world. There can be no grey area.