“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” – 1 John 2:15
Consider this a biblical wake up call on Cyber Monday! No matter how good that deal or how great that new piece of technology is, it won’t be nearly as fulfilling and satisfying as you imagine. So don’t spend a lot of time and energy imagining it! This world offers many good things for us to enjoy and use for God’s glory. However, we need to get our relationship with the world and the things of the world right or they will prevent us from fully loving God and experiencing His love!
This passage isn’t telling us to hate the world, be disengaged from it, or fail to take care of it. As Christians, we are to care for this world as the stewards God made us to be. We’ve been given the world to manage on God’s behalf and haven’t done a particularly good job. We need to manage it well politically, environmentally, and economically, but all that’s a topic for another day.
Good stewardship is far different from obsessive love for the world or its goodies. Unfortunately, it’s too easy to fall into the latter. Much of the anger experienced by Christians this year flows from loving the world and its things like political power, influence, wealth, and social status far too much. As Christians, we have a stewardship responsibility, but we’ve got to dial back the emotional attachment to this world and its systems!
We can’t love God if we love anything else more than God. Our love must be for God. First and foremost. At all times. Our emotional extremes (extreme joy, fear, anger, anxiety, etc.) reveal where our love really is. We can’t love God and obsess over the world. We simply can’t. We must choose to love God each and every day. We must love God more than toys and tech. We must love God more than wealth, retirement funds, and status. We must love God more than political influence and power. We must love God more than comfort and health. We must love God more than we love the earth and the beautiful things in it. Who or what do you love?