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IntroductionIn school, I had two quite different teachers who worked in the technical department. One was constantly telling us how many fingers we would loose, and as a result we were terrified to do anything.

In contrast, the second teacher would boost our confidence. He too, would point to the dangers associated with the machinery we would be using but at the same time he encouraged us to believe that if we were sensible we had nothing to worry about.

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IntroductionJohn reminds me of the second teacher. He warns of the dangers of false teaching but he also concerned to minister encouragement. It’s as though he is saying to his readers,

“I have confidence in what God has done in your life and also in his keeping power. These dangers are real, they need to be guarded against but you need not be so overwhelmed or paralysed by them.” cf v12-14

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John's CongratulationsIn the midst of the counterfeit John says,

"I can see spiritual reality in your lives. Oh its at different stages of development but that is just to be expected. I am encouraged by what I find in each stage."

This is the significance of his address to those in the congregation designated, 'children', 'young men' and 'fathers'. Here are three different stages of spiritual growth. All know God in varying but nevertheless real degrees:

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John's CongratulationsThe ‘children’ [v12,13] in the faith are the more recent converts whose great discovery is that God is a forgiving Father. It is this truth about God which grips and overwhelms their hearts.

This sense of wonderful liberty and release, that was the experience of Pilgrim in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, is something that many new converts can identify with. With good reason Christians sing, “Burdens are lifted at Calvary”!

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John's CongratulationsThe ‘young men’ [13,14] are those who have travelled further in their spiritual pilgrimage. They have grown in grace and in the knowledge of God and learned that to be a Christian is to be involved in spiritual conflict, in fighting battles for God.

They have become instructed in God's Word, which has equipped them to fight from the standpoint of Christ's victory and discovered something of what it means to overcome the enemy.

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John's CongratulationsThe ‘fathers’, [v13,14] is a reference to those who are mature in their faith. Their knowledge of God is the fruit of many years and is significantly deeper and richer as a result. It would appear that John is suggesting that they are unshaken on the field of spiritual conflict and by false teaching.

These things no longer unsettle them and disturb their peace of mind and heart for they live in the deep calm and stillness of God’s presence. There is no short cut to Christian maturity despite what the false teachers claimed. It is something that develops through a long and sustained walk with God.

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Love For The WorldHaving encouraged his readership John returns their attention to those things designed to endanger them.

Some love relationships, like marriage, are by nature exclusive and illustrate what ought to be the Christian’s love for God. Just as it is impossible to love light and darkness so it is impossible to love both God and the world as John makes quite plain in v15.

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Love For The WorldIn his gospel John tells us 'God so loved the world...‘. But here he tells Christians not to love the world. How can the two stand together? John uses the Greek word ‘kosmos’ [world] in different ways. Sometimes he means the generality of men and women, at other times, like here, here he means a world order that is opposed to and alienated from God. "Viewed as people the world must be loved, viewed as an evil system, organised under the dominion of Satan and not of God, it is not to be loved".

The opposition of the world is made more explicit by John in v19 where he says, with reference to Satan, 'the whole world order lies under the control of the evil one'. cf 2 Cor.4.4 where Paul describes Satan as "the god of this world".

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Love For The WorldWe are told not to love a world system that competes for the position of supremacy in our hearts. Some think that the world seems so colourful and attractive while today’s church is more like a sepia print belonging to a bygone age. Appearances can be deceptive and so John teases out what he means by not loving the ‘world or anything in it' v16.

He is not thinking about wealth or material possessions but our enslavement to them. What is to be guarded against is not 'things', but an attitude of heart that seizes upon them and turns them into idols. Clearly man's basic problem is not the world of things that surrounds him but his heart. cf Mk. 7.20ff.

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Love For The WorldSome Christians define worldliness in terms of what people do or where they go. 'We saw them dancing that is worldly. They went to the cinema that is worldly'. John's shows that worldliness goes deeper than what is outwardly observable. Our affections are either set on God or on this world. It is impossible to love them both.

‘Worldliness is not only doing what is forbidden but also wishing it were possible to do it. One of its distinctives is mental slavery to illegitimate pleasure. Worldliness twists values by rearranging their price tags’. E. LUTZER

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Love For The WorldWhat does John mean when he says that 'everything in the world comes not from the Father but from the world' ? When God created the world, it was ‘very good’. But after the fall the door was opened for the entrance of evil. Like a spiritual nuclear fallout it contaminated all of the created order. Worldliness is a satanically inspired scheme that is intent upon alienating us from our Maker by fastening our minds upon the things God has made in order that we might be enthralled and captivated by them. His plan is to infiltrate our natural God-given appetites. Worldliness can be described as a perversion of good God-given appetites.

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessThe first mark of worldliness identified is Sensuality. John speaks of ‘the lusts of the flesh’ KJV. A reference to the desires and appetites that insist upon gratification without reference to how they might affect any other. Natural appetites tainted by the fall often demand a level of satisfaction that involves breaking God's law and pursuing a policy of excess. These lusts need not be of the baser sort, they can be very refined and cultured but cry out, ‘I must have this at all costs’. It can refer to a man’s love of a woman, a career move, a hobby or interest. When it takes first place in a person’s life it assumes the quality of an idol. The person controlled by his cravings for self-indulgence is not free but a prisoner of the devil. There is need of detachment.

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessEven a God-given love relationship can succumb to worldliness if it squeezes God out of his rightful place. Because this spirit still clings to the new nature Paul warns the believers to remain detached from their dearest relationships and possessions. They are to be laid on God's altar, recognising that they are sacred trusts from God. The act of thanking God for them can help deliver us from enslavement to them and dethroning God from his rightful place in our lives. This helps explain Pauls admonition - ‘From now on those who have wives should live as though they had none...those who buy something as though it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away’. 1Cor 7:29ff.

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessThe second mark of worldliness is Materialism. John speaks of 'the lust of the eyes'. Think of Gen. 3 where Eve 'saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom’. We have a tendency to be captivated by outward appearance. The 'eye gate' is a popular route for the world to enter the soul of man. It forms a bridge between the flesh and the outside world. Worldliness involves a desire to see things for the sake of sinful pleasure. Think of the impact of TV, video and internet as images are transported into our homes. We know we should turn the TV off but can be caught up watching things of which we are ashamed. Satan encourages destructive traffic to enter our lives by this route!

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessCovetous eyes reveal a heart attitude which says, 'I see, I want, I will have'. A spirit upon which the advertising media preys. Christians need constantly to reassess their attitude to "things" in order to see if they have been affected by the spirit of the age. Jesus taught that , 'the eye is the light of the body... and if the eye is evil the whole body is full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness'. Matt. 6.22-24. and went on to say, 'if your eye is a serious cause of offence, pluck it out. Its better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell'. Drastic language which emphasises the danger of the world’s influence through the eye gate. We are encouraged to fix our thinking on what is ‘noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent’. Phil. 4v8.

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessThe third mark of worldliness is Ostentation. The KJV translates it as 'the pride of life' while the N.I.V. ‘the boasting of what a man has and does’. It is a desire to outshine others in luxurious living. We can find ourselves boasting in the gifts and blessings which God gifts as if they were of our own manufacture cf. Nebuchadnezzar’s pride in Dan. 4.30. The world's glamour is illusory, transient. The contrast between the world and the Christian is expressed in the lines of the hymn.

‘Fading is the worldling's pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show, Solid joys and lasting treasure, None but Zion's children know.’

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Threefold Definition Of WorldlinessThe ostentatious lifestyle that many crave, the desire to be see to be successful, to get their pictures in the paper their name on some plaque, some mention in the new year honours list is a goal that evaporates like the early morning mist from the perspective of eternity.

Why should those who are heirs of God's eternal kingdom concentrate their interest and their ambition on things which are so ephemeral and fleeting?

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ConclusionGod has given us all things to enjoy and we need to learn to do that without being brought under the power of any of them. For when we are brought under their power and our hearts affections are bound to them. We have begun to love the world and have begun to lose our first love.

For this reason John writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit burns this text upon the walls of the minds of God's people -