001.26. Chapter 26
Chapter 26 THE WORLD DOOMED
“Love not the world” (1 John 2:15): either its policies or its pleasures, its maxims or its methods, its trends or its ends. Refuse all intimacy with its subjects. That prohibition is enforced, first, by the solemn consideration, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The great Searcher of hearts cannot be deceived: if I am living for the enjoyment of the world and seeking to win its favour, then I am waging warfare against heaven, bidding open defiance to the Lord of hosts (James 4:4). Anyone who makes the world his portion or supreme good is dead in sin. It is impossible to keep God’s commandments and to be on good terms with His open enemies.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” This is the second reason why we are not to love the world: because the principles which operate therein, and the food which it provides for them to feed upon, are essentially evil. We are forbidden to set our affection upon things which gratify the carnal nature, which pander to a disordered imagination, and which minister unto pride. The world supplies an elaborate menu for its subjects. There are stalls and shows in Vanity Fair designed by its prince to appeal unto all tastes and temperaments.
It should be pointed out that those three propensities of fallen human nature have had a corporate embodiment in that monstrous system which God has suffered for so long to devour both the souls and bodies of millions of mankind. We refer to “the mother of harlots,” which for the last thousand years has had the effrontery to term herself “The Holy Catholic Church” and “The Bride of Christ.” If there has been any religious organization outstandingly characterized by these three evils, it is undoubtedly the Papacy. What but “the lust of the flesh,” in its grossest form, has marked her gluttonous prelates, the “indulgences” which they sell to their poor dupes, and the moral filth which has obtained in her convents and monasteries—as converted nuns and monks have frequently testified? What are her imposing cathedrals, her elaborate ritual, her gorgeous vestments and her spectacular processions but so many alluring appeals to the “lust of the eyes”? And what are the flattering titles assumed by her dignitaries, the Pope’s usurpation of the alone prerogatives of Christ, and his claim to rule over kings, but clear evidences of “the pride of life”? And the more worldly other allegedly “Christian” denominations become, and the closer they draw to Rome, the more conspicuous are the same elements and features in them. In glorious contrast with what has been before us above, let the child of God ponder and feast upon the blessed ways of Immanuel, and bow in admiration and adoration before Him who differed as much from them as does the light from darkness. When about to descend to this earth, He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant” (Php 2:7). He was born not in a palace, but in a cattle shed. During the years that He remained in this scene, He disdained its pomp, and sought not His happiness in it. Yet the unworldliness of Christ was not that of the hermit, but of One whose ministry was upon the stage of public action, among all classes of people. When He selected the twelve apostles, who were to be His most intimate companions, and later His ambassadors, He chose not the mighty, the noble, or the wise of this world, but humble fishermen and a despised tax-gatherer. So far was He from seeking the limelight that, after He had healed the sick, again and again He bade one and another, “See thou tell no man” (Matthew 8:4; Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16). When His brethren after the flesh said, “If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world,” He refused their request, and later went up to the feast at Jerusalem “not openly, but as it were in secret” (John 7:4, John 7:10)—unannounced, unobtrusively.
After the Lord Jesus Christ had performed many mighty works, and the same had been noised abroad, Simon and his fellows said unto Him, “All men seek for Thee,” but He replied, “Let us go into the next towns” (Mark 1:37-38): rather than receive the plaudits of the crowd, He moved on. Instead of courting popularity, He ever shunned it. Said He, “I receive not honour from men” (John 5:41). In Mark 7:17, we are told, “And when He was entered into the house from the people” (and cf. Mark 3:19; Mark 9:28, Mark 9:33)—He went about doing His Father’s business quietly and unostentatiously. Upon His transfiguration, He charged those who beheld it, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead” (Matthew 17:9). When it became necessary to make a public presentation of His royal claims, He entered Jerusalem not in a chariot, but seated upon an ass—the King of meekness. He averred, “the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me” (John 14:30). There was no lust of the flesh, no lust of the eyes, no pride of life working within the Lord Jesus; and therefore naught to which the corrupt things of the world could appeal. Not only so, but positively there was everything in Him to repel them, for He was “the Holy One,” against whom all the shafts of the Devil were aimed in vain.
Having explained at some length what is signified by the three evils announced in verse 16, let us return to the apostle’s principal designs in our passage, which were to warn the Lord’s people, and to expose graceless professors, for in neither the Old Testament nor the New does God own anyone as a lover of Him save he who keeps His commandments and walks in separation from the world. The Church and the world are sharply distinguished entities, their members two opposing companies. Therefore does God say to the former, “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17): instead, they are required to keep themselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27), “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 1:23), witnessing against the world (Hebrews 11:7). The world makes its appeals to all of the bodily senses, but its main object is to capture the heart, for until that citadel be won all its arts and devices have failed; but the moment the heart is taken, man becomes the world’s captive, even though (to borrow the language of another) “he be bound in the silken fetters of love.” Hence the supreme importance of our complying with the precept, “Keep thy heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23), for it is the throne where either Christ or Satan rules.
Solomon tells us that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12), nevertheless the grace of God can and does effectually deliver from the love of pleasure, riches, honours, as appears with more or less clearness among the regenerate. A striking case in point is that of Moses, for we read of his “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin [the lust of the flesh] for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt [the lust of the eyes] ... By faith he forsook Egypt,” abandoning his position there as “the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” thereby disdaining the pride of life (Hebrews 11:24-27). Note well, my reader, the repeated “by faith” in those verses, for only so far as that grace be healthy and active will the saint be impervious to both the delights and the terrors of the world: “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). Faith occupies the soul with invisible and eternal realities, and as we are engaged with them the things of time and sense lose their hold upon the heart. A sight of “the King in His beauty” and a sense of His dying love are the surest means of breaking their power.
“I thirst, but not as once I did, The vain delights of earth to share:
Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid That I should seek my pleasures there.” As the Christian desires to ascertain whether or not he is growing in grace, let him frequently measure himself by this standard: Am I becoming less worldly? He may be innocent of all forms of intemperance and of a spirit of covetousness, he may not envy the prosperity of the wicked or join with them in their vanities, but is he indifferent to their opinion, caring not whether they smile or frown upon him? Is the reader afraid of being called “peculiar” because he ignores its fashions and defies its conventions? Nothing; is more pitiful than to see a citizen of heaven in bondage to the whims of Satan’s children: certain it is that if his daily life does not offend them, he is not being faithful to his Master. We shall become less worldly only as our love for God in Christ increases and becomes more vigorous, and therefore, as it is more important to act grace than to be assured that we have it, we should set ourselves with all our might to strengthen our love to the Lord, and then shall we know that we love Him. The example which Christ has left us should make it easier to deny ungodly and worldly lusts. How fully did He manifest His contempt of the world and all the glory thereof! Let us not affect a greater eminence in it than He had. If He was “a Man of sorrows” in this scene, does it become any follower of His to be addicted to its pleasures? If they called Him “Beelzebub” should we compromise in order to escape “bearing His reproach”?
“Is not of the Father, but is of the world.” This is the third dissuasive against setting our affections thereon. Observe, first, that the apostle did not say “is not of God,” but “is not of the Father,” just as in the foregoing verse he had said, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” As the Devil is opposed to Christ, the flesh hostile to the Spirit, so the world is antagonistic to the Father and hates His children (1 John 3:13). “All that is in the world... is not of the Father.” The things of the world are termed “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” because they are the objects of them: just as the “doctrine of Christ” (2 John 1:9) is called “the faith” (Galatians 1:23; Jude 1:3), because it is the object of faith. Those three principles are the springs of action in its citizens; all that takes place in this mundane sphere (as considered apart from the Church and the operations of the Spirit) issues from them: every motive-power at work within the ungodly may be traced thereto. In its turn, the world caters fully for and to them. For the first there are carnal delights to entice the soul from the strictness and severity of the Christian profession. For the second there are all kinds of material profits and illicit gains to allure. For the third there are preferments and applause which the natural man is so fond of. Those sensible objects to which the old nature is so inclined are ever present, seeking to divert the heart from God and heavenly-mindedness.
“All that is in the world... is not of the Father.” They are not of His creation, for at the beginning He pronounced all things, including our first parents, “very good.” No, as Christ declared of the field wherein tares were sown after He had sown it with wheat, “an enemy hath done this.” The idolatrous desire after its objects attached not nor pertained to them originally, but resulted from the fall. Nor are they of His infusion: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away [from the path of rectitude] of his own lusts” (James 1:13-14). All such evil lusting is the outcome of indwelling sin. Nor are they of His preceptive will. He has not provided them for any such purposes, nor prescribed them to be so misused. And certainly such perversity of them is not of His approbation. No, rather are they “of the world” as it “lieth in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19), which does not, in either its prince or its subjects, respect God’s laws, acknowledge His claims, or seek to glorify Him. Such unlawful cravings are the effects of man’s apostasy and subjection to Satan, who now makes whatsoever is in the world to be his baits to seduce men into further sin. Thus, loyalty to God and regard for the welfare of our souls require that such a world be renounced by us, and every inordinate longing after it mortified.
“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof” (1 John 2:17). Here is still another reason why God’s people are not to love the world, an argument drawn from the vain and vanishing state of mundane things and man’s enjoyment of them.
Those words may be understood two ways: relatively and absolutely, in regard both to ourselves and itself. In themselves, and in the pleasure which the ungodly derive from them, the things of the world are only transitory and can afford no lasting satisfaction. “The fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). There is a “fashion” or outward form, which in its incidentals alters in each age and generation, after which its deluded votaries order their lives, being carried along hither and thither by the ebb and flow of its tides. Its customs and habits, its styles and modes, its pleasures and amusements, are ever varying. Yet it is by this very means that the multitudes are more and more deceived. The objects they sought so eagerly yesterday fulfilled not their expectations, so with equal earnestness they pursue the same or other objects today, assured that the attaining of them will rejoice them; only to find them broken cisterns which hold no water.
“And the world passeth away.” It is but an amusing pageant: its alluring shows and sights are like a revolving stage, with its scenes changing rapidly, one set of actors soon following another. How frequently do houses and estates change hands. How many a monarchy has been overturned in this century, how many a kingdom had its boundaries altered, how many of its proud cities reduced to rubble. How frequently do riches take to themselves wings and fly away. “Change and decay in all around I see.” Its beauty is only transient, vanishing almost as soon as it appears. Its “fashion” is but an appearance, for there is nothing substantial in it. Its pleasures soon pall: the laughter of fools is compared to “the crackling of thorns under a pot” (Ecclesiastes 7:6)—a momentary blaze which disappears in smoke. Its honours are evanescent and disappointing. Its smiles are artificial and fickle. “And the lust thereof” Calvin pointed out that “lust” is here used metonymically, as signifying the objects coveted, or the things which captivate the desires of men; the things they deem most precious are but a shadowy phantom, which fails them in the hour of need. The carnal joys of the wicked are like the present sufferings of the saints—relatively “but for a moment,” but instead of working for them “a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory” they issue in everlasting shame and woe.
“The world passeth away” also has reference to its citizens, for “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass” (1 Peter 1:24). All mankind is in a perishing condition, hastening to the grave. The tombstones in our cemeteries bear solemn witness to the brevity of life: far more die in infancy and childhood than in old age. No class is exempt, the wealthy equally with the poor being often cut off in the prime of life. “For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass... so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways” (James 1:11). The uncertainty and transiency of mortal life is something which worldlings desire to forget, and therefore do they “put far away the evil day” (Amos 6:3), death being feared by them because it will summon them into the presence of their righteous Judge. The shortness and instability of life are set forth in the Scriptures by many comparisons: the wind (Job 7:7), a leaf before the wind (Job 13:25), a shadow (Job 14:2), the flower of the field (Isaiah 40:6), “vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14), so unsubstantial and unreal, so impermanent and soon over, is human life, and all the prosperity, magnificence and enjoyment that may have attended it.
Oh, my reader, at most we have but a little time to spend in this scene, and that little will soon be gone. “Then why set our hearts on worldly enjoyments? or why be overwhelmed with earthly cares? Possess what you must shortly leave without allowing yourself to be possessed by it. Why should your hearts be much set on what you must quickly resign?” (S. Brown). Hold loosely all earthly things. Build not your nest in any tree here, for the whole forest is doomed to destruction.
Even now the world is under the judgment, the curse, the wrath, of a sin-hating God. That is evident every time we see a funeral, for death is the wages of sin, and daily we behold that grim reaper at work. Neighbors and friends, known and loved by us, are suddenly cut down. Soon the world will pass away absolutely and finally. It is not eternal: it had a beginning, and it will have an end. God has appointed a day when it shall no longer exist to oppose Him; and when that day arrives “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10), and all its unsaved inhabitants will be cast into the lake of fire, there to be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Revelation 20:10).
“But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” It is not, as might be expected from 1 John 2:15, “he that loveth God,” but the fruit and proof thereof which is here named, for obedience to God is love in action. Nor is it simply “he that knoweth and [theoretically] approveth the Divine will,” but rather the one who actually performs it. This is the grand design and end of God’s work of grace in the soul: to make its subject the doer of His Word. The saint is here viewed not as an object of God’s everlasting love, nor as one for whom Christ purchased redemption, but rather as one who has been transformed by the renewing of his mind and made an obedient child. This is very searching. As Peter declared, “God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him,” (Acts 10:35-36). And as his Master taught, “For whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother” (Matthew 12:50); “blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:28); “they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:29). “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:14). Such passages as those are almost universally ignored by Antinomians, who are for ever crying up grace at the expense of holiness.
“He that doeth the will of God:” not grudgingly but heartily; not bits of it, but the whole. Such is the character and conduct of Wisdom’s children—the very opposite of the worldling’s. They willingly submit to God’s authority, seek to please Him in their daily lives, walk in the Law of the Lord. Not flawlessly so, but evangelically, sincerely, so that of his deviations therefrom the believer can honestly say, “That which I do I allow not” (Romans 7:15), condemning himself for, mourning over and penitently confessing the same. There is no such thing as sinless perfection in this life, either in being entirely rid of love for the things of the world or in doing the will of God. But “he that doeth the will of God” is characteristic of a Christian. And such a one “abideth for ever,” which imports far more than personal continuance (for such will be the case with all the unregenerate), namely in the favour of God and shall be eternally blessed. He shall abide for ever in the possession of that substantial good which he has been enabled to make choice of. Such a one is the heir of eternal life, a member of that kingdom which cannot be shaken. Durable riches are his, a crown of glory awaits him, fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore at God’s right hand.