Latest / Reformed Thinking / Love Not the Passing World: Abiding in the Will of God (1 John 2:16–17)

Transcript

Love Not the Passing World: Abiding in the Will of God (1 John 2:16–17) · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We take a deep dive into texts
0:04
that, well, challenge the way we view reality.
0:06
So imagine getting an e-mail from your human Resources
0:10
department this afternoon. Oh boy, nobody wants that
0:13
e-mail. Right, but the subject line says
0:15
mandatory company gala and you open it and it says you have to
0:19
attend a corporate dinner tonight.
0:21
But here's the catchment about the meat being served has been
0:25
ritually sacrificed to a Pagan deity.
0:28
Wow. OK, that's A twist.
0:30
Yeah, and the entertainment is, well, state sponsored
0:32
immorality. Yeah.
0:34
And if you reply saying you're opting out because of your
0:36
faith, the consequences are immediate.
0:38
Your bank accounts are frozen, your business license is gone,
0:41
and you are socially exile. It sounds like a dystopian
0:44
novel, honestly. It really does.
0:46
Yeah, but for a 1st century resident of Ephesus, that was
0:48
literally just a normal Tuesday. So today we're doing a deep dive
0:51
into an extensive stack of source materials.
0:54
We've got exegetical essays and sermon notes that breakdown the
0:57
anatomy of worldliness. Yeah, looking at its historical
0:59
roots and its cosmic destiny. Precisely.
1:03
And our mission today is to unpack all of this centered
1:06
around first John chapter 2, verses 16 and 17.
1:09
And setting the stage with that historical context is so helpful
1:13
because what stands out right away in these sources is that
1:16
first John Chapter 2 is basically functioning as a
1:18
loving alarm. Clock a loving alarm clock.
1:21
I like that. Yeah, It brings absolute moral
1:23
clarity to a cultural landscape that is, you know, intentionally
1:27
murky. The culture around them is
1:28
constantly saying, hey, indulge your desires, elevate your
1:32
status, get more wealth, and it makes it all feel incredibly
1:35
normal. Completely unavoidable, right?
1:37
Yeah, unavoidable. But the text forces a definitive
1:40
choice on the reader. It sets up this stark contrast
1:44
between a dying system and the Eternal Father.
1:47
There is no middle ground offered at all.
1:49
I was looking at these sources and the precision of the
1:52
Apostles critique is just striking and I want to speak
1:55
directly to you, the listener, about your daily experience.
1:58
You are living in a society that constantly tells you to focus on
2:01
your own gratification, your own truth, your own brand.
2:04
Oh, all day long. So how does a text written to a
2:07
1st century audience diagnose our 21st century lives with such
2:11
surgical accuracy? To answer that, we have to look
2:16
at the hostile ground where these original believers
2:18
actually lived. Right before we can even analyze
2:21
the anatomy of sin, we need to understand the pressure cooker
2:24
of Ephesus around, say, 85 to 95 AD.
2:28
We really have to establish that geographic and historical
2:31
background to grasp the sheer weight of John's commands.
2:34
So paint that picture for us. What was Ephesus like?
2:38
Well, the sources paint a very vivid picture.
2:40
This was not some quiet rural outpost.
2:43
It was a cosmopolitan, incredibly wealthy banking hub.
2:46
It was the commercial center of Asia Minor.
2:49
The New York or London of its. Day, basically, yeah.
2:52
And dominating the skyline and the economy and the culture was
2:56
the magnificent Temple of Artemis, which, you know, was
2:58
one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
3:01
But it wasn't just a religious site.
3:02
It functioned essentially as the central Bank of the region.
3:05
So the religious, economic and social spheres were entirely
3:08
fused together. That is wild.
3:10
Yeah, you could not buy bread, conduct business or socialize
3:14
without bumping into state sponsored idolatry.
3:17
And that brings us back to the HR analogy I started with.
3:20
The sources describe these Roman trade guilts, the collegiate,
3:24
and I'm trying to wrap my mind around the psychological toll
3:26
this would take on a Christian family.
3:28
It would be immense. Right.
3:30
Like if you were a tent maker, a silversmith, A merchant, you had
3:33
to be in the Guild to survive, and these Guild meetings were
3:36
held in Pagan temples. Refusing to participate meant
3:39
you couldn't sell your goods in the marketplace.
3:41
Economic ruin. Starvation, even.
3:44
Yeah, and you'd be branded a hater of humanity.
3:46
So the pressure to conform wasn't just a slight temptation
3:49
to be popular, it was a matter of basic physical survival.
3:53
The economic wheeze was intense, and on top of that, the sources
3:56
detail the severe political threat of imperial persecution,
4:00
specifically under the reign of Emperor Demission.
4:03
The Caesar cult, right? Yeah.
4:04
The Roman state demanded that citizens declare Caesar is Lord.
4:09
Burning a pinch of incense to the emperor was the ultimate
4:11
boast of human arrogance. It was claiming divine
4:14
prerogatives for a mortal politician.
4:16
A loyalty test. That's it.
4:18
To refuse that pinch of incense was to invite the wrath of the
4:22
Roman Empire. They viewed you as an
4:24
insurrectionist. OK, so you've got economic
4:26
strangulation from the trade guilds on one side and the
4:29
political sword of the empire on the other.
4:32
But the sources point out an internal threat that seems even
4:34
more dangerous. Oh, absolutely.
4:36
And I was looking at this historical data and I was
4:39
honestly confused by the focus on the internal threat.
4:43
If these believers are facing the might of Rome and total
4:46
economic ruin, why is John so fiercely concerned with some
4:50
obscure philosophers inside the Church?
4:53
The Gnostics, I think. That is a crucial question.
4:56
The primary internal threat came from the Sarinthea Gnostics,
4:59
named after a false teacher, Sarinthus, and the reason John
5:03
targets them so fiercely is that they offered a theological
5:05
loophole to the persecution. A loophole?
5:08
How so? They taught a dualistic heresy.
5:10
They separated the physical realm from the spiritual realm
5:13
completely. So in their view, physical
5:15
matter was either entirely evil or just totally irrelevant, and
5:19
the Spirit alone was good and capable of knowing God.
5:22
Oh, I see how that works. If the physical body doesn't
5:25
matter, then what you do with it doesn't matter.
5:27
Spot on. It sounds like high level Greek
5:30
philosophy, but the practical consequences are devastating.
5:33
The consequences were catastrophic for holiness.
5:36
This dualism LED directly to gross moral laxity.
5:40
These false teachers convinced people that they could go ahead
5:43
and attend the Pagan feasts. They could indulge in sexual
5:47
immorality. Just check the box to save their
5:49
business. Yeah, participate in the Emperor
5:51
cult to save their businesses. They argued that because the
5:54
body was separate from the spirit, they could do all these
5:57
physical acts of rebellion without doing any harm to their
5:59
eternal souls. Wow.
6:01
That is incredibly deceptive. Right.
6:04
They claim to possess a secret, elevated knowledge of God while
6:07
living in total moral darkness. It was a way to avoid
6:11
persecution by compromising with the culture while still feeling
6:14
spiritual. And the sources note that John
6:16
writes this letter to combat that specific lie.
6:19
He just completely obliterates that loophole.
6:22
He proves that true fellowship with God requires visible, holy
6:25
obedience. Yeah, you cannot claim to walk
6:28
in the light while your feet are running toward the dark.
6:31
Right, the physical, physical and the spiritual, we are
6:32
connected. So since the Ephesian believers
6:35
lived in this intensely hostile environment, Pagan temples,
6:38
economic coercion, false teachers offering easy
6:41
compromises, we have to look closely at what John means when
6:45
he commands them not to love the world.
6:48
We really do. The vocabulary John uses is
6:50
highly specific. We need a lexical breakdown of
6:53
the Greek word cosmos. Cosmos, yeah.
6:56
When modern readers hear the word world, they tend to think
6:59
of the physical planet. You know, mountains, oceans,
7:01
forests, animals. The Globe.
7:03
Right, but in this specific context, cosmos does not refer
7:07
to physical creation. The biblical worldview, starting
7:11
way back in Genesis, declares that physical creation is
7:14
fundamentally good. And the Incarnate Christ took on
7:17
a physical body which proves materiality itself is not the
7:20
enemy. That's right.
7:21
So cosmos refers to the organized system of human
7:24
rebellion. The Greek word originally meant
7:26
order or arrangement, which is actually where we get the word
7:29
cosmetics. Yeah, but John uses it to
7:32
describe the social, economic and philosophical structure that
7:36
operates entirely apart from God's rule.
7:39
The sources highlight that this invisible system is orchestrated
7:42
by Satan. So is humanity organizing itself
7:45
in defiance of the Creator, establishing its own values, its
7:48
own metrics for success, its own moral code?
7:51
That's a great summary. Let me play devil's advocate for
7:54
a second here, because this is where people can easily veer
7:57
into a strange asceticist. Oh for sure, they can swing too
8:00
far. Right.
8:01
So if I appreciate a beautiful piece of art, or if I enjoy a
8:05
really good steak dinner with my family, or if I work incredibly
8:08
hard at my career to provide for my kids, am I loving the world?
8:12
Does enjoying the physical realm mean I'm participating in the
8:15
cosmos? That is a vital boundary to
8:17
define clearly, and the source materials are very careful to
8:20
clarify this distinction. Honest labor, civic
8:23
responsibility, enjoying good food, family affection, these
8:27
are good gifts from God. OK, good.
8:29
I like steak. Yeah, me too.
8:30
They are part of the created order.
8:32
They are meant to be enjoyed with Thanksgiving.
8:34
The physical world is a theater of God's glory.
8:37
So where does the line get crossed?
8:38
How does a good gift become part of the rebel system?
8:41
Worldliness happens when the created order becomes an idol.
8:45
It's a matter of. Valuation.
8:47
Valuation. Explain that.
8:48
It's treating the present age as your absolute treasure, your
8:51
master, your core identity and your final home.
8:55
Enjoying a meal is a gift. Living only for your next
8:58
culinary pleasure is worldliness.
9:01
Working hard is a biblical assignment, but treating your
9:04
career status in your bank account as your ultimate worth
9:07
and security? That is worldliness.
9:10
The cosmos trains you to desire the creation without ever
9:13
acknowledging or submitting to the Creator.
9:16
That clears up a lot of confusion.
9:18
The world is an operating system running in the background of
9:20
society, and its core programming is autonomy from
9:23
God. That is a brilliant way to
9:25
phrase. It and John gives us a very
9:27
specific anatomy of how this rebel system operates inside the
9:30
human heart. The sources outline this
9:32
beautifully. Worldliness often wears very
9:34
ordinary clothes. Very ordinary.
9:37
It doesn't always show up demanding that you bow down to a
9:40
golden statue. Often it shows up as a subtle
9:43
shift in our affections. So let's look at the anatomy of
9:47
these rebel affections, starting with the flesh.
9:49
OK, the first component John identifies is the lust of the
9:52
flesh, or in Greek epithelmia to sarcos.
9:55
This is the inward gravitational pull toward gratification apart
9:59
from God's boundaries. It is a powerful craving for
10:02
what is forbidden. Let's clarify the word flesh,
10:04
because earlier we established that the physical body isn't
10:07
evil, but here the flesh is framed as the primary problem.
10:10
The distinction is critical here.
10:12
Flesh, in this theological context, does not mean your
10:15
physical skin, muscles, and bones.
10:17
It refers to the fallen human nature inherited from Adam.
10:20
It's the internal engine of depravity.
10:23
The physical body is not the enemy.
10:25
The physical body is morally neutral.
10:27
It's the instrument, the indwelling sin, the fallen
10:31
nature that commands the body to rebel.
10:33
That is the enemy. How does this lust of the flesh
10:36
show up in our daily habits? Because it seems like it covers
10:39
a pretty wide range of human behavior.
10:41
It includes things like gluttony, laziness, rage, and
10:44
sexual immorality. It's any physical appetite that
10:48
refuses the discipline of holiness.
10:50
The body is meant to be presented to God as an
10:52
instrument of righteousness, right?
10:54
But the flesh demands that the body serve its own illicit
10:58
cravings. The flesh says I have a desire
11:01
and I have the right to satisfy it right now, regardless of what
11:03
God says. The next category John
11:05
introduces is the lust of the eyes, or epithumiaton Opthalman.
11:12
The sources connect ancient covetousness to our modern
11:15
visual culture in a way that is just incredibly convicting.
11:19
If the flesh is the internal craving, the eyes seem to be the
11:22
external trigger. That is the precise mechanism.
11:24
The lust of the eyes is covetousness triggered by sight.
11:27
The eyes act as the unthinking scout for the idol making.
11:30
Heart, the unthinking scout. Yeah, they scan the horizon, see
11:34
something appealing, evaluated apart from God's provision, and
11:37
trigger a demand for it. The eyes feed the flesh.
11:39
And the sources point to some heavy biblical examples to
11:41
illustrate how cata this can be. There's the story of Asian in
11:46
the book of Joshua. Oh man, that's a stark one.
11:49
Yeah, the Israelites are told not to take any plunder from
11:52
Jericho, but Aching sees a beautiful Babylonian garment and
11:56
some silver and gold, and the text specifically notes that he
12:01
saw them, he coveted them, and he took them.
12:04
His eyes led to an action that brought disaster upon the entire
12:06
camp. Exactly.
12:07
Well, I shouldn't say exactly. It's precisely what happened.
12:10
Right. And then there's King David.
12:12
He is lingering on his rooftop when he should be at war.
12:15
He looks down and sees Bathsheba baiting.
12:17
The eye is the gateway he saw he desired, and the resulting
12:21
destruction fractured his whole Kingdom.
12:23
And if we bring this dynamic into the present day, the
12:26
application is staggering. The modern Internet and social
12:30
media platforms act as a constant high speed pipeline for
12:33
consumer craving and visual envy.
12:36
The technology is literally designed to hijack this specific
12:39
mechanism. Let's look at the neuroscience
12:41
of that for a second. You're scrolling through a feed.
12:43
Within 60 seconds, your visual cortex is bombarded with images.
12:47
You see someone else's pristine vacation in the Maldives.
12:50
You see their flawless kitchen renovation.
12:52
You see their seemingly perfect fitness routine.
12:55
Your conscious logical brain does not even have time to
12:58
evaluate the reality behind those images.
13:01
It's just a flood of. Data.
13:03
A flood. Your eyes are gathering all this
13:05
highly curated data and handing it directly to your fallen
13:08
nature. And the flesh immediately says,
13:11
I want that. I deserve that.
13:13
My life is inadequate. God is holding out on me.
13:17
The dopamine loop is tied entirely to ancient
13:20
covetousness. That's a brilliant way to frame
13:22
it. The lust of the eyes is a
13:24
restless, relentless surveying of life for something God has
13:27
not assigned to you. It's the heart refusing
13:30
contentment. It's the belief that if you just
13:32
acquire the next visual stimulus you saw, you will finally find
13:36
satisfaction. But the system is designed to
13:38
keep you craving indefinitely. Never stops, never.
13:41
So we have the inward craving of the flesh and the external
13:43
trigger of the eyes. The third category John gives us
13:46
shifts the focus to outward arrogance, doesn't it?
13:49
It does the boastful pride of life, and the lexical analysis
13:53
of this Greek phrase alazonia to bio is really fascinating.
13:57
It's a rare phrase in the New Testament, and it carries very
14:00
specific cultural baggage. Let's unpack those words.
14:03
What kind of person comes to mind when a 1st century Greek
14:06
speaker hears the word Alazonia? Well, in Greco Roman literature
14:10
and comedy, the word alazon was used to describe a braggart, A
14:13
charlatan, or a quack. A quack like a snake oil
14:17
salesman. Yeah, someone who walked around
14:19
the marketplace claiming fake achievements, a doctor selling
14:22
fake cures, a merchant pretending to have massive
14:26
wealth or status they didn't actually possess.
14:29
It is the essence of pretension and boasting and.
14:31
What about the second word? BIOS?
14:33
You get biology from that. BIOS refers to physical
14:35
livelihood and earthly resources.
14:37
It is entirely different from the Greek word Zoe, which is
14:40
used to describe spiritual or eternal life.
14:43
So BIOS is your stuff. It's your bank account, your
14:46
resume, your house, your material sustenance.
14:48
Putting that together, the pride of life is the arrogant display
14:52
of wealth and status. It's the charlatans strutting
14:55
around, attempting to live independently of God, relying
14:58
entirely on earthly resources. Yeah, it's the spirit of the
15:01
fool in Christ's parable who says look at my barns, look at
15:05
my stored grains, soul, take your ease.
15:08
It is projecting a false image of self-sufficiency.
15:11
It's the belief that your BIOS, your resources make you immune
15:15
to the reality of God's judgement.
15:17
The parallel to our modern society is unavoidable.
15:20
Think about the phenomenon of accumulating massive consumer
15:23
debt just to project a false image of prosperity.
15:27
People buy things they do not need with money they do not have
15:30
to impress people they do not even know or think about self
15:33
branding on social media. You curate every minor detail of
15:36
your life to look incredibly successful and put together or
15:39
relying entirely on massive financial portfolios for
15:42
absolute security, living under the illusion that a market crash
15:46
or a terminal medical diagnosis cannot touch you.
15:48
It is the modern Amazon, the charlatan pretending to be God
15:51
over his own life. And the sources draw a sharp
15:54
origin contrast. Regarding these three
15:56
categories, John establishes an absolute boundary.
16:00
He says these desires, the craving of the flesh, the
16:03
covetousness of the eyes, the boasting of the pride of life,
16:05
do not come from the Father. They originate entirely from the
16:08
world. This is a massive theological
16:11
point. There is no neutral sanctuary.
16:13
A desire either originates from God, originates from the rebel
16:17
system. That's right.
16:19
The impulses of the fallen system are fundamentally hostile
16:22
to God. God is not the author of this
16:24
corrupt craving. If an impulse comes from this
16:27
fallen system, it cannot be blended with love for the
16:30
Father. You cannot synthesize the two.
16:32
If these three temptations, the flesh, the eyes, the pride, are
16:36
entirely woven into human existence, how can anyone
16:39
possibly escape this system? I mean, it feels like we are
16:42
completely trapped by our own nature.
16:44
If my internal desires are compromised and my eyes are
16:46
constantly betraying me and my pride wants to boast, what hope
16:49
do I have? That is the devastating reality
16:52
of human depravity. Left to ourselves, we are
16:54
completely enslaved to the cosmos.
16:57
But the sources answer this dilemma by pointing to the
16:59
concept of federal headship. Oh, that's a key concept in our
17:03
theology. Very much so.
17:04
They draw a stunning contrast between the first Adam in the
17:07
garden and the last Adam, Jesus Christ, in the wilderness.
17:11
Let's walk through that contrast carefully.
17:13
Take us back to the fall in Genesis chapter 3.
17:17
How does this anatomy of worldliness map onto the first
17:20
sin? In Genesis 3.6, we see the exact
17:23
anatomy of worldliness play out with terrifying precision.
17:27
The serpent tempts Eve, and she evaluates the forbidden fruit
17:30
through three distinct lenses. OK, what's the?
17:32
First, first, she saw that the tree was good for food that
17:35
appeals directly to the lust of the flesh, the physical
17:38
appetite. Second, she saw that it was a
17:40
delight to the eyes, that is, the lust of the eyes, the visual
17:44
covetousness. And the third, Third, she saw
17:46
that the tree was desirable to make one wise, grasping for
17:50
autonomy and status apart from God.
17:52
That is the pride of life. So the first Adam who
17:55
represented all of humanity is our federal head, failed
17:58
drastically in a perfect environment.
18:00
He capitulated to the world system at the very first Test,
18:04
plunging all of humanity into condemnation and bondage to
18:07
these desires. That's the tragedy of the fall.
18:10
Now Fast forward to the wilderness temptation of Jesus.
18:12
In Matthew chapter 4, Christ the second Adam steps into a ruined,
18:16
fallen environment. The Holy Spirit leads him into
18:19
the wilderness, and after he fast for 40 days, Satan presents
18:22
the exact same tripartite temptation.
18:25
I see the parallel. It's so clear Satan offers Jesus
18:28
bread to satisfy his intense, agonizing physical hunger.
18:33
He challenges him to turn stones into bread.
18:35
That is the direct assault on the lust of the flesh.
18:38
And Christ refused, quoting Deuteronomy, relying entirely on
18:41
the Word of God rather than physical gratification.
18:44
Then Satan takes him to a high mountain and shows him all the
18:46
kingdoms of the earth and their glory.
18:48
This is a visual temptation of massive scale.
18:51
The lust of the eyes. And Christ refused to bow to
18:54
Satan to acquire them. He chose the path of the cross
18:57
instead of immediate visual glory.
19:00
Finally, Satan takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and urges
19:03
him to throw himself down to publicly prove his status as the
19:06
Son of God, forcing God to send angels to rescue him.
19:10
A public arrogant display. The pride of life.
19:14
And Christ stood firm. This is the Christological
19:17
fulfillment of the entire text. Jesus, the second Adam,
19:20
succeeded perfectly where the first Adam failed.
19:23
He, Florida State, rejected the world system.
19:25
He perfectly did the will of the Father in every category where
19:28
we fail. This is the turning point point
19:30
of the whole analysis. Because of Christ's perfect,
19:32
flawless obedience, His righteousness is imputed to the
19:36
believer through faith. Our standing before God is not
19:39
based on our flawed attempts to conquer the flesh.
19:41
Yes, believers are not saved by generating their own sinless
19:44
personal obedience. The gospel is that we are saved
19:46
by union with the eternal Son of God who already overcame the
19:49
world on our behalf. His victory becomes our victory.
19:53
That shifts the entire tone of John's command from crushing
19:57
moralism to incredible hope. We are not just trying harder to
20:01
fight the world, we are resting in the one who has already
20:03
crushed the serpent's head. And because Christ decisively
20:07
defeated the world at the cross, the ultimate destinies of the
20:11
two systems are sealed. This brings us to the
20:14
contrasting destiny as outlined in verse 17, the sinking ship of
20:17
the world versus the abiding St. John writes that the world is
20:21
passing away and also its lusts. The Greek word he uses here is
20:26
perigitai. The sources say the grammatical
20:28
tense of this word is the key to understanding our current
20:31
reality. The tense of that verb is vital.
20:33
It is a present, passive indicative.
20:36
It means the world is presently currently in the process of
20:39
dissolution. The death sentence has already
20:41
been pronounced. It's not just that the world
20:43
will end someday in the distant future.
20:44
It is actively ending right now. One of the sources uses a
20:48
brilliant analogy for this. It's like looking up at a star
20:51
in the night sky. To the naked eye, it looks
20:53
incredibly bright. It looks permanent, massive and
20:55
immovable. But astronomers will tell you
20:58
that the star actually went supernova a million years ago.
21:01
The structural integrity has already collapsed.
21:03
The core is entirely dead. We are just waiting for the
21:06
light to finally fade. From our view, the world system
21:09
is a supernova. It looks powerful, but the death
21:13
sentence was pronounced at the cross.
21:15
Why would you invest your heart, your energy, and your identity
21:18
into a structure that is already dead?
21:20
You wouldn't, or at least you shouldn't.
21:22
The world is a sinking ship and it's passing away is guaranteed.
21:27
But John contrast that fading, dying world with the obedient
21:30
believer. He says the one who does the
21:32
will of God abides forever. The Greek word for abides is
21:36
menay. The sources emphasize that this
21:38
word carries heavy covenantal weight in John's writings.
21:41
It is not a temporary dwelling. No, it guarantees eternal
21:43
security and indissoluble union with God.
21:46
The one who does the will of God is kept entirely by the
21:48
sovereign grace of God. They belong to the Eternal
21:51
realm, not the fading realm. We need to provide some strict
21:54
theological clarity here on the concept of perseverance because
21:58
someone might hear the phrase, the one who does the will of God
22:01
abides forever and think, OK, my eternal security is based on my
22:05
performance. I have to earn my salvation by
22:09
maintaining a certain level of good works.
22:11
And the source material strongly reject that works based
22:14
interpretation. The one who does the will of God
22:16
does not earn justification by their obedience.
22:19
Rather, active, habitual obedience is the visible,
22:22
inevitable fruit of justifying faith.
22:25
So the obedience is the evidence of the root, not the cause of
22:29
the root. Precisely.
22:30
The believer will stumble. John already addressed this in
22:33
chapter 1. When believers sin, they confess
22:35
they are cleansed by Christ, our Advocate, and they continue on
22:38
the path of doing God's will. The sources are definitive and
22:41
rejecting the idea that a true believer can lose their
22:44
salvation. Those who truly possess saving
22:46
faith are kept by God. Their abiding is guaranteed by
22:49
Christ's victory, not their own perfection.
22:52
That brings an immense amount of comfort, but it also demands
22:55
that we look at how this theology applies to the modern
22:57
church context. The exegetical essays we are
23:00
looking at draw a very sharp line from this 1st century text
23:04
to our 21st century church landscape.
23:07
The authors argue that several modern movements fall into the
23:09
same categories of worldliness. How does this passage change the
23:14
way the listener evaluates modern Christianity?
23:16
The sources apply this text as a diagnostic tool against errors
23:20
currently infecting modern evangelicalism.
23:23
The reasoning laid out in the notes is that these movements
23:25
attempt to synthesize the cosmos with the Kingdom.
23:28
For instance, they point directly at the prosperity
23:30
gospel. The critique of the prosperity
23:32
gospel in these essays is severe.
23:34
It's unsparing. Because the argument is that the
23:36
prosperity gospel explicitly baptizes the lust of the flesh,
23:40
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
23:43
It takes the very things John says are passing away wealth,
23:45
physical ease, material status, and falsely labels them as
23:49
divine blessings, encourages the exact brand of worldliness that
23:52
Christ died to save us from. And the sources also point to
23:56
seeker sensitive pragmatism. The authors argue that using
23:59
worldly marketing strategies, corporate business models and
24:03
entertainment to build the church is essentially an attempt
24:06
to win the world by imitating the world.
24:08
It relies on the flesh to produce spiritual results.
24:11
Right. The material also brings up
24:13
egalitarianism and feminism. The source frames these
24:15
movements as a rebellion against the Creator's ordained
24:18
boundaries. The essays categorize this under
24:21
the Pride of Life, arguing that it is a refusal to submit to a
24:24
divinely instituted order regarding gender and authority.
24:28
And finally, the text addresses critical race story.
24:31
The authors label critical race theory as a worldly
24:34
philosophical framework that divides humanity entirely by the
24:37
flesh. They argue it relies on worldly
24:39
metrics of power and grievance, making it incompatible with the
24:43
unifying truth of the gospel. Right.
24:45
And the overarching point the sources make across all these
24:48
examples is that the Church cannot successfully synthesize
24:51
worldly philosophy with biblical truth.
24:54
The world is passing away, so hitching the Church's wagon to
24:57
worldly paradigms is theological suicide.
25:00
Now, to be clear to the listener, we are just conveying
25:03
the specific arguments laid out in our provided materials
25:06
regarding these modern movements.
25:08
That's excellent point. To clarify, we are impartially
25:11
reporting the source materials diagnostic critique.
25:14
But with all of that laid out, the practical question becomes
25:17
what does this mean for the listeners?
25:19
Daily habits? If we must reject these worldly
25:22
patterns, how do we actually change our internal desires?
25:25
You cannot just command your heart to stop wanting things.
25:29
The sources offer a brilliant solution here.
25:31
Quoting the 19th century Scottish minister Thomas
25:34
Chalmers, he preached a famous sermon titled The Expulsive
25:37
Power of a New Affection. That concept is the key to
25:40
practical sanctification. Chalmers argued that you cannot
25:44
simply will yourself to stop loving the world by sheer force
25:47
of habit. A negative command is not
25:49
enough. You cannot leave a vacuum in
25:51
your heart. Think about a child playing in
25:53
the mud. If you just yell at the child to
25:55
stop eating dirt, they might stop for a moment out of fear,
25:58
but they still want the dirt. The only way to permanently stop
26:02
them is to offer them something vastly superior.
26:04
Right, you offer them a trip to a theme park or their favorite
26:07
meal. The new greater desire naturally
26:10
expels the lesser desire. The love of the world must be
26:13
violently displaced by a superior love for the Father.
26:16
You have to fall in love with something better.
26:18
The glory of the Eternal God has to grow so large in your vision
26:22
that it naturally crowds at the lust of the eyes and the pride
26:25
of life. Your affections must be captured
26:28
by the Eternal, which makes the temporal lose its grip on your
26:31
heart. Let's summarize the core
26:33
takeaways from everything we have unpacked today.
26:35
You, the listener, stand every day between two distinct realms.
26:39
On one side is a dying system. It is a supernova.
26:43
It offers temporary physical desires, constant visual envy,
26:47
and hollow, exhausting boasting. On the other side is an Eternal
26:50
Father offering permanent fellowship, peace and security
26:54
through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
26:55
The reality is that obedience to God is never a waste of time.
26:59
The culture might mock hidden purity.
27:01
It might scoff at costly honesty.
27:03
It might view quiet prayer as useless.
27:06
But those things belong to the eternal realm.
27:09
They outlast the world. The things the world values are
27:12
currently passing away. I'm going to leave you with a
27:14
final thought to ponder as you go about the rest of your day.
27:18
Take a mental inventory. Consider the specific things you
27:21
boast about right now. The career achievements, the
27:24
social status, the material possessions you hold dear.
27:27
If all of those things were placed on a scale against
27:29
eternity, would they carry any weight at all, or would they
27:32
vanish like smoke? What if your greatest successes
27:35
in the eyes of this passing age are actually the very chains
27:38
keeping you from experiencing true, joyful fellowship with the
27:41
Father?