Message 2: Worldliness

By Ee Han

Definition
What is worldliness? (1 John 2:15-17)

According to www.freedictionary.com, it is..

"Of relating to, or devoted to the temporal world."

2 fold purpose of 1 John:

1.The first purpose was to assure the believers of their identity in Christ and eternal life and to encourage maturity.

2.The second purpose was to warn them against wrong teachings with regards to their faith.

 

SO the key message was "Do Not LOVE The WORLD".

How?

To not ENTERTAIN or be CONTENTED with what the world is offering

 

AGAPE:

1) of persons - to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly

2) of things - to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing

 

KOSMOS:

1)world affairs,the aggregate of things earthly, which includes the wholecircle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc,which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce fromGod and are obstacles to the cause of Christ

 

What's the problem?

 

Lust Of The Flesh

–       SARX - the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence, and therefore prone to sin and opposed to God

–       Rom 8:5-8

…we choose to do things that God is not pleased with…

 

Lust Of The Eyes

–       OPHTHALMOS- the eyes of the mind, the faculty of knowing

–       Matt 6:22-23

…we feed our eyes with things that are not of God…

 

Pride In Possessions

–       ALAZONEIA- an impious and empty presumption which trusts in the stability of earthy things

–       BIOS- that by which life is sustained, resources, wealth, goods

–       Luke 12:13-21

…we find our worth and security in things that we own…

 

~ we choose to do things that God is not pleased with

~ we feed our eyes with things that are not of God

~ we find our worth and security in things that we own

 

Why should we love God and not the world?

Reason 1

•        We can only love one (and hate the other)

•        1 Kings 18

 

Reason  2

•        It is not worth it (because it is temporal)

•        Ecc 1:1-11

 

Love for the world is bound to lead to hurt and anger when we see the pain and problems it offers

~ Jesus Driven Ministry

 

So what's the remedy?

Abar that sells alcohol doesn’t force people to drink and isn’t the causeof drunkenness but the bar is an establishment created so that peoplecan drink and get drunk.Getting rid of the bar won’t solve the problem;neither will it be helpful to encourage someone who wants to quitdrinking to hang out in bars. The system we are in can encourage us tosuccumb into temptation. It will be hard for us to serve God when we continue in practices that pulls us in a wrong direction

~ I kissed dating goodbye

 

•        Doing the Will of God

•        1 Thess 4:1-8

         

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

 Questions to ask ourselves:

The Brownie story (please tell us what you remember of the brownie story in the shoutbox!)