undefined
undefined
This is a copy of a reflection I wrote for class. figured I would post it.________________________________
1 John 2:14-17 14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
I don’t want to, but many times I love the things in the world more than God. I love things that don’t come from God. When I choose to love things more than God, and it indeed is a choice, the love of God isn’t in me. When I look back over my life and see the things I’ve chosen over God, to love and to push God aside for, they are extremely insignificant. They have passed away.
I initially thought it was sort of a sliding scale, with the less one loves the world, the more the Father dwells in them. It doesn’t appear that way though, and it seems black and white. If I love lusting and boasting, then I do not love God. I’ve boasted before, and I can look back and say that it indeed did not come from the father, but from the world.
It seems so trivial that we love things of this world, like a particular video game, more than God. A couple years ago I had this incredible desire/lust to play a particular game. It didn’t satisfy my soul, and I look back wondering why in the world I would choose something so trivial to love rather than God. It has passed away, it is no longer popular, and most people have never heard of it. But for a week or two, I loved that video game more than God. I boasted about it, though I doubt anyone cared. I craved it. These things did not come from God. Looking back, I can tell there was a deeper spiritual battle going on over my love for God.
In contrast to the video game I craved and desired so badly, which passed away and I don’t even care about anymore, if I do the will of God I will live forever. As opposed to the month at most of which I was sinning in my heart by loving the things of this world, I will have the expanse of eternity to spend with God if I simply do his will and do not love the world or the things in it. What an amazing trade-off!
That's a good point that there is no sliding scale between sharing love with God and other things.
This post makes me think of a line in Derek Webb's song, "Wedding Dress" : "'Cause I'm so easily satisfied by the call of lovers so less wild."