Religion & Spirituality
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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 2:15-16 The Bible has a tendency to make these very black and white statements with two possible alternatives and nothing in the middle and here’s another one! Obviously the ‘loving the world’ camp is not the best one to pitch your tent in, (talk to Lot – God rained hell fire and brimstone on his parade!) but what does ‘loving the world’ really mean? Because we live in the world, and we have to do business with the world. We have bills to pay, and nice things that we would like to own. I think the key is to hold ‘the world stuff’ loosely. There are definitely times in our life when in order to serve God well, we have to let go of some ‘worldly benefits’ and we do it because we know the benefits that come from serving God and putting God first will far outweigh anything the world has to offer. It’s called delayed gratification! In a nutshell enjoy the good stuff but don’t let it become your primary focus because there’s so much more to real life than the acquisition of material things or recognition from the world. To listen click here!