1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life-is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes away, and so does its lust; but he who does the will of God abides forever."
Is there a love that God hates? 1 John was written to believers. The Spirit of God, through John, is not telling sinners how to be saved, He is telling saints how to have intimate fellowship with God and how you can lose that intimacy with Him. Don't love the world.....The "world" is defined as the system run by Satan that leaves God out. The reason God doesn't want us to love the world is because His greatest enemy, Satan, runs the world! The earth is run by Satan. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that Satan is the god of this world. When God talks about loving the world, He is referring to anything you love that leaves Him (God) out of the equation; that organized, pre-planned system that wants to keep you away from God's will, ways and plans........ being a worldly person! It is not only Satan's job to get you to be "in" the world, but to get you to love it!
So, once again, I ask the question: ....... Is there a love that God hates? I would say yes, because anything you call "love" that takes you further and further away from God, He hates. The world has a misleading definition of the word "love"...... The world calls sin, love, and then tells you not to judge them for having a love affair in an evil world system that it calls the love of God. When we choose the things and ways of the world over the things and ways of God, the love of God is not in us according to 1 John 2:15-17 and those who are born again, know that God cannot lie........
When we choose to ignore God so that we can enjoy this world now...... we have not loved Him as we think or say! We can be in the world, we can enjoy the creation of the world, we can use the world, but God says we must not love it! God is not in competition with satan, because satan is no competitor for God. In Romans 12:2, it says that we are not to "conform" to this world. This means that we are not to be led by the things and ways of this fallen world system. Money is not evil, it is the love of money that is evil. Why is it so important that God does not want us to fall in love with the world? He tells us in verse 15, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." There is a cost to loving the world, and that cost takes you further away from loving the Father. We can retain our "legal" relationship with the Father, while losing our experiential relationship with Him, if we love the world.
For those who go fishing, you will understand the following: ......When you bring in the fish, have you ever noticed that it is uncomfortable? This is because the fish is not comfortable when it is out of the water, it needs the water to breathe. The only reason the fish is out of the water is because you have trapped it! You set a trap for him, you lured him in by dangling the worm on the line. This is exactly how Satan gets rid of many people in the world. He casts a line, a trap, a bait to get you to bite, then he reels you in to kill you! When God said in John 3:16 that He loved the world and gave His beloved Son, Jesus Christ for it, this does not mean God loves "the ways" of the world. He loves humanity!
In the words of Jim Elliott, "He is NOT a fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." So MAXIMIZE your TIME here in the WORLD, in every "LEGITIMATE" way God gives you, by ALWAYS keeping Him and His will at the forefront of your LIFE!"......... For the born again believer, this is NOT our home! We are VISITORS here, just passing through, with a JOB to do and a RACE TO RUN........RUN that you can WIN!!!
God's Grace to you all........
Sonia McQueen
Teachings from Talmidim Christian Center Teaching Series
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