“Ye adulterers and adultressess know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think the scripture says in vain: The Spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously?” (Js. 4:4-5) John says something similar: “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.” (Jn. 2:15)
There is of course God’s love for this world that He made, His love for people He has made, and we must imitate that kind of love for this world. But that is not what the apostles are talking about. They are speaking of the way we want to be esteemed by the world. We want to be thought cool, hip, savvy by the unbelievers. We’ve seen all their movies, listened to all their music, kept up with all their news. Or the way we prize possessions in the wrong way. The way we slavishly copy the world’s standards of living, demanding that we have what they have, lusting for their lives, jealous of their so-called glory. Wearing what they wear, trying to look the way they look, talk the way they talk.
But not only does this end up making us look silly, this is no little thing: the apostles say that this is the difference between knowing God’s love and not. You see, if you aren’t resting in the love of God, pursuing Christ with all that you are, then the world is just one big porn shop for you. But when you know Jesus and His love displayed in the cross, you begin to say with Paul: “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:4)
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