Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
1 John 2:15-17 The Message
The Message is a paraphrase of the Bible, but yet it lends such a dynamic clarity to words we often gloss over due to familiarity. These verses are frequently misinterpreted by well-meaning Christians who take separation from the world much too far. It is not my intention to be of a critical spirit, but it pains me to observe people in groups who insist that their members dress differently and live entirely isolated from the world, especially when it is against their will.
The verses in 1 John 2 urge us to have different attitudes and behaviour from the world around us. The word 'wanting' is mentioned six times, emphasizing the driving force of our world system. Always wanting and never satisfied! Love of the world's ways and goods drives us away from our heavenly Father. A Christian is required to desire what God wants. How can we know the heart of the Father if we never take time to find out by communing with Him through prayer and the reading of His Word? How can we know what moves Him and what His plans are for this world? We need to spend quiet moments listening to His still, small voice. A casual reading of the Bible is not enough, we need to commit ourselves to Bible study in order to unearth many of the treasures within. When we devote ourselves to these issues rather than the temporal, fleeting fantasies of a selfish world, our lives take on a spiritual dimension and we get to know Him. Paul expressed this desire in Philippians 3:10 - that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings...
When we think about some of the things which God wants, the Bible is very clear.
God wants us to sanctify His name. He reminded the children of Israel not to 'profane' His holy name in Leviticus 22:32, but that His name should be 'hallowed'. This is reiterated in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 when Yeshua prayed to his Father and said, 'may Your name be sanctified'. For more information on the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, listen to Christine Darg interview Biblical scholar Nehemia Gordon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tKthnkUUdM
God wants everyone to hear the Gospel and be saved. The apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to pray for everyone, for kings and those in authority because He 'desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Timothy 2:1-4). We also have the Great Commission of the Lord in Matthew 28:16-20 to 'make disciples of all nations' and to be 'witnesses ... to the ends of the earth' in Acts 1:8.
God wants to bless and restore His people Israel. Paul asks in Romans 11:1 '...has God cast away His people? Certainly not!' I suggest you read the whole chapter to follow the argument. In verses 25-27 he explains: "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written:
'The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.'"
1 John 2:15-17 The Message
The Message is a paraphrase of the Bible, but yet it lends such a dynamic clarity to words we often gloss over due to familiarity. These verses are frequently misinterpreted by well-meaning Christians who take separation from the world much too far. It is not my intention to be of a critical spirit, but it pains me to observe people in groups who insist that their members dress differently and live entirely isolated from the world, especially when it is against their will.
The verses in 1 John 2 urge us to have different attitudes and behaviour from the world around us. The word 'wanting' is mentioned six times, emphasizing the driving force of our world system. Always wanting and never satisfied! Love of the world's ways and goods drives us away from our heavenly Father. A Christian is required to desire what God wants. How can we know the heart of the Father if we never take time to find out by communing with Him through prayer and the reading of His Word? How can we know what moves Him and what His plans are for this world? We need to spend quiet moments listening to His still, small voice. A casual reading of the Bible is not enough, we need to commit ourselves to Bible study in order to unearth many of the treasures within. When we devote ourselves to these issues rather than the temporal, fleeting fantasies of a selfish world, our lives take on a spiritual dimension and we get to know Him. Paul expressed this desire in Philippians 3:10 - that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings...
When we think about some of the things which God wants, the Bible is very clear.
God wants us to sanctify His name. He reminded the children of Israel not to 'profane' His holy name in Leviticus 22:32, but that His name should be 'hallowed'. This is reiterated in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 when Yeshua prayed to his Father and said, 'may Your name be sanctified'. For more information on the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, listen to Christine Darg interview Biblical scholar Nehemia Gordon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tKthnkUUdM
God wants everyone to hear the Gospel and be saved. The apostle Paul exhorts Timothy to pray for everyone, for kings and those in authority because He 'desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Timothy 2:1-4). We also have the Great Commission of the Lord in Matthew 28:16-20 to 'make disciples of all nations' and to be 'witnesses ... to the ends of the earth' in Acts 1:8.
God wants to bless and restore His people Israel. Paul asks in Romans 11:1 '...has God cast away His people? Certainly not!' I suggest you read the whole chapter to follow the argument. In verses 25-27 he explains: "blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written:
'The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.'"
This should rejoice our hearts and remind us to pray for Israel. Praise God that many of his beloved people are already recognizing Yeshua as the Messiah!
God wants all of us, not just a part. If we have already accepted the Lord as our Saviour, we are reminded in Romans 12:1 that we are to 'present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.' 'Reasonable service' could be rendered 'spiritually intelligent worship and service'. Maybe we are not comfortable with the thought of being a 'living sacrifice' because we think we are going to lose something. We may lose our own silly plans and ideas, but what profound blessing comes to a life which is fully offered to God! I often think of David when he said, 'oh that someone would give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem!' in 1 Chronicles 11:17. However, when the three mighty men returned with water, David 'would not drink it but poured it out to the LORD' (v18). In those moments of great thirst, David made a wonderful sacrifice of the precious water to the living LORD. He had realized the value of the act of the three men in risking their lives to bring it. Surely our lives have been bought at an unfathomable price. Our Lord Jesus poured out his life for us at Calvary and redeemed us with His blood. May we comprehend, just as David poured out the water, we too need to pour out our lives as a living sacrifice!
As we study our Bibles, we will encounter many more desires of God. It is imperative to find out what they are, because this life is not about us. It's about God and His sovereignty. His decrees and plans will come to pass and His Word will remain forever. May we realize this world is only our temporary dwelling place. That which is to come is eternal!
Comments
Post a Comment