Posted on 08/30/2016 2:25:38 AM PDT by metmom
"Do not love the world, nor 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 and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
If you love the world, you’re engaging in a love God hates.
Satan, from the very beginning of his rebellious activities, has been developing an invisible spiritual system of evil designed to oppose God and enslave people to sin. The apostle John identified that system as "the world," and warned us not to love it.
Satan has had many centuries to develop his evil system, so it is very effective on those who reject Christ. First John 5:19 explains that while we as Christians belong to God, "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one," whom Jesus called, "the ruler of this world" (John 12:31). In John 8:44 He identified certain unbelievers as children of their father, the devil, who is a murderer and the father of lies. That's how completely unbelievers are identified with Satan.
As a believer, you are identified with God. You have been delivered out of the domain of darkness and placed into the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). You are from God and have overcome the evil one because the Holy Spirit who indwells you is greater than he who controls the world (1 John 4:4).
Sadly, Christians sometimes flirt with the very things they've been saved from. Don't do that. Satan and his system have nothing to offer you. They are doomed! First John 2:17 says, "The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever."
Suggestions for Prayer
If you've been flirting with the world, ask God's forgiveness. Praise God that someday Satan and his evil system will be vanquished.
For Further Study
Read the epistle of 1 John, noting the contrasts between the children of God and the children of Satan.
Studying God’s Word ping
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This is a great reminder, and I need to stop saying, “I love that food,” or “I love my car.”
I need to say, “I really like ‘X’.”
God’s creations should be loved and revered by all. We’re not here to suffer(though that is sometimes part and parcel of it). Make the most of your time here.....in your work and your play.
Wait a minute... I’m puzzled...
Is not God omnipresent and the “world exists within God?”
Is not “Love” what we are to strive for and to avoid hatred or fear? Didn’t Jesus teach us to even Love our enemies? I’m puzzled, how can I fill myself with God’s Love and hate anything?
Doesn’t God’s Love also cast out hatred and anger just as it does cast out fear? The three, hatred, anger and fear are very related.
Remember, it is not money that is the root of evil, it is our love of money or our attachment to it that opens the door to evil. The world is not evil and we should not hate it, we should just not be attached to it. Hatred of something also attaches us to it. Whether we are hanging on to something or pushing away from it, we are still keeping it close to us. We should be indifferent to the world if we are truly free and Love God.
The problem is that we confuse God’s Love which is unconditional and freeing with human love which is conditional and controlling.
To Love the world with God’s Love is to be free from it.
I love coffee, and I love tea but not as much as coffee.. i.e I love tea less than coffee...
This does not mean that I hate tea.
While I agree with you in your word meaning in the OT, the word “hate” as it is understood to mean in today’s environment is not a correct translation.
The same type translation error is created by the term “fear.”
I cannot fear God as I Love Him so much that His perfect Love casts out all fear. If you translate fear as “to hold in awe or reverence” then I can agree with it.
The problem is not the word as much as the interpretive image it creates in the consciousness of the reader. If it creates the wrong interpretation based upon the original meaning, then it is the incorrect word to properly translate the original meaning.
I love your post...
...disobeying him...
We are disagreeing on semantics. the question arises of whether the disagreement is of “formal semantics”, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, “lexical semantics”, which studies word meanings and word relations, or “conceptual semantics”, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.
I just simplify it and say that the average reader misinterprets the original thought the author desired to communicate. Thus, the word “hate” is often as poor a descriptor due to its many possible interpretations as the word “Love” which has even more variations of meaning.
As a near death experiencer who has died, gone to heaven and experienced God’s “Love,” there is no word in any language that can come close to describing the nirvanic elation of the experience. It is not possible to understand the feeling unless you have experienced it.
It’s like trying to describe the smell of a rose to someone who never had a nose.
I am sure that we are in complete agreement, just lacking the correct words to communicate our thoughts. For that I apologize.
Yet Jesus commended the church at Ephesus for "hating" the works of the Nicolaitans, which he said "I also hate." Rev. 2.6
LOL.... Mountain boy here too. Originally a Yankee but now a Southerner! Will always be a Hillbilly no matter where I am....
Interesting you chose that scripture. That too was my experience. I don’t share that part of it as no one understands it. Heaven has many levels.. our Father’s Mansion has many rooms.. The “Tower of Babel” concept applies to the various levels as you rise above words and communicate thoughts directly as epiphanies.
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