What's really wrong with the world? Or, what's wrong with loving the world?
It's Biblical, right? "Do not love the world or anything in the world." 1 John 2:15
So it's bad to love stuff that's "of the world." An old guy in church told me in casual conversation how much he loves Johnny Cash. Then he quickly caught himself: "Well, I don't love him. Let's just say I like him a lot."
I've run into this phenomenon other times as well. I told someone I love the Red Sox, and he responded, "Love? Don't you know you're not supposed to love the things of the world?"
So you better watch out about what you say you love. Don't want anyone to think you're worldly!
Of course Christians have been making this distinction between the things of God and the things of the world, spiritual things and fleshly things, Kingdom of God things and the kingdoms of this fallen world, since time immemorial.
And yet . . .
One cannot get through this world without loving it. I love sunrises and sunsets, flowers, lightning bugs, a good cinnamon pastry, just about any pasture or field, a well-turned double play, Doc Watson's guitar playing, dogs, that breeze blowing through the window right now, and yes, a good Johnny Cash song. Oh, I could go on. I could go on a long, long time. I love so many things.
And so do you, I'm sure.
You see we were meant to love, we were built for it. Maybe you love a Monsted landscape (so do I).
What are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to be ashamed of yourself for loving a thing of this world?
Maybe we should ask ourselves what John meant by this remark. Look no further than the the following verses. "The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eye, and the pride of life." An ESV footnote says that last part, the pride of life, can be translated, pride in possessions.
Also to note: that word translated "desire" by the ESV is often "lust" in other translations. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye. Oh, we all know what that is, don't we, and it really has nothing to do with loving a summer breeze, a Beethoven sonata, or an exquisite rose, a well-made table.
In fact, if you were to go through life determined not to love the "things of the world," you would not only be a very unhappy person, surrounded as you are by those things, but all the people around you would be unhappy too. You might even be one of those people who thinks heaven is a purely spiritual place, and someday we will shuffle off this fleshly sin-soaked body and be nothing but pure spirit. Your determination to live by 1 John 2:15 would have led you in an old and infamous heresy.
I asked a pastor about all tihs once, and he said, "As long as you don't love them [the things of the world] more than God." That sounded right, but then it gets me into this mode of measuring my love. Is my love for a summer breeze surpassing my love for God? Should I be worried? Now I'm mired in uncertainty. Am I loving this campfire-toasted marshmallow a little too much?
Of course this is nonsense. It saps the pleasure from things. There is much to say about "the world," and how it can draw us away from following Jesus. Think of Demas, who loved "this present age" and deserted Paul in his time of need (2 Tim 4:10), but I'm pretty sure my friend at church can go ahead and love Johnny Cash. His sanctification does not hang in the balance!
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