In our sermon last week, we heard the apostle John’s clear injunction: “Do not love the world.” For a Singapore church growing up in a culture of consumerism and accumulation, this is doubtless a difficult command to obey. “You only live once”, is the slogan of this modern age, with the implied understanding that we ought to make the most of earth, and maximises the pleasures of earth, in our brief time on earth.
Our next two editorials(1) will touch on John’s injunction, and through the example of our Lord Jesus, may we find the model and motivation to resist the love of the world, and to love God instead, as we await his coming kingdom that abides forever.
-Ps Luwin Wong
“Do not love the world or the things in the world.” (1 John 2:15)
My oldest daughter was three years old when we walked through Disney Land and her little voice rose to my ears: “Daddy, are we in Vanity Fair?” Are we in Bunyan’s famous town that detains Christian pilgrims on their journey to the Celestial City with its consumerism, comforts, and trinkets? “Yes,” I replied. “Yes, we are.”
The modern world has perfected Vanity Fair. The average middle-class man would hesitate to switch places with ancient kings. Our lives are lived between commercials; million-dollar industries train us in greed. Your best life now is sold at the mall, in the gym, and even from some pulpits. Eat, drink, and be merry — you only live once.
This is Satan’s dream for you before it was America’s. A love for more stuff, a love that wraps its arms around this world for its greatest happiness, a love that keeps you captive to the here and now and apathetic toward eternity — this is a love from below. It is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. And it grasps for an unholy trinity: lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).
Unholy Trinity
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. (1 John 2:16)
What is this unholy trinity of the world’s lusts?
When I think of lusts of the flesh, I think of David and Bathsheba, of Samson and Delilah, of the sluggard in Proverbs, enslaved to his appetites. When I consider lusts of the eyes, I think of the garden where Eve saw the fruit, saw that it was pleasing, and ate. Or when I imagine the pride of life, I think of the Pharisees who received glory from each other; of Haman, who hated righteous Mordecai; of Herod, who was confused for a god, did not correct the error, and was fed to worms.
And while all of these illustrate the truth and are given for our instruction, it wasn’t until recently that I considered a place where all three temptations collide: the grand temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We learn from him how to resist and conquer these three dragons.
Tempting His Flesh
He who was the true Israel must take up the sword where the other Israel fell. The Spirit put the Son at a distinct disadvantage: Jesus did not eat for forty days. Those of us who have missed lunch and groaned understand how fasting can leave you vulnerable to temptation. Satan knew it, and thus we read,
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:1–3)
Jesus is hungry. Satan tempts him at his weakest. The lust of the flesh that Satan offered was not sexual, but hungerful. His flesh craved food, and Satan tempted him with bread. Why not provide for himself by commanding stones into bread, since he is the Son of God? Bread is no evil. Jesus later teaches us to pray for our daily loaf from our heavenly Father. Yet Jesus, as the perfect man, was not to get bread on his own terms. Better to die of starvation in the wilderness than to sin. So, Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’” (verse 4).
Life does not come from sustaining your body with the world’s bread, but by living from the revealed will of God. Jesus teaches us how to fight the lusts of the flesh: remember that life is about far more than flesh; it’s about God and his word.
(1) Greg Morse, (2025, Jan 17). Do Not Love the World. DesiringGod.https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/do-not-love-the-world
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