THE PITFALLS
1 John 2:12-29
“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.”
Having laid down the foundations of the Christian life, John turns his attention to the pitfalls. While he recognises that in a Christian’s journey with Christ a person may be at different levels—a child who needs to be taught and who should focus on fundamentals; a young man who should now flex his muscles in learning more directly from the word of God, in participating in the work of the church, and in learning to deal with the evil one in his life’s journey; and a father who has come to knowledge of God over time, over obedience, over experience both good and bad, over an extended study and knowledge of the word of God, and who now must focus on raising the younger ones and guiding the older ones—everyone must be wary of these pitfalls—every Christian is in danger of them.
Having come from the world, it is difficult to differentiate what is of the evil one and what is a natural part of our life while living in the world, what stirs up our sinful nature and what is just part of our nature. John helps us by associating the world with lust—world is lust—just as he would soon tell us that God is love.
Lust consumes while love affirms and frees. Love encourages self-control while lust makes one lose control. Love causes life to blossom while lust sucks life out of us. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
The second pitfall is more difficult because it comes from people that we accept as a part of our community. However, they either do not accept the authority of Christ and have no intention of obeying him, wanting only their ticket to heaven, or they do not accept that our passage to life can be had by mere repentance and belief in Christ and so they add more rules and regulations, believing that adherence to these rules and regulations will qualify us better. Essentially they deny that Jesus is Saviour and Lord.
We are not left defenceless however. We have the Gospel through which we found our way into the kingdom. We have the Holy Spirit, given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. These two, the Gospel and the Spirit are twin beacons that are unchanging, and are our constant guide in our journey with Christ. What we need to do is to stay close to them and examine everything we are unsure about in their clear light.
“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.”