Lesson 5 for the 1st of August, 2009

WALKING IN THE
LIGHT: RENOUNCING
WORLDLINESS
“I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven
on account of his name.
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the
beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
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.”

1 John, 2: 12-14
John presents shows six reasons to write his letter:

To the church in general

1. Because your sins have been forgiven on
account of his name [Jesus’ name].
2. Because you have known the Father.

To the fathers
3. Because you know/have known him who is
from the beginning [Jesus Christ]

To youth
4. Because you have overcome the evil one.
5. Because you are strong.
6. Because the word of God lives in you.
John writes his epistle to believers
because they have known Jesus
and the Father, and they have
received forgiveness of sins.
Thanks to that, they have enough
strength to live a victorious life in
Christ.
“Do not love the world or
anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is
not in him.” 1 John, 2: 15
WHICH IS THE WORLD WE DON’T HAVE TO LOVE?

 The philosophy of the heathen, unaware

of God and hostile to God crowd.
 Worldly matters that move us away from
God.
 The sentence “Do not
love the world”, can be
translated as: “Stop
loving” or “Don’t keep
loving” the world.

Stop loving the sinful

world doesn’t involve
stopping loving the
sinner; Christians
have to introduce
Jesus to the sinner
and to love him as
God does.
 “No-one can serve two masters.”
Matthew, 6: 24

If we love the world, we cannot love God.

Even if we don’t
love God, God still
loves us.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in

this: While we were still sinners, Christ died
for us”
Romans, 5: 8
“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.” 1 John, 2: 16
PROBLEMS WITH THE WORLD
The lust of the flesh

The expression “the lust of the flesh”

involves everything that lead us to a self
satisfaction that contradicts God’s will.

“We know that the law is

spiritual; but I am
unspiritual, sold as a slave
to sin. I do not understand
what I do. For what I want Romans, 7: 14-15
 PROBLEMS WITH THE WORLD

The expression “the

The lust of the eyes
lust of the eyes”
refers to the mental
sinful pleasure that is
stimulated by
eyesight.

Some people who

wouldn’t commit a
flagrant sin feel a
deep desire of reading
about that sin, or “When the woman saw that the fruit of
looking it at pictures the tree was good for food and pleasing
or watching it on a to the eye, and also desirable for gaining
screen. wisdom, she took some and ate it. She
also gave some to her husband, who was
with her, and he ate it.” Genesis, 3: 6
 PROBLEMS WITH THE WORLD
The pride of life
The expression “the pride of life” involves
boastfulness, ostentation, pride…

Some people are improperly proud of their job; others

are proud of their possessions, their beauty or their
children.
 DIVINE SOLUTION

“This is what the Lord says:

«Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
or the strong man boast of his strength,
or the rich man boast of his riches.
But let him who boasts, boast about this: that
he understands and knows me, that I am the
LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and
righteousness on earth, for in these I delight»
─declares the Lord─”

Jeremiah, 9: 23-24
“The world and its
desires pass away, but
the man who does the
will of God lives for
1 John, 2: 17
ever.”
“What good is it for “those who use the things of the
a man to gain the world, as if not engrossed in
whole world, and yet them. For this world in its
lose or forfeit his present form is passing away”
very self?” (1 Corinthians, 7: 31)
(Luke, 9: 25)
“So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary,
but what is unseen is eternal”
(2 Corinthians, 4: 18)
“Those who love the world, love
temporary things; things that identify
with death and sin, that will inevitably
perish with them. As the world and its
sinfulness passes away, those who
love sin disappear, too. But those who
love the Eternal God, his Eternal
Kingdom and his everlasting right
principles, will remain forever”

SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, on 1 John, 2: 17

 Is it worth
“gaining” this
world and
losing eternal
life?