Do you Love God or the World?

(Article for publication week of 10-19-2011 AD)

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).

We have been writing on the attributes of God for quite some time, and our most recent articles have been on the love of God. We have shown the sovereignty and efficaciousness of God’s love, and have posed the question, “do you love God?” This week we will push the question further and continue to test your profession.

It is a dangerous thing to go on in a false profession. Our Lord said in Matthew 7:21-23 that MANY will be exposed at the end as false professors and hear their awful doom from the Lord, “depart from me”! Dear reader, I beseech you to put your own profession to the test to see if you are really converted. Today there is time to repent of a false profession and come to the Dear Saviour for salvation, but if you die in your false profession, it will be eternally too late.

Now, our text here in I John exposes the false profession of multitudes. There are multitudes all around us who claim to be saved, and think they are saved, but their affections show they have never been truly saved, for their affections are all bound up in the world, rather than in Christ.

We have a generation of church members and professed believers who can get along with the world right well. They know how to “go along to get along.” They amuse themselves the same way that the world does. They dress like the world and talk like the world and think like the world and live like the world. This generation of church members thinks that the casinos are perfectly compatible with Christianity. And I could go on and on with specifics of the careless and worldly way that most professed believers live in our day.

Now there are many that are teaching that such worldly folks are just “carnal” Christians. My dear readers, there is no such thing taught in the word of God. Those who are given over to carnality are not saved. There are just two kinds of people- saved people and lost people; spiritually minded people and carnal minded people; believers and unbelievers; Christians and non- Christians. The Bible has no third category for you to try to put yourself in. You either love the Lord, or you love the world.

Then I have heard some lament over worldly church members and say, “well , they just need to be taught.” No they don’t need to be taught, they need to be saved. You don’t have to teach a saved person to love God; the Holy spirit taught him that when He converted him.

Now, be sure you get it- there is no middle ground between love for God and love for the world. My text plainly says that if you love the world, the love of God is not in you. All who do not profess Christ are indicted by my text. My exposure of false profession is no consolation to the non-professor. You who will not believe in Christ and profess Him among men are just as lost as the hypocrite in the church. But, be sure the hypocrite will be finally exposed. You may imitate some Christian virtues, but if you are unregenerate, you cannot truly love God.

Perhaps the truth has alarmed someone today. We surely hope so. Whether you are a lost church member or one who has never professed the name of Christ, the remedy is the same- repent of your sins and believe in Christ for salvation. Come to Him now, for He will in no wise cast out the repenting believer.