1st John 2:12-17
cont
The danger of the love of the world
Verses 15-17, “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. For all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. And
the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who
does the will of God abides forever.” John
goes back to this command, exhortation. He
makes some real strong points. Gave
us a little bit of encouragement before he continued on. And
he says now in verse
15, “Do not love the world.” And what is the result, what does
he say is the reason, what follows if you do that? Well
what follows from that is this effect. You know, loving the world, it has an
effect upon my love for God. And
it’s not a good effect. It’s
a negative one. As you see there in verse 15, he says “…if anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.” Now
that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a
Christian, and you’re struggling a little bit, being
distracted, that there’s no love of God in you. But it does mean you can’t have
the two in the same measure, you know. There’s
a picture here of a scale, and there’s love in my
heart—and how does it weigh out? Is
the love of the world weighing out, you know, outweighing
the love of Jesus?—the love of God? Or is it vice versa? If I move one from the other, it gets
to be more different. There’s
a greater extreme from the two. He
says “If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.” So his first point that is going to help
me, as truth does, is: The
danger of the love of the world…the danger. Now
what does he mean by “world” anyway? The
Greek word is the word kosmos. And John uses that throughout his epistles. It
does not mean the physical world, it doesn’t mean
the beautiful mountains, like Mount Wachussett, it doesn’t
mean the pretty beaches, you know, Coast Guard Beach or
the Leominster State Forest—it doesn’t mean
that. I mean,
God gave us that to enjoy. What
he primarily refers to is the invisible spiritual system
around us that is opposing the things of God. It
is the fallen creation, the world that is constantly degenerating
[i.e. man’s societies]. It
is where Satan is working to oppose Christ on the earth,
it’s the stuff that we see so often come onto the
TV or hearing through the radio or seeing in the magazines. It’s the world, man, it’s
the world’s system around us. John
says that such a love is dangerous for us as believers. But
man, isn’t it a great battle? He
says don’t love the world, if anybody loves the world,
the love of the Father isn’t in him, and we stand
here in America today saying ‘What a battle! What a battle!’ Constant fight, so many things trying
to distract me, so many things trying to allure me, entice
me, all these things the world is trying to offer to me. Man,
I tell you, I’ve changed my email account, I did
it a little while back, I was excited, I was getting email
from people I didn’t want to get email from. Wasn’t too long though, here comes
the ads, you know, for realty, this type of medicine, on
and on and on, try this, try that. Of
course when it comes to the internet and email these days,
there’s all kinds goofy, knarly stuff that comes
through that we’ve got to be guarded against. What
a battle. I
mentioned it on Wednesday nights, maybe on Sunday morning,
but I think of Chuck Smith’s final exhortation to
the thousand pastors and leaders that were down there in
Maryland a couple weeks ago at a conference, he challenged
us, he says—we had a tremendous conference, many
of the men said it was the best conference they were at
ever—at the very end Chuck stood before the thousand
of us and he says,
“Why don’t you consecrate this next year to the Lord like you never
have before. Try it for one year. Live totally sold out for Jesus, give
it a try.” I know you would
think, guys that are in full-time ministry, guys who maybe have left careers
and jobs and family, you would think that’s already a done deal. But
it isn’t, man. It isn’t. It’s a thing of the heart. He challenged us to set ourselves apart
for the work of the Lord, and I in my journal said “Yes, Lord, Father,
I consecrate my life to you this next year.” But
I’ve had this thought in the back of my mind ever since then, I been
thinking about it, some of the guys have been talking about it who were there,
and with this, as I’ve been considering it, I’ve been considering
the spiritual battle all the more that goes on—the things fighting for
my attention. The truth is, there are things that are
even fine for us to do, things that in and of themselves may not be sin, but
the enemy is using them to allure, to allure our attention away from God. Now when you read this verse, you may
be tempted to think of all the wicked things in the world and say ‘Well,
I’m not guilty of loving the world, all that wicked stuff, no way, man…’ The problem here is John is saying a lot
more than that. What you and I
need to understand, is what he is saying here, in order to not be hindered
in our Christian faith, I’ll quote you one of the past century’s
Church leaders,
“There are so many people in the Christian world who are unhappy in their
Christian life, and who are not getting the benefits and enjoyment, simply
because they have not faced a text like this, they have not allowed it to search
them and influence their whole life.” Are
you willing this morning to let go and let God speak to you, and say
‘Search me God, take this text and just write on my heart, influence
me, move me Lord.’ Well,
just in case we don’t understand, we have a misunderstanding about what
John is saying here about the love of the world, the next verse 16, he gives
us a little bit more help in this battle. He
gives us, we have the dangers of the love of the world, now we have the definition
of the love of the world. He defines
it for us.
“For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the
world” (verse 16).
He
begins with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the flesh. Here the word lust, it’s an interesting
word, you know, you hear the word lust, ooh bad word (well,
the world says ‘good word’, but we say ‘bad
word’ in the Church). The
word means to abuse something which is natural, something
which was perfectly right and legitimate in and of itself,
but then it’s abused, it’s altered. It
becomes a bad thing. Instead of controlling our desires, and
using them as we ought to, lust means we’re being controlled
by our desires. They are mastering us, they are controlling
us. You take
the issue of hunger, now that’s something that’s
very natural, hunger. That’s
not a bad thing to be hungry, to eat food, that isn’t
a bad thing. Certainly
we can enjoy food too. But
as one put it, the problem is not eating in order to live,
but when we live in order to eat, that’s the problem,
that’s when it becomes a lust. When
eating takes on such a priority and such a passion for us,
we are guilty of lust of the flesh. And
so the world, you know, we want to be right with the Lord,
but we sit in front of the TV and we see burgers, and you
see McDonalds, you see the stuff, they’re telling us, ‘This
is it, man. You’re
bumming out right now, what you need to do it go right down
to McDonalds! I mean, it will make you so happy and
so fulfilled!’ Really,
right? You open up the magazine, you weren’t
hungry, but then you are right after. I
mean, you’re thinking ‘Man, I got to go get one
of these.’ And I’m not hungry. It’s not wrong to eat in order to
live, but man, when you live to eat. I
think of alcohol, too. Something
that the Bible says is OK, I believe in moderation. But
then you see the ad, you know, there’s the beach, there’s
the volley ball, there’s these people partying, ‘the
Mic, that is where life is at, this is it, right here.’ I
remember in my college years, that was the mentality of so
many people. You know, I have to go, it’s so
cool, got some beer, you know, Oh, what a great deal—it
was like it was a god. It was like that’s what they were
living for. That’s what he is talking about
here. If you can say, if you can say, I live
to do anything—how to you finish it?—George lives
to—I hope they put—to follow Jesus. I
hope they don’t put “to play golf.” George
lives to tinker around the basement. George
lives to whatever. I hope it’s George lives to love
and serve Jesus Christ. That’s
what he’s saying here. If
you can say “I live to fish”, if you got a bumper
sticker on the back of your car saying “I love to hunt” or
“I live to hunt”, it’s OK to enjoy things, but to say “I
live to hunt”, to say
“I live to golf”, “I live to lift weights”, “I
live to shop”, “I live to cook”,
“I live to quilt”, whatever it is, then there’s a problem. I think the challenge is, a lot of us
as Christians, we think ‘I’m born again’ , but in this culture,
it’s OK to be seen as “I live for golf”, I live for it, it’s
so cool. Got the magazines, got all the videos,
every moment I can get away, I’m playing golf. But
see, he says here, don’t love the world. Why? Because
it’s dangerous. Because if
you love the world, man, it is reducing your love for God. I tell you, I’ve seen people that
were even in strong places with the Lord, and they started to go down that
track, and today, man, they’re in dangerous place, like Robert Robertson. But the truth here is, this goes even
deeper, I believe. It isn’t
just, it’s not just referring to those things maybe would consume our
time. Sometime we might think of it on that
scale. Well, there’s nothing
other than I go to church a lot, I read the Bible a lot, I pray a lot, but
there isn’t really anything that you can look at that’s consuming
me. But I think what he says here is even
deeper, and that’s what the Holy Spirit wants us to look at, you know,
he wants to go deeper. This right
here can be very subtle. I think
it’s so often where we trip up. I
think of Chuck Smith again and his words to those thousand men, as I’ve
been trying to evaluate my life by that. “OK
Lord, I want to be consecrated to you, I want to be consecrated to you Lord,
I just want to be set apart for you.” I
have that, and as soon as I put that into my mind, I’m reminding myself,
thinking about it. So now I’m listening to our Christian
radio station, if you haven’t heard it before, and I’m listening
to it, and I have this habit this time of year, getting in my car, leaving
in the morning, I turn it on, and then I go ‘Oh, what’s the Red
Sox score, you know, last night’s game, what’s the score? I
want to know who won.’ I
flip over there, and as I’m starting to flip over, I hear this little
question, ‘What’s so important about the Red Sox score?’ What’s
so important? Now I’m not
saying there’s anything bad about watching baseball, but I’m wondering
in my own heart, yeah Lord, I could listen to this great Bible teacher right
now and be edified, I hear you, I hear you. But
I really want to know the Red Sox score. I
really want to know right now. It’s
not that I watch many of the games, I watch few. But
I do want to know how they’re doing. And
then too, there’s this thing in me, I’ll be listening to the radio
and especially at the beginning of the day I want to flip over at the top of
the hour and just hear the big events in the world on the news, I want to get
the news. And I noticed that increased in my life
after September 11th. You
know, on September 11th, all of us, we sat in front of the TV watching
the news. But I wonder if something
is happening in my heart. [Watching
and keeping up with the news is important, as some current events tie directly
into prophecy being fulfilled. So
it’s important.] Because
I can be listening to a great teaching, and then all of a sudden, like top
of the hour, what’s the news events, you know, flipping over, hear the
news. Nothing wrong with knowing what’s
going on in the world. But you
see what I’m saying, I think it’s more subtle. He’s
talking about issues of heart, he’s talking about you know, what do we
love? And our hearts should be filled with the
love of the Lord, that’s for sure. How
does that scale read, love for the Lord, love for the world, where are we man? I hope all of us, it’s just so far
toward love for the Father here, with very little love for the world. It’s not bad to enjoy the world,
don’t get me wrong, but what do we love? [By
enjoy the world, I think he means hobbies, within reason. I like to skin dive. I may get the chance to skin dive maybe
once a year now, on my vacation. I
love to sail. But I very seldom
get a chance to do that anymore. It
doesn’t consume my life. I
think of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha in 2 Kings 5:14-26, where Gehazi wanted
the things of this world. It’s the story of Naaman the leprous
general of the Syrian army. He
wanted to be healed. He sent to
Elisha the prophet of God, and Elisha through his servant Gehazi told Naaman
to go dip himself in the Jordan seven times and he would be healed. Naaman
at first refused, and then did it, and was healed. He had brought a lot of gold and silver
to pay Elisha (via Gehazi his servant). Elisha
refused the money, but Gehazi secretly went back and said Elisha had changed
his mind and wanted a little, and Naaman gave Gehazi two talents of silver
with fine changes of clothing as well. God
revealed this to Elisha. Elisha’s
famous statement to Gehazi is in verses 25-27, “But he went in, and stood
before his master. And Elisha said
unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And
he said, Thy servant went not hither or thither. And he [Elisha] said unto him, Went
not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet
thee?”--Never lie to a prophet, not wise, not wise indeed. Now for the key statement, not just for
Gehazi, but all of us that live in this present evil age—this isn’t
the time of our reward, that comes later. That’s
what Elisha means here, and it applies to all of us—“Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards,
and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall
cleave unto thee, and unto they seed forever. And
he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”] We could go on with a long list here, many
examples. Of course we don’t
have the time. But when it comes
to living for the flesh, these are a few of the things the Bible says about
living for the flesh, some of the warnings. Mark
chapter 4, verse 19, Jesus says explicitly, living for the flesh is unfruitful. It
is unfruitful. John chapter 6, Jesus says living for
the flesh will profit us absolutely nothing, give us no profit in our life
at all. So then, Paul says to the church in Rome,
Romans chapter 13, verse 14 he says “Make no provision for the flesh”,
make no provision for the flesh. Then
in Philippians chapter 3, verse 3 he told the Philippians “Don’t
put any confidence in the flesh.” So
there’s warnings. John gives
warnings here about the danger. Then
I can’t help but think of Peter’s words “In these last days” 1st Peter
chapter 2, verse 11, listen to the heart of this church leader, this tremendous
man of God. He says to the Church “Dearly beloved”,
then he says “I beg you—I beseech you”—now when someone
says to you “I beg you”, I mean, what are they saying? They’re
saying “I am trying to get through to you—“I beg you, as
soldiers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” He says “I beg you” [King
James language “I beseech you”], I beg you, abstain from it. Live
for the Lord. You’ve only
got so much time. Jesus is coming
back soon, you’re going to be before him just a short time from now. Live for Jesus, live for Jesus, live for
him. It’s what it’s
all about.
The lust of the eyes
Now John says
that the love of the world includes the lust of the flesh,
but also includes the lust of the eyes. Man,
that’s where it starts, isn’t it? You
know, it’s through the eyes that sin so often works
it’s way into my life. [Men,
more than women, are naturally created to be attracted to
the way a woman looks. In
proper context with finding a spouse and in context with
marriage, and kept within those bounds, this natural trait
is good and God-created in men. But it is a danger when taken out of that
context.] It
is what I see and what the world wants me to see that so
often traps me up in sin. Now, when he says “the lust of the
eyes” it further includes delighting in pomp, in splendor,
in appearance, anything that appeals to the eyes. So
you know, you think of, of course Jesus says the man who
looks upon a woman lustfully has committed adultery, that’s
lust of the eyes. You
think of Eve there in the Garden of Eden, she looked at that
apple, then she said ‘Mmm, looks like it could taste
pretty good.’ It first caught her eyes, then it caught
her flesh, and then it worked to pride, and that’s
where she said, ‘Yeah, this will give me knowledge,
man.’ So
she took it. But the lust of the eyes, the lust of
the eyes. It
also refers to people whose main interest in life is their
personal appearance. [I
see this all the time in the health club I joined. I joined it, like many older people, to
maintain my health and keep my lower back muscles strong,
due to back problems. But
the place has mirrors lining the walls in the weight lifting
section, and many young men and women are there to maintain
their appearance, more than health. You
see them looking at themselves in the mirror. Us older folks, we just want to stay healthy
a little bit longer. Our
looks have already gone beyond repair for most of us.] That’s
indeed lust of the eyes. When
you can’t walk by a mirror without going ‘How
do I look? How do I look?’ Someone said, if you follow a persons
eyes long enough, you will discern much about their thoughts
and much about their heart. And
it’s true isn’t it? Are they checkin’ out the babes?—all
of the nice cars that drive by? Are
they noticing all the mirrors? Are
they looking in all the store windows? [Again,
it’s part of a woman’s nature to like to shop,
and we guys would starve in a house or apartment furnished
with wooden boxes for tables and chairs if this weren’t
so. Taken to
extremes, though is what he’s talking about.] Their
eyes, their eyes will tell you—where are their eyes
going? I think too of the type books and magazines
that constitute a person’s magazine rack at home. [Oh, man. National
Geographic’s everywhere, Good News Magazine, Zion’s
Fire, 7 massive book shelves loaded with secular and religious
history books, going from ancient Egypt to the present, science
books—and I’m a remedial reader! But that’s
what keeps this site interesting.] That’s
very telling. Is it mostly books on spiritual matters? That will always tell you something. All kinds of devotionals sitting in that
rack and magazines on the Lord. Or
is it Sporting magazines? That
tells me about somebody, they’ve got Sports Illustrated,
they got sports this, Sports World, that’s all they’ve
got. Or is it
car magazines. Or
electronic gadgetry magazines? Some
people really get caught up in that man, they’re looking
into those magazines, and they’re just going to the
phone all the time, 1-800, ‘I’ll order that,
I’ll order that, they got ‘em all, you know. Or
maybe it’s work-out magazines, man, it’s all
about the gym, music magazines, clothes magazines, the Hollywood
scandal mags. I
think it tells something about that, I mean, your eyes, your
eyes, the lust of the eyes, lust of the eyes. We
should always remember the word of the psalmist in Psalm
119, verse 37, he said to God, “Turn away my eyes from
looking at worthless things, and revive me in your way.” If you want revival, you want to be revived,
maybe you need to put your attention on other things more. Consumed too much with love of the world. So
if you sit here today and there’s very little love
for the Father, little passion. Think of Jesus’ words too in Matthew
chapter 6, verse 22, “The light of the body is the
eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But
if your eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Your
eye, your eye, it’s effecting you so much. What are you focusing on, where’s
your attention going?
But then even
more subtle than the lust of the flesh, that can be pretty
blatant too, but the lust of the eyes can be a subtle thing.
The pride of life
But what’s
even more subtle is what John tells us at the end of the
verse. This third
part is “the pride of life.” The
best way to describe the pride of life is the word
“self-glorification.” It
can include the pride of your birth, pride in your family name, pride of your
family heritage, pride in your industry or your job, pride about your genealogy,
your social status, pride in that. Martin
Lloyd Jones said “It is the most serious and most terrible of the three,
pride of the life, the most terrible.” I
believe it’s true. You know,
I was reading his commentary, and he was going on with a long list of [what
makes up] the pride of life, examples, examples, making it very clear, as he
taught there in London, you know, sixty years ago, seventy years ago in packed
out church services. He was teaching,
a tremendous orator. And I’ve
got his sermons, and I was reading one and he started to talk to the audience
about pride, and then he went on to college degrees, being prideful about the
university you attended. You know,
I heard that and I got a little prick in my heart. Ooh
I said, that makes me a little uncomfortable. And
it’s true. I like to tell
people, I got this degree and this is the college I went to. I’ll be honest with you, I like
to tell people that. I don’t
know what’s wrong with me, it’s pride. I’m
not going to tell you right now I want to. [laughter] Maybe
it’s because I was the first one in my family to get a college degree,
I don’t know. But you can
be prideful about things like that. He
says this is the love of the world, and this is dangerous, man. It
is dangerous. If you and I are
going to live a life that is truly consecrated to the Lord, real love for the
Father, we need to have the heart of Paul when Paul said in Galatians chapter
6, verse 14, “But 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.” And who cares
about anything about me, it’s about the cross, that’s the greatest
thing, nothing compares to that. Anything
in me is just so far smaller and removed and shabby compared to Jesus and what
he’s done for me.
“And the world passeth away,
and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of
God abideth for ever.”
Well John goes
on to one more point that helps us in this battle we’re
in, all the enticement around us, this struggle trying to
live for the Lord, all these things seeking to lure us in
this age, he gives us one more thing, and it’s this
last understanding which he mentions in verse 17. He
mentions the ultimate and final destination of the world. He
says in verse 17, “The world is passing away and the
lust of it.” The
world is passing away. His reasoning is simple, he’s saying ‘Why
get so wrapped up into something that isn’t going to
last?’ ‘Why get so wrapped up into something
that’s so temporary?’ That’s
what he’s saying. The
world, it’s leaving, man, it’s passing away,
and the lust of it. Everything
around us, one day, is going to be consumed by fire, so he’s
saying, why live for something that’s just going to
burn? Why live for that? That’s
futile, that’s futile, that’s a waste of your
life. You only
got one here on this earth, and it’s a waste to live
for something that in the end is just going to go boom! Smoke,
gone, and it’s done.
The whole planet Earth, and the
heavens too, will be consumed in immense fire. This
is termed the “lake of fire” in Revelation
20:13-14; 21:1. “And death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever was not found in the book
of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev.
21:1, the very next event) “And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away: and there was no more sea.”
Consider the
life of Lot. You see in the pattern of Lot, you see
the pattern here. You
know, it started with the eyes, he looked toward Sodom in
Genesis, he looked towards it, he said ‘Oh, that’s
nice over there.’ Wasn’t
in it yet, but he looked towards it. Because
he looked towards it, it started to draw his heart, so he
went down and pitched his tent there in the valley, and it
says he pitched his tent, he set up the door of his tent
towards Sodom. He
was looking at it, it was really catching his attention. And then a little later we find Lot living
in Sodom, sitting even at the city gate…part of the
central life of the city. At the same time when that city was captured
by the enemy, who also was captured?—Lot. Abraham
had to come rescue him. But
then when God destroys Sodom, God had to rescue Lot. And everything he was living for, the
next day Abraham stood there and looked over the valley and
it was just smoke. He was living for all this stuff, it was
consuming his passions, and then just a little while later
it was gone. The life of Lot is a reminder of that. But the destination of this world, man,
we should consider that, because this stuff is just going
to leave. [For the true destination of this world,
check out http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/kog.htm .] It’s
going to be consumed with fire. It says that “he who does the will of God abides forever.” That’s living for eternity, that’s
investing in stuff, that’s making such a good investment
where there’s always dividends. You
know, why invest into some kind of scheme that’s only
going to fail later? That’s bad business. But investing in eternity is something
that you will appreciate, that you will reap for all eternity. [For an interesting idea in how to spread
your investment where it will do the most good, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/missionstatement.htm .] He
who does the will of God abides forever. That’s
what he means there. Now
when he says “the will of God”, what
does he mean by
“the will of God”? The
word there in the Greek is thelema,
and it means “what God wants to do, what God wants to accomplish.” And
of course, today in this age, God does his work, he wants to accomplish certain
things, and he works especially through you and I, through the Church, uses
us as instruments. [Pastors, to
dig deeper into this theme, check out http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/graham/bgraham1.html.] But there is a little bit more to this
word, this word thelema [Strongs
#2307]. It derives from the Greek
word theleo [#2309] which means not only to
will, but to delight, to delight in bringing that will to fruition. So he says “but he who does the will of
God”, will, delighting to live for the Lord, those who do that will “live
forever.” Well, here we are
on Father’s Day, God’s spoken to the dads, God’s spoken to
all of us. I think this is a great text, every church
in America should probably have this as they come in, you know, listen guys,
listen guys…Jesus made it so clear, he says “in the last days
lawlessness will abound, and he says the love [agapeo] of many will wax cold.” He says about the church in Laodocia,
man,
‘I’m about to spit you out of my mouth, because you’re lukewarm’,
the fire’s going out. So
today, today where are we? Jim
Eliot once said he said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep,
to gain what he cannot loose.” He says, ‘I give up all this stuff
for you Lord.’ Meaning ‘I
don’t live for it anymore’, because it’s all temporary anyway,
I can’t keep it anyway, ‘and I live for you Lord.’ Man,
but don’t we live in such a battle? But
I hope and pray that John has encouraged you. He’s
encouraged me, man, consecrated life. I
guess I could share the same words with you that Chuck Smith said to us, why
don’t we the next year just live a consecrated life, more than ever before. The
world has yet to see what God will do through one man who’s fully consecrated
to Jesus Christ. And what he will do is just amazing. John has reminded us of true grace. Maybe you were just a little discouraged,
listening to some of the things said [in the previous sermon transcripts],
but he said, ‘Hey man, your sins a forgiven.’ He’s
reminded us of true relationship, meaning, we know the Lord, it’s all
about that. We’ve already
got it, man. He’s also reminded
us of true strength, we need the Word of God. You
know in Galatians 6, Paul talks about fighting the enemy and on ‘that
evil day, standing.’ And
he talks about the armour, putting on the Armour of God and then he mentions
the Sword, the Rema, the Word of God. And
it’s so key in the battle, because you know, you can be a soldier with
the sword, and you can be good with that sword, and even if you’re real
good with it, you can do without the rest of the armour if you’re good
with a sword. But it’s not
true of the rest of the armour, you need that sword, it’s so vital and
central to fighting the fight. So
we have the sword. But he also
reminded us of the danger of the love of the world, the definition of what
the love of the world is.” [sermon
transcript of 1st John 2:12-17, given somewhere in New England]
For more on the
subject of putting on the Armour of God, log onto:
http://www.unityinchrist.com/ephesians/eph6armour.htm and
read through to http://www.unityinchrist.com/ephesians/putonarmour.htm .
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