1 John 2:16 NIV For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
One of the most distasteful and unpleasant words in human vocabulary is the word counterfeit. We usually think of a counterfeit as being something purposely designed to deceive. Even more devious than those who counterfeit clothes, perfumes and money are those guilty of counterfeiting in the spiritual realm.
The tragedy connected with this kind of counterfeiting is that many times those involved are victims rather than agents! We already know that Satan is the master counterfeiter of all time. He seizes vulnerable people, deceives them, and victimizes them by counterfeiting spiritual realities.
Scripture Reading:
1 John 2:15-25 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life.
Introduction
2 Peter 1:12-15 NIV So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
Text:
1 John 2:16 NIV For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
One of the most distasteful and unpleasant words in the human vocabulary is the word counterfeit. We usually think of a counterfeit as being something purposely designed to deceive. Even more devious than those who counterfeit clothes, perfumes and money are those guilty of counterfeiting in the spiritual realm.
The tragedy connected with this kind of counterfeiting is that many times those involved are victims rather than agents! We already know that Satan is the master counterfeiter of all time. He seizes vulnerable people, deceives them, and victimizes them by counterfeiting spiritual realities.
Here’s what Paul says about Satan’s deception and that of those who follow him.
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 ESV And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
In today’s Scripture reading, John exposed the essence of counterfeit Christianity.
1 John 2:15-16 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
What “world” was John talking about?
It was not the world of nature, the beauty of which often defies the descriptive powers of the most gifted poet.
Psalms 19:1-6 NIV The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Rather, John was talking about the “world system,” the total of human life that exists apart from God, alienated from or hostile toward God.
The forces of evil in this world system seduce men and women away from God and righteousness. The system is ordered, not haphazard. Much of it is cultured, intellectual, even religious.
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 NIV What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1-3 NIV As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
John was aware of the evil power of the world system.
Throughout his gospel and letters, John repeatedly dealt with this subject. In his gospel, he said that the world is in the dark.
For example
John 1:1-5 NIV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
He quoted Jesus’ words in;
John 8:12 NIV When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
In the letter we have been studying the past few weeks in 1 John he wrote;
John wrote in 1 John 1:5-6 NIV This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
The world is in the dark because it does not know God
John 17:25 NIV “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
The world is in the dark because it does not know Christ
John 1:9-10 NIV The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
The world is in the dark because it does not know the Spirit
John 14:15-17 NIV “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
And the world does not know or understand us, Christians
1 John 3:1 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Exactly what “love” for the world was John talking about when he said?
1 John 2:15-16 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Surprisingly, it was agape love. In the past we've described agape as a self-sacrificing kind of love. Just as Christians who are filled with agape love offer themselves to God’s perfect will, those who are victimized by Satan offer themselves to the false brilliance of the world. This is an example of how Satan can counterfeit that which is spiritual.
A sad example of this kind of love is seen in the case of Demas, who was, at one time, one of Paul’s coworkers
At one time Demas was commended by Paul but the counterfeit love for the world caused him to desert Paul.
Philemon 1:23-24 NIV Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.
Then something happened and Demas' love was somehow counterfeited.
2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
Surprisingly Paul used the word agape to describe Demas’s love for the world.
John is talking about a strange manifestation or a counterfeit of this agape love.
1 John 2:16 NIV For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Verse 16 briefly defines the world system.
First is the desire to have things—“The lust of the flesh.” “Flesh” here refers here to the depraved human nature that governs a person’s will, reason, and emotions. As desperately as unbelievers may try to please God, they cannot.
8:7-8 NIV The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Second is the desire to have whatever attracts the eye.
John called this “the lust of the eyes.” It may express itself in an extreme desire for material things like, fine clothes, a new car, a larger home, or power to control everything that you see. Slaves to "the lust of the eyes" this are in danger of what Paul describes as the love of money.
1 Timothy 6:10 NIV For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Third is the desire to be number one or “The pride of life.”
The word translated “pride” is the same word used in James 4:16 and translated as “boastings.”
James 4:16 NIV As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
It amounts to the arrogant, proud dependence on your own achievements, intelligence, resources, or wealth. These sins are always tempting us. James also said;
James 1:13-15 NIV When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Our boasting should not be in ourselves, our stuff or our accomplishments.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NIV Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 10:12-18 NIV We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Conclusion
John summarized the whole thing like this:
1 John 2:17 NIV The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
John meant that the world would pass in a futile show. In spite of its glitter and appeal, it will not last; it is headed for destruction, it's counterfeit.
What John was saying was that this world is temporary. The world is temporary for each person, since every person dies. The physical earth is also temporary, since God will make a new earth in the end.
Revelation 21:1-5 NIV Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
As a result, the desires of this world are also temporary. We as believers are to resist evil desires, following the example of Jesus when He was tempted by Satan.
He responded to those temptations with the Word of God. “It is written”. He said it four time when tempted. Read it for yourself in; Matthew 4:1-11
Let's Pray
Father thank you for the warning against being fooled by the counterfeits of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life because all these things are temporary. We will keep our eyes of the only one who never changes our Lord and Savior Jesus for we know that
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