sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/28/2011
Just so I know who I am about to unintentionally offend: Does anyone have plastic covers on their couches…?
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If you love the world, love for the Father is not in you. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful people the flesh, the lust of their the eyes and their boasting about what they have and do one has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever abides in eternity.
Two ways to live – enslaved by desires that spring from our “love” for the “world” and the things of this world, or with the freedom and confidence that comes from practicing God’s desires.
One attaches you to things that pass away, and prevents you from being attached to the one who is eternal.
The other attaches you to God, and causes you to abide/rest/remain in eternity.
[the tale of Colin and his Nintendo DS…]
Do not love the world…if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you…
All three “loves” are the same Greek word, agape. Note that there is a continuum of meanings of the word “agape,” just as there is for our English word “love”… we use the word “love” to describe all sorts of good feelings about all sorts of things. From pizza to iphones to Survivor to dual zone climate control to string theory to the beautiful game to late summer / early fall weather to JJ Abrams to MLK, jr. to our mothers. [car like a toddler / annoys you constantly, but you’d kill anyone who tried to take it from you]
[Show Lindt chocolate bar…confession of love exercise with volunteer… ]
We “love” things to different degrees, and all is well and good as long as it’s proportionate, but it’s possible for us to love some things to a disproportionate degree, isn’t it? John is getting at something related to that, which we’ll explore further in a bit.
Similarly, there is a continuum of meanings of the word translated “world” here. Kosmos in Greek. And the only way to get clarity is by looking at the context.
For example, consider how John uses it in the gospel of John, the third chapter, 16th verse.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Clearly speaking of the world as his whole creation, with his image-bearers first in mind. We join with God, as his image-bearers, in loving his creation. Caring for it. Giving thanks for it. Enjoying it as an expression of his provision and love and beauty. Setting aside our momentary desires for the sake of its blessing. This, of course, is especially true when it comes to loving our fellow image-bearers, as John has been talking about, powerfully and pointedly, at length.
But here in the letter of 1st John, “world” is clearly getting at a different sense. World as the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments (talents, gifts, lands, resources), riches, advantages, pleasures, etc. Everything, in other words, whose value is a function of how we relate to it and use it, as opposed to those things which have inherent value because of God’s love for them.
Let’s take a piece of chocolate cake baked by a mother for her child’s birthday. How do we know its value? It depends. To the mother that made it out love for her child’s birthday, it is a holy and good vessel of love. To the child who takes it for granted, or has decided that he or she doesn’t like the size of the piece he or she has been given, its true value as a vessel of love has been lost. To the hungry guest who loves chocolate cake, its value is a function of its taste and moistness and whether or not it has butter-cream frosting. To the mother-in-law who wasn’t invited to make the cake again this year, it’s slap in her face.
Compare the value of the cake to the value of the aforementioned mother and child. The mother, and the child, regardless of whether they are loved or unloved, regardless of how talented or emotionally healthy or rich or beautiful or strong they are, have inestimable value, inherently, because of God’s love for them.
To love the mother, or to love the child is always a holy response. It is doing God’s will. However, to love the cake the same way one loves the mother or the child is never a holy response.
Think if you are a brother-in-law to the mother and see the cake that afternoon, and love it in such a way that you decide to have just one small piece, because no one will mind, will they? Now your love for the cake has gotten in your way of your love for both the mother and the child, has it not?
Think if the mother loves it to such a degree that she allows no one to eat it, or gets offended if someone decides they don’t like it very much. It might lose its capacity to bring blessing to others, might it not? And in truth, it might lose its capacity to bring blessing to the mother; it instead becomes a source of anxiety.
Like plastic covers on the couches, right?
This world, and the things of this world, are sticky, and as a result, we must be careful not to love it, and them, or we will get stuck to this world and the things of this world. (Plastic couch covers, again!)
And this world and its desires are passing away.
Heaven help us if we are stuck to things passing away, or they must might take us with them.
Let’s unpack this idea of the stickiness of the cravings of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boasting of what we have and do.
Cravings of the flesh:
physiological cravings for a specific food or some other physical pleasure.
For adrenaline or endorphin rush from competition or athletic activity.
For a good emotional feeling that comes from a relationship.
Those things are sticky.
Lust of the eyes:
A thing that looks good to you, and even produces pleasure just by you looking at it and lusting after it.
Something you see and want, not for the blessing it can be to you or others, but because of how it makes you feel to look at it.
Pornography, of course, is the elephant in the room.
But what about our love of shopping, not to actually buy things, but just for the feeling we get?
Or magazines filled with your particular brand of eye candy (food, houses, fit bodies, cars, you name it). You escape the here and now and your brain can’t stop thinking about them.
Sticky.
Boasting of what we have and do:
The feeling that comes from having more things
or having better things
or having more tasteful things
or being better
or being more significant
or talented or successful or refined or whatever.
Sticky.
It’s only natural, right?
Or is it?
None of this experience of this world or the things of this world comes from our Father in the heavens. It's not our birthright, not our inheritance, not in our image-bearing genes. God is not stuck to any of these things.
We know this because we saw Jesus live in this world without getting stuck…
No, getting stuck comes from our broken relationship to this world, not from our heavenly father.
The pleasures of our flesh are meant to serve us, not master us. They help point us to God’s goodness and provision, which leads us to love and trust him. It is the same with our eyes capacity to appreciate and dream. It’s the same with our desire to build and accomplish and create and grow. They help point us to the good things God is calling us to work towards.
But once we start getting stuck to any of these things, we become mastered, enslaved by them.
So right on the heels of this idea, John tells us that the path to freedom is in doing God’s will.
17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Boule vs. thelema. Two Greek Words for Will.
Boule is the capital W Will of God – the kind of thing that cannot be resisted, where he will do what he says he is going to do. Like creating the world. Like setting Israel free from slavery in Egypt. Like defeating sin, death, evil on the cross. And so on. That is not the word used here.
Here, John is talking about the thelema of God. Thelema is more like the lowercase will. Like the things God desires for us, but that are also connected to our cooperation and receiving them. Like he desires for us to know his love and forgiveness, but he will not force it on us. Like he desires for us to love one another, but he will not force us to do it. Like he desires us to trust him in all things so that we can know freedom from worry and anxiety. He may invite us, he may strongly suggest to us, he may command us, he may conspire to ratchet up the heat when we resist, out of his love for us. But his thelema will won’t be done ultimately, apart from our willing participation in it.
And us doing his thelema looks a lot more like a soccer game than it does a chess match...
I tend towards the idea that often what God's thelema will for us is not primarily option A, B, or C, but rather that we learn how to choose option A,B, or C in creative cooperation with him, and that often he would rather have us learn what his desires for us and the world are like, than to be pre-occupied with figuring out the details of the grand plan.
To put it another way, I tend towards the idea that God is as much jazz improviser as he is classical composer.
(Incidentally, that’s where this idea of God’s blueprint for our lives isn’t such a theologically solid thing. The idea that every aspect of our lives is mapped out in advance, and any deviation from the blueprint is sinful. The idea that God has a particular will for when we brush our teeth, and how long, and so on. And that if we get it wrong, we’ll pay the price. What a nervous, and non-biblical way to live! Another topic, for another time – but for now, know at least that this is not what John is talking about here when he says to “do God’s will”.)
All that to say, when John juxtaposes our desires for the things of this world with doing God’s will, he’s suggesting there is an important relationship between our love for things and stuff and pleasures with God’s desire for us to love him and one another.
Remember when we spoke a couple of weeks ago about the demands of love? How love isn’t a fluffy weak thing, but a thing that placed demands on us? Well, it turns out that Love is always demanding that we get unstuck from the things of this world…
Here’s how it works:
We get attached to something in this world – a thing, a pleasure, a feeling, an achievement or social standing, hard earned respect, whatever – and then, because all that stuff is passing away – something threatens it. We get sick, or old. Someone decides to stop giving us what they were giving us before, for whatever reason. Someone takes something from us, or hurts us, or disrespects us, or is more successful than us. Whatever.
The particulars don’t matter, the result is the same. We get distressed. We get angry at God, or bitter, or resentful, or depressed because the thing we loved of this world is passing away. Or we get angry or bitter or resentful or desperately clingy toward the person who isn’t giving us what they once did. Or we begin to hate the person who takes something we’ve gotten too attached to from us, or who hurts us, or who disrespects us, or is more successful than us, and we can’t see straight anymore. We can’t see the good news anymore. The world is a dangerous place, and we’ve got to protect ourselves, or we just plain old want to give up.
How are we going to do God’s thelema will? How are we going to love and trust him? How are we going to love the people who have disappointed us or rejected us or just can’t or won’t give us what we want from them anymore? How are we going to forgive and bless those that appear to be our enemies?
We’ve got to get repent and get unstuck. We’ve got to get stuck to God and doing his thelema will. We’ve got to be much wiser going forward about the degrees of love that we give to things, and be careful to nurture the loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
To bring it all home, look at those last three words:
17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God abides in eternity
Aion (the word translated “eternity” is a qualitative word, generally speaking, rather than quantitative). Aion zoe the kind of life experienced by God in the heavens. So abiding in eternity means an experience of life where we are rooted solidly, living from, the place of security and grace and goodness that God dwells in.
If we do the desires of God (loving, forgiving, healing, serving, giving generously, etc.) we abide / dwell / remain / rest in the unchanging, incorruptible experience of God’s kingdom. Present with his presence and favor. A world apart from the uncertainty and haphazardness and passing-awayness of this world.
[image of child with Father at a carnival, holding his hand, riding on his shoulders, clinging in his arms…then running away do this or that, and then panicking when they realize they’ve lost him…and then trying it all again, this time asking, Dad, can we go do that together?]
Practical tips (just try 1 or 2):
The Give It Up Test: are you suspicious about whether or not you love something of this world, whether you have gotten stuck to something? Give it up for one week and see what happens.
The Demand of Love Test: Identify one person you are having difficulty loving, and not just because you don't like their personality. What of this world might you be stuck to that they threaten that love is demanding you get unstuck from?
The Time Test: Imagine giving 2-5 hours in service to God a week. What would you have to get unstuck from to do that?
The Money Test: Imagine tithing, if you don't yet, or adding 10% to your giving if you do. What emotions do you feel? "oh, I'd love to - how can I make that happen?". Or, "keep your hands off my money..." What are you stuck to that keeps you from being more generous with your money? Craving of flesh? Lust of eyes? Boasting of what you have and do? Get unstuck and get generous.
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