EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2024 9:27 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Introduction to 1 John 2:15-17”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
1 John 2:15-17
Message of the verses: “15 Do not love the world nor
the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is
not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from
the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one
who does the will of God lives forever.”
John MacArthur entitles this eighth chapter in his
commentary on 1 John “The Love God Hates,” and after reading these verses one
will be able to understand why he used that title for these verses.
I
want to continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary, and as stated in my
last SD on 1 John, it seems that I stopped in a place where it needs to be that
I start right where I left off yesterday.
“Second
Timothy 4:10 plainly states the reason for Demas’s defection: he ‘loved this
present world.’ He loved the world
system, with its sin, human wisdom, and satanic deceptions, more than he loved
God’s kingdom. Demas’s life exhibited
characteristics of both the shallow, rocky soil, in which the seed of the Word
flourished briefly but withered and died in the face of tribulation and
persecution; and the thorny soil, in which the seed was smothered under the
cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth (see Jesus’ parable in Matt.
13:3-23). While Paul willingly
anticipated martyrdom for his faith, Demas decided that he was unwilling to pay
a similar price. Therefore he forsook
his co-laborers and went ‘to Thessalonica,’ a large, cosmopolitan city on the
main east-west philosophical allurements of the world he loved. In so doing, Demas proved he was never a
lover of God.
“Demas
was guilty of spiritual harlotry, the kind of sin against which James strongly
warned some of his readers: ‘You adulteresses,
do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? enemy
of God’ (James 4:4). James’s figurative
language recalled the familiar Old Testament imagery of Israel’s spiritual
adultery (cf. 2 Chron. 21:11-15; Jer. 2:20-25; 3:1-14; Hos. 1:2: 4:15;
9:1).
By committing spiritual harlotry, Demas made himself
‘and enemy of God,’ another familiar Old Testament concept (cf. Deut. 32:41;
Pss. 21:8-9; 68:21; 72:9; Nah. 1:2). He
did so by returning to the life he had hypocritically suppressed for a few
years while traveling with Paul and the others.
“Demas’s
tragic example provides and unambiguous biblical illustration of the love of
God hates. The perfect love of God is a
theme that runs throughout Scripture (Deut. 7:7-8; 10:15; Pss. 25:6; 26:3;
36:7, 10; 40:11; 63:3; 69:16; 92:2; 103:4; 119:88; 138:2; 143:8; Isa. 63:7;
Jer. 31:3; Hos. 2:19; Zeph. 3:17) and appears with particular emphasis in the
New Testament (Rom. 5:5, 8; 8:39; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 2:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:16;
Titus 3:4; Jude 21), especially in this epistle (2:5: 1:1; 4:7-21) and
elsewhere in John’s writings (John 3:16; 5:42; 11:5, 36; 13:1-2; 14:21, 23;
15:9-10, 12; 16:27; hates perfectly. As
the Holy One (cf. 2 Kings 19:22; Ps. 71:22; Prov. 30:3; Isa. 1:4; 40:25), He
loves all that is righteous, holy, and in line with His will and glorious
purpose (cf. Ex. 15:11; 1 Sam. 2:2; Pss. 22:3; 47:8; 99:3, 5; 145:17; Isa. 6:3;
57:15; Rev. 4:8; 15:4). What this means,
of course, is that He simultaneously hates whatever threatens or opposes those
things (Deut. 29:20, 27:28; 32:19-22; Pss. 2:2-5; 7:11; 21:8-9; Nah. 1:2-3;
Zeph. 1:14-18; Rom. 1:18; Col. 3:6; Rev. 11:18; cf. Matt. 13:41; 25:41; 1 Cor.
6:9-10; 2 Thess. 1:8; Rev. 21:27).”
There
is only a little bit to this introduction, but because of all of the verses
that are in this section of the introduction I will stop and Lord willing, will
finish this quotation in my next SD.
10/28/2024 9:57 PM
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