Being a Child of God, Not of The World
By: Ryan Fan
Tags: Self, Scripture, Spirituality, Coronavirus, Religion

Lately, I’ve felt very chaotic and spiritually unfulfilled. I’ve felt much more tied down to the problems of the world without keeping God first in my mind and heart, and I’ve been struggling with my faith with all the challenges of the world lately, with the pandemic and the chaos of the election. As a teacher doing virtual learning, balancing a Master’s Degree, and attending to my side hustle of writing and editing, I’ve felt very worn down no matter how much rest I’m getting.

Because I feel so connected to the world and everything going on, is it making me less of a Christian right now? I think to my Zoom church services where I feel less connected and increasingly more disengaged to where I can barely pay attention at times.

I feel lost

I feel like my faith has always been a center and constant, but in these times, I’m struggling to think of what I should do and what life should look like.

“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.” (1 John 2:15, ESV).

But what does the world mean in 1 John 2:15? According to John Piper at Desiring God, the verse starts with a command to not love the world, and gives an incentive not to love the world later in the verse. According to Piper, as Christians, we should not love the world because “you can’t love the world and God at the same time.”

“Love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world,” Piper says.

The world would be a master above God, so to love the world would mean to put the world above God.

In 1 John 2:16 (ESV), John tells us:

“For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world.”

According to Piper, in this verse, we have to not only say we love God but put God at the center and internalize our love for God. Piper goes on to say that a “love for the world can’t coexist with love for God.” It is in this verse that John Piper defines what the world is, which is what we desire from our flesh, what we desire in our eyes, and what we take pride in life. We find validation on all kinds of things, but finding our validation in faith and God is the most important part of being a Christian.

Lastly, in 1 John 2:17 (ESV), John completes his section on not loving the world, and says:

“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

For Christians, thinking of the world like a house, Piper makes the analogy that no one sets a house on a sinking ship — and makes the direct analogy that for Christians, the world is a sinking ship, and Piper stresses not to put all your heart on the work because it’s “only asking for heartache and misery in the end.” The lusts of the world are passing away too, like money, reputation, and pride.

Instead, John tells us that the validation and incentive is in the will of the Father. If you love the Father, you will do the will of God. Love for the world and love for God’s gift cannot exist. Piper explains that loving the world means you don’t love God, and that if you love the world, you perish with the world. Loving God instead of the world means you will live with God forever.

“According to 1 John 2:15, if your love for God is cool this morning, it’s because love for the world has begun to take over your heart and choke your love for God,” Piper says.

Maybe that speaks to me right now because I, perhaps, am using everything going on in the world as an excuse to subconsciously put the world above God.

Faith, then, is the most important thing as a Christian. But there is a faith that trusts God and a faith that loves God — and saving faith means you can’t have one without the other. There is a lapse in my faith if I trust God but still love the world above God, if that makes sense.

And I know a lot of people are struggling in this day and age. Loving God, as John urges us in 2:15–17, is something we can say, but not something that’s easy to feel especially in times of extreme chaos and turmoil.

How to apply 1 John 2:15–17

John Piper does not mince words — he says “your love has grown cool and weak” as a possibility for us not loving God. To regain a love for God, we have to immerse ourselves in the Holy Spirit and read God’s word. When the love for the world ascends our love for God, it’s time to renew our passion and faith. Simply put, loving the world and loving God can’t coexist.

Of course, it’s not like many of our worldly desires don’t matter. We need food. We need work, and we need sleep and entertainment.

But at the end of the day, all these worldly desires should be for God

In Colossians 3:17 (ESV), Paul writes:

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

That means every desire we have, as Christians, is for God. Seeking food is for God. Seeking exercise is for God. Seeking a spouse is for God, and seeking a job is for God. In everything we desire, we should seek God. Whatever is in the world which we confront before us on a day to day basis, we should seek for God — and that means all the challenges before us in the craziness of 2020.

For me, that means I’m working so hard for God. But if work goes well or doesn’t go well — I’m reminded that God is more important than work. It’s an ongoing process, an exercise going back and forth that we gain through reading Scripture and through prayer. Israel, after all, means wrestling with God — because God makes us wrestle to receive his blessing.