“Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15
I have to ask myself what does God mean by this statement?
This is a scripture which must be defined by the hearer of the verse. I believe in context the Lord defines it in
verse (16) “For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world.” I do not believe that God is telling
us not to have any worldly dealings. We do have to live, work, worship, etc.,
etc., etc., in the world. As Christians we must live in the world, we must
preach the gospel to this world, we must help this world, as much as we can. I
believe this verse is defined in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God.” The word “conformed” means - to fashion alike or conform
to the same pattern – which the word “world” would be the dealings of the world
and not the entire world. We know that the world system is controlled by Satan
and having any part of the world system will separate you from God as far as
keeping His commandments. This world is a place we must share with the lost as
well as Christians. We cannot hate the people because God told us to love the
people, and to pray for them. “But I say
unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
Matthew 5:44 Satan controls the world system and therefore we should blame
the evil of the world on Satan. I am not excusing the people, they will pay to
God for their sins, but that is not an excuse for us to hate them and eliminate
them from our witnessing.
I want to look at our responsibility to the world. We that
believe in the Sovereign Salvation of God, and still believe in the preaching of
gospel, but why? The answer is simple, Jesus Christ commissioned the leaders of
the first church (The Church at Jerusalem) to “go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every living soul”. Mark 16:15 We preach the gospel, why, because
God uses it to save sinners. Even though God has ordained or elected those to
be saved we preach the gospel and God uses that preached gospel to saved
sinners. Since we do not know who the elect are we preach it to the world and
it reaches whom God convicts by the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility in the
world is to teach the truth of the bible and to walk in that truth. We are to
obey the commandments of God’s word, and without question. Now, do we believe
that the preaching of the gospel is going to save a non-elect sinner, no. The
ordained will of God cannot be changed, and God will save sinners whether we
preach the gospel or not. However, God commanded that we preach it anyway. Our responsibility
in the world is to be good servants of the Lord and spread God’s word to the
world.
I believe our responsibility goes farther. I believe it is
our responsibility to fight for Gods ordained will. We are to be good citizens to
this world, and as good citizens we ought to fight for God’s will in this
world. It doesn’t matter that God has an ordained will, just as it matters not
that God has an elected number for salvation. I know that God does as He
pleases, and I know that God can change the world as He pleases, but that does
not eliminate our fight for good, our fight to stop abortions, homosexuality,
and so many other sins in this Satanic controlled world. It is not worldly love
to love your country and to be a good patriot and love your flag. We ought to
honor those who made us free and gave their life and their family’s life also. Many
have died to fight for freedom, both as citizens and Christians and lots of
these people were Christians, Church members, and even Pastors. Christens have
fought and died for the love of God, and the love of Country. Even though we
know that Satan controls this world system and it’s evil, and God will one day destroy
the works of the world and the world itself, however we ought not just to lay
down and give it over to the evil. Romans 13 pointy says that God ordains the powers
of this world, He sets world leaders up and He takes them down. These world
leaders are “workers of God” not workers of good but workers of evil, workers
to shape the world for God’s ordained will. I believe Christians ought to help
shape the world and Country in which we live. It is true of politics as it is
in salvation, we change NOT the work or will of God. But God uses our sharing
of the Gospel to save sinners, and I believe God uses our votes to shape His
will in the world. I do not accept that God’s order for us to “Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world” extends to our responsibility to helping to fight for
good. If we lose or if we win it is God’s will, but the fight for good should
be ours. As Christians we should not just laydown and give our freedoms away
without a fight. Just as our forefathers fought, we ought to also fight until
Jesus Christ calls us home. Love your Country, State, and freedom, and fight
for them every way possible. God uses us in many ways, and in that His blessed
will is done.
