Podcast: 1 John: Lust and Pride

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

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. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
-1 John 2:15-17

When I was a senior in high school, I had a weekend routine I would always follow. When I got home from work, I would watch The X-Files and MASH, and then I would play video games until I fell asleep. On Saturday morning I would watch The Tick, and then play video games until I needed to go to work. I usually played role-playing games like Final Fantasy, and when I would finish one, I would stop by Wal-Mart to get another.

I still like video games, but I don’t play them nearly as much. Frankly, I have more fun now reading about theology and working on my seemingly futile quest to learn Biblical Greek.

The Tick and Final Fantasy are my examples here of “the things in the world,” but not great examples. I do believe that Christians can play a video game without sinning. Christians just can’t love them.

There are better examples in my life, and some that have not drifted away into my past. There are things I try to be prayerful of every day, because I don’t know when particular sins are going rise up in my heart again. Pride is a big on for me. When production reports come out at work, and I’m higher on the list than I expected, I get a little grin that is pure pride. I want everyone to see it. I want everyone to recognize what I did.

That’s something we can remember right off the bat – John is not saying that Christians do not sin. He’s already made it very clear that we do. But he’s putting forth a standard here by which we can look at our lives.

Right before this, he was listing some reasons why he is writing to us. These reasons include that we know Christ, that we have been saved from our sins. These are all reasons why we should not love the world. These are all alternatives, in fact, to the world.

And here’s where we will get a better understand of what John is saying. He is not saying – “You claim to be Christians, so throw away your television!” Rather, he is saying this – “You’ve experienced God! That television shouldn’t look as good now. And if it still does, then you may want to figure out if that was really God you experienced.”

See, the experience of Jesus is something that will profoundly affect us. If we really experience Jesus, we will be forever changed. And in that experience, the things of this world won’t have nearly the same appeal. The more we experience Him, the less attractive the world will seem.

I don’t play as many video games today. Why is that? Is it because I beat them all? Of course not! It’s because I have better things in my life. My wife is much better than a video game, and God is better still than that. It’s not that I don’t like them; it’s that I have other things I like more.

This is what happens in the Christian life. God reveals something of His glory to us, and the stuff around us just isn’t the same. We can’t say we love the things of the world, because our love for Him overshadows everything.

And if the world remains more important, then it may be that we never experienced Christ in the first place. If you say you found Jesus, but Final Fantasy still is first in your life, then you probably didn’t meet the real Jesus.

John will define “the world” a little for us here – “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions.” Let’s look at these individually.

The desires of the flesh are, quite simply, those things that seem good to the senses. Sex is our prime example here. How many have put God aside for a romp in the sack? How many seek after sex almost exclusively rather than seeking God? But don’t think this warning ends with only that sex-crazed guy at work. No, we have sought our own pleasures above God. Many times it is sex, but it can be with food or drink. These things are not bad things, but the world tries to make them more important than God. When we do this, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

The desires of the eyes may be more insidious. A lot of times we can control our appetites so that we do not indulge in sex outside of marriage, or gluttony, or drunkenness. But who can keep his eyes from roaming? Who has conquered lust, greed, selfishness, ambition, and covetousness? When we desire something above God, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

The pride of possessions is a big one. A lot of translations will use the phrase “the pride of life,” which I think is closer to the original. It’s not pride in the stuff you have, though it can be. It is PRIDE, plain and simple. Pride is the sin that got Satan booted out of heaven, and it’s still the sin that gets us every day. Every day at work I think that I deserve some recognition for something I did. Every day I think I deserve a raise. Every day I think that I’m doing well with my finances, or my home life, or something of the sort. Every day these thoughts go through your head too. Instead of humbling ourselves before God, we are exulting ourselves above men. When we have such pride, we have loved the world, and we have sinned.

These things of the world are passing away. Sex doesn’t last that long. Food doesn’t last that long. The nice house will fade away. You job will be gone some day. Your money will be gone someday. God will not.

And here is the great foolishness of it all. God is the greater joy, the greater life, and He is forever. He is the Creator of this world, its purpose and its maintainer. By His Grace we can live forever. And we trade that for Final Fantasy.

Jim Elliot was a missionary in the 50s who was martyred at the age of 28. In his journal, he wrote these words – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The truth of this is profound. Elliot realized something that should be obvious to us all – that this life is temporary. That this world is temporary. But the things of God are forever.

“Whoever does the will of God abides forever.” This promise ends our passage for today, and the implications of this are staggering. Whoever does the will of God will not fade away, like every tree, blade of grass, book, video game, or house in this world, but will live forever with God.

The question must come – what is the will of God? Is it to renounce all the things of the world, live on top of a pole, and whip yourself? No. Is it to burn your Beatles albums and watch nothing but the Trinity Broadcasting Network? Heaven forbid! Is it to not sin? That would be nice, but we’re already failed at that, haven’t we? If we look back at the previous verse, we’ll find that we’ve indulged the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions. Lust and pride pretty much makes up our lives. We’re already neck deep in sin and sinking.

So what is the will of God? Faith. John 6:29 tells us this: “Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’” Look, there are a lot of commands in the Bible, but if you don’t have this one, you don’t have anything, and if you have this one, you have it all. Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

You can’t earn your way into His good graces. You can’t try hard enough to please Him. Take another look at those three categories of sin that John listed out for us. We are guilty of all of them. And frankly, the idea that we can be good enough for Heaven is pride, which is sin!

We have already failed to earn our way to Heaven, but there is still a way. In the greatest act of love in history, Jesus came to earth to die in our place. On the Cross, He took our sin upon Himself. He paid the price that we owe. In exchange, He can clothe us in His righteousness so we will be judged blameless on the Day of Judgment.

This is why the work of God is to believe. We’ve already failed in keeping God’s Holy Law. But in repentance and faith we can be saved. By looking to the Cross for our salvation, He will save us.

We will fall for these three temptations over and over again. The solution is not to try harder and maybe it will work out better. The solution is to do the work of God – to believe. In that belief we will be cleansed. In repentance the Holy Spirit will guide us to greater holiness. It is His work to change us. Our work is to believe.

Many people are amazed at this teaching, saying that it is a license to sin! If all we have to do is repent, then we can do whatever we want! You misunderstand what repentance is. To repent is to turn away from sin. By the help of the Spirit, we will be hardened against sin and softened toward the Lord. By sheer force of will, we will have ups and downs, moments of weakness and strength. But by His power we will persevere. We will not be able to help but to change, because the experience of God is something that cannot leave you unchanged.

Repent. Believe. Look to the Cross for your salvation. This is the work of God.