If Anyone Loves the World

“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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17 ESV)

We are not to prefer the things of this world over our love for God and for his service, and over our walks of faithful obedience to his commands in holy living. But we live in a day and age when we are being bombarded with the thinking, attitudes, and actions and choices of the world all waking hours of every day, pretty much, if we are at all connected with the world via TV or the internet, or even within the gatherings of much of what is called “church.” For worldly influences are just about everywhere we look.

If we go to the mall or to the grocery store, we are being bombarded with all sorts of worldly propaganda. If we watch anything on TV or on the internet, including the news, the same applies. Especially if we are on social media or even on “Christian” internet sites, we are being bombarded with all sorts of advertisements and memes and “suggested for you” memes and videos and stories and advertisements. So, the world is calling out to us all the time to come join in with them in whatever it is that they are doing.

Especially since so many of us now have smart phones, which are great tools for connecting with other people, so much more of the world is at our fingertips than ever before in history. For it is so different now than when I grew up as a child where we played outdoors or indoors with other children and where we may or may not have had a working TV, which went off the air by midnight, and which was very monitored for family friendly content. And we had one telephone which may have been on a party line, too.

And I am not saying that we were not subject to evil or to the things of the world back then, but we were not bombarded 24/7 with news, advertising, and all sorts of other propaganda and mind manipulative junk that we now have today. But the internet does serve good purposes, too, such as having a place where we can share the Scriptures and the gospel message with people from all over the world, and where we can encourage the body of Christ in our walks of obedience to the Lord regardless of where we live.

But we have to be so guarded and so discerning so as not to get trapped by the world and by being entertained by the world to the point to where we are not listening to the Spirit’s voice leading us in the ways of God, and in the ways of righteousness and holiness, and in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands, and to the calling upon our lives that God has for us. For when the things of this world are what consume us, and not the teachings of Christ, and not God’s call on our lives, then that is at a dangerous point.

And even so many of the gatherings of what are called “churches” these days have gone the way of the world, and they are now marketing their gatherings to the people of the world using human marketing schemes and tricks in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. And so they are letting businesspeople guide them in the way that they should conduct their gatherings, and it appears as though not many are being literally led of the Holy Spirit in what they do.

For, in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world they have to give the world what the world craves, which is mostly entertainment. And so the focus becomes on having good sounding “praise teams” or “praise bands” that will attract the world, and on having preachers who are culturally relevant and who fit in with the world so as to win the world to their gatherings. And so they also dilute and alter the character of God/Christ, and of his church, and of the gospel, to appease human flesh.

And, again, unless we totally unplug from the world, which would mean for me that I would not be doing what God has called me to do here, we are going to be bombarded with all sorts of propaganda, lies, deception, misimpressions, misrepresentations of truth, and subliminal messages, etc. which are intended to suck us in and to waste our time and to get us trapped in the things of this world and its thinking so that we are then not surrendered to Jesus Christ to doing his will for our lives.

So, we must be very disciplined, because it is very easy to get sucked into so many of these things of the world because they know how to grab our attention and to pull us in with their “hooks” on the end of their “lines.” So it is good for us to do inventory of our lives and how we are spending our time, on occasion, to see how much of the world we are taking in and adopting into our lives, and so we can see where we need to pull back and regroup and repent of wasted time and get back on track with God and his calling.

Broken and Contrite  

An Original Work / May 13, 2012

I come before You, Lord, my Savior,

With humble heart and crushed in spirit.

I bow before You, I implore You,

Heal my broken heart, I pray.

Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master,

You are the King of my heart.

Lord, purify my heart within me;

Sanctify me, whole within.

Oh, Lord, I long to obey fully

The words You’ve spoken through Your Spirit.

I pray You give me grace and mercy,

Strength and wisdom to obey.

Father God, my heart’s desire,

Won’t You set my heart on fire?

Lord, cleanse my heart of all that hinders

My walk with You, now I pray.

Oh, Jesus, Savior, full of mercy,

My heart cries out for understanding.

I want to follow You in all ways,

Never straying from Your truth.

Holy Spirit, come in power,

Fill me with Your love today.

Lord, mold and make me; 

Your hands formed me;

Live Your life through me, I pray.

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