1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.… I. Excessive affection for the mere things of the world must always be INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE LOVE OF GOD. That which is of the earth is earthy, and cannot be made to incorporate with that which is heavenly. He who is warm in the chase after wealth or renown finds no time nor room in his heart for spiritual contemplation. It was fabled of old that when the arch tempter had made his allurements agreeable to a man his guardian angels uttered a sad lament, sang a melancholy dirge, and left him. When a licentious passion has gained dominion over the thoughts of a man, or when ambition is made free of his breast and constituted his privy councillor, then do his anxious watchings over the purity of his spirit, and his delicate perceptions of right and wrong, and his tender feelings of universal benevolence, and his meditations on futurity, and his frequent and holy communions with God, which may indeed be called our guardian angels, take farewell of the habitation where they must stay no longer, carrying out their peace and glory with them. Alas I this is no fable, but a daily sight. II. The love of the world, being incompatible with the love of God, is consequently AT ENMITY WITH HIS SERVICE. The lover of the world is perhaps a votary of gain; if so, he cannot serve God with the accepted obedience of generosity and benevolence. He may have enrolled himself on the lists of ambition; but God dwells with the lowly and with him on whose lips there is no guile. He may have plunged into the roaring vortex of dissipation and intoxicating pleasure; he surely cannot serve God there. III. THERE IS NOTHING DURABLE IN THESE OBJECTS, which appear so enchanting, and are pursued so eagerly. IV. We ought not to love the world because AN EXCESSIVE ATTACHMENT TO IT MAKES US UNWILLING TO LEAVE IT AT DEATH. V. It is but little to say that we are thus rendered unwilling to leave it when we have also to say that we are thus rendered UNWORTHY TO LEAVE IT, UNFIT TO LEAVE IT. The discipline which the soul receives in the schools of selfishness and the bowers of pleasure and the halls of pride is not such as will fit it for heaven. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. |
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