1 John 2:15-17 ( NKJV )
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. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
In our study of perfected love we have discovered a number of things. First, that the word perfect here means complete or functional not without flaw. We will never be without flaw in our love walk, but we can have love working in our lives. As long as we are committed to walking in love we qualify. Second we discovered that the love of God is perfected in those who love the brethren. We can find practical ways to practice our love walk as we interact with the body of Christ around us. Third we found that the love of God is perfected in those who keep the Word of God and obey His commandments. We cannot expect to be walking in perfected love if we do not make a commitment to deal with know sin in or lives. Sin is selfishness and love and selfishness are opposites that cannot coexist.
Today we will look at one more aspect of perfected love. We will never walk in perfected love if we love other things more than we love God. Whatever we love the most, we will fear losing the most. If we love things more than God we will be subject to fear, and perfected love casts out fear. We must choose what we will love.
This scripture shows us the areas in which the love of things other than God enter in. The word used to describe them is lust. When we use this word we often think of sexual sin. Lust is certainly involved in that area, but the word simply means any strong desire. Especially a desire strong enough to control our actions. This scripture speaks of three areas, two called lusts and the other could certainly qualify as a controlling desire. Let’s look at them briefly.
The lust of the flesh involves those things that we experience that can gain a hold over us. It might be sexual but it also might be entertainment, a wrong relationship or even food. Anything that our flesh, our mind or body, enjoys can become a lust. When these things begin to hinder our relationship with God then we are loving them more than God.
The lust of the eyes involves things we may see that we desire. In our culture this has become a major problem. We have people in advertising who are trained in how to stir up the lust of the eyes. When we see those TV commercials or magazine adds they begin to cause us to think about that thing or that product. If we are not careful that desire can grow until we will compromise good sense and sometimes even integrity to obtain what we are lusting after. This becomes a stumbling block to our love of God and therefore to our ability to walk in perfect love.
Another aspect of the lust of the eyes is the constant bombardment we are subjected to of sexually suggestive images. We routinely see pictures, videos and TV that contain things that when I was a child would be considered pornographic. I am not legalistic or a “prude” but these images are stirring up desires in people that interfere with our relationship with God.
Finally, this scripture points to the pride of life. It might be said that this is a lust of self. When I think more of myself and what I can do or have done I will find that I am not putting the love for God in the place it deserves. I can not walk in perfected love if my pride in myself is more important to me than God and his Kingdom. I can do nothing without the Lord. All that I am, all that I have and all that I have done is because of His influence in my life. Any other attitude on the part of a Christian is unacceptable.
How do we guard against these things? We must continue in the Word of God. We must build it into our lives, let it guide us and set the parameters of our thinking and our behavior. We must cultivate our relationship with God by spending time with Him. We must spend time with the body of Christ which will stir us to love and good works (Heb 10:24-25.) This scripture gives us one more thing we need to do. We need to remember that anything we allow to enter our lives through these channels is passing away. It may bring some momentary happiness or satisfaction, but it will not last. The only thing that lasts forever is our relationship with the Lord.
Don’t let one or more of these areas keep you from living “as He is” in this difficult world of ours. Jesus desires to give us abundant life. He wants us to live a higher kind of life. We will never experience that higher life until we can let go of the low life produced by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”
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