Love Not the World — E.A. Johnston

John’s Warning Against Worldly Love

If you will turn in your Bible's friends to the first epistle of John We will be reading from chapter 2 in verses 15 through 17. Here now is the Word of God and made the Spirit of the Lord. Attend the reading of his holy word.

Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world. The love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world. The lust to the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

It's not of the father, but it's of the world. I will pause here friends to say When the Apostle John lived in Ephesus. It was a populous city of 500 ,000 people. Of the walls of the city were five miles in length.

Ephesus as a Center of Wealth and Pleasure

Enclosing an area of more than a thousand acres. Ephesus was beautifully situated. With mountains on one side and the sea that washed up to the temple of Diana on the other. Kind of like the geography of Los Angeles today.

It was a big city crawling with life and commerce fun and excitement. Ephesus was a prominent city in Asia Minor. People came from all over to enjoy the wonders of Ephesus. It was like a big Las Vegas.

The Pagan Idolatry and Immorality of Ephesus

It was sin city. The temple of Diana was the most magnificent building ever. Constructed in the Greek world and it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ephesus was also a prosperous city with luxurious houses wide streets lined with columns and marble.

Its buildings had mosaic floors. Painted walls in running water. The public lavatory that sat in the center of town. Had musicians playing reeds and harps. Ephesus was a pleasurable city full of tourists and fun seekers.

Paul’s Riot in the Ephesian Theater

It boasted of a large Greek amphitheater that seated 25 ,000 spectators. That theater was the scene of the mob riot against the Apostle Paul led by Demetrius the silversmith who incited the citizens to cry out for the space of two hours.

Great as Diana of the Ephesians. Ephesus was a bustling city not with a church on every corner like we have today. But with a pagan temple at the very heart of it for the city was given over to pagan idolatry.

Slavery to Worldly Desires

Ephesus was a perverted city of sexual immorality for over 1 ,000 temple prostitutes engaged in orgies and the worship of a pagan fertility God in the temple on one side of a column Street. There stood a well-stocked library and directly across a man was the city.

Sponsored brothel that was so large it had 48 rooms. Every day John walked those busy streets. He saw that his fellow Ephesians were people who lived for this world. They were slaves to their government.

They were slaves to idolatry. They were slaves to their lusts. They were slaves to their worship of the Greek fertility goddess Diana. John was very familiar with the popularity and prominence that Ephesus held among the cities of Asia Minor as it was a bustling center of political economic and religious commerce.

The Fleeting Wealth of Ephesus

Daily, he saw the ships in the harbor unloading their rich cargos of cedars from Lebanon copper from Cyprus silver from Spain tin from Britain marble from the Greek Islands and luxurious cloth and spices from Syria and Palestine.

John would see money exchanging hands at the Agora for goods bought and sold. He saw the best in late chariots ride through the Center of town. He witnessed people building the most impressive houses.

The World Passes Away, but God’s Will Abides

And he warns in his epistle not to love the world or to be fascinated by it. For his city was just a few generations away of being reduced to runes and rubble. Through earthquake fire and military Conquests it would all pass away.

The glitz and the glamour the beauty and the boasting all would be gone. For in verse 17 he writes. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. All the wealthy merchants in that city are gone into eternity.

All the philosophers and intellects of that city are gone into eternity. The temple prostitutes and priests have gone into eternity. The powerful government officials that ran the city and held it in the reins of their hands have all gone into Eternity.

John’s Enduring Eternal Legacy

They've all vanished with no remembrance of them. Can you name the richest and most powerful person in Ephesus in John's day? No, he is forgotten. But we know who John is. We have the gospel of John. We have the epistles of John.

We have the book of Revelation. John's life counted for something it counted for eternity. Because he didn't live for this world he knew better. He spent his life on the things of eternal worth. He poured his energy into the little groups of new Christians there in Ephesus.

He labored for Christ and the spread of the gospel. He and the Apostle Paul were the real titans of that city. He tells us not to love the world. He tells us to live for eternity. We must ask ourselves friends.

Living in Light of Christ’s Judgment

Are we consumed with the things of this world or do we awake in the morning with the judgment seat of Christ? Burning fresh in our soul and minds. Only one life it will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.