3. I Do Not Love the World

This session covers 1 John 2:12-17, a total of six verses. Consider the progression John is taking us through. First, we come out from fellowship with God. Second, we come through the ability of Jesus to remove all our sins from us and make us pure and devoted just like Himself.

Here is redemption. It is Jesus Himself, Personal inside of us, to whom we give all our darkness. And this Personal Jesus takes it away from us and makes us like Himself. Then, having come out from Fellowship and through the Blood, we are placed straight into the world, the setting of the proving of our faith, Christ through us, and our victory.

An Introduction. The remainder of 1 John, then, is how we intercede for the Church in the midst of the world, and our victory. This short passage introduces that whole picture even as it severs us from all the “siren calls” found in the world.

Now, the next portion of 1 John following this session sets out the two anointings, the Anointing of Devotion versus the anointing of anti-Christ. We want to keep that in mind as we go through these verses in order to move from this topic to the next in a seamless manner. We are looking at two S/spirits operating inside the setting.

Our Pathway Again. So, let’s place our pathway again. We come out from Fellowship with God, we pass through the Blood of Jesus, and we enter the setting of our Victory anointed by the Spirit of Devotion and counteracting the spirit of speaking against. And everything we are and do inside this setting is for the sake of our brothers and sisters. This is John’s epistles. And this is really cool to understand.

More than that, the RULING verse of John’s vision, Revelation 12:11, comes entirely out from these specific definitions John gives us in his letters. – And they overcame the accuser – by Word, by Blood, and by Sacrifice.

Defining the Fourth Ruling Verse. I am so very glad that the last slide worked itself out as it did, for this is, of truth, our most important focus in John’s letters, that we are DEFINING the fourth ruling verse of the Bible, Revelation 12:10-11, even as it interacts with the third ruling verse of the Bible – rivers of Spirit flowing out.

Let’s put this together as well. John 7 – Rivers of Spirit flowing out bringing life and healing to all. 1 John 3 – Setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Revelation 12 – Casting down the accuser, also for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Source – Fulcrum – Outcome. “Fulcrum” meaning that which turns the Source into the Outcome.

The Statements of Faith. These are mighty things, and only now are we ready to weave the statements of faith together.

~ My sin and disconnection from God is removed from me through Jesus’ name and through the character of His person. I know Him who is my source. I know the Father; I come out from fellowship with God. I have already overcome the evil one through the Blood of the Lamb. I am strong; the word of God remains inside of me. I speak the same word that is Christ; His Word is fulfilled in me. I know the Father. ~

~ I do not love the world. I do not love anything that is in the world. The love of the Father is inside of me. I am not enamored by the desires of the flesh. I am not impressed with what my eyes see in this world. The love of the Father is inside of me. I have no regard for the boasting of men in their violence and perversion. I do what God desires: I live and remain into the age. The love of the Father is inside of me. ~

What We Need. This is truly wonderful. You see, these two paragraphs in 1 John 2 have seemed to be unrelated, In fact, the first paragraph, to fathers, young men, and children, seems odd, even misplaced. You see, John is giving us what we need for Victory before placing us into the setting of that Victory.

Now, John Eldredge uses these three things, fathers, young men, and children, applied literally to the stages of a man’s life to wonderful effect. That use of these verses is fully valid, but it is not our present use. We will see them as source, fulcrum, and outcome.

Nikaó: To Overcome. Let’s say it this way. – Fellowship with Father – Winning the Victory – Father Made-Known. And so we introduce the central action verb in the universe and in God – overcome.

Nikaó (Strong’s): to conquer, prevail. I conquer, am victorious, overcome, prevail, subdue. Then this – “The verb implies a battle" (K. Wuest).

And thus we have the setting of the world. This is God’s setting for the proving of Christ, faithful and true. It was the serpent who questioned God’s word; it is that same accuser whom we cast down.

The Great Story. Thus we have the ruling verse of the Great Story of God. – Let God be true and every man a liar [a fake], as it has been written, “That You may be justified inside Your words, and will overcome inside Your being judged” (Romans 3:4 – rough JSV).

And then we need the one time John uses “nikaó/ overcome” in his gospel. – I have spoken these things to you, so that inside of Me you might have peace. In the world you have pressure within and without, but be of good courage for I have conquered the world (John 16:34).

A Fight to the Death. Let’s get this clear. The fulcrum, the turning point from Source to Completion is a FIGHT, a no-holds-barred, fight to Victory on the one side and removal on the other. That FIGHT has two aspects. The first aspect of the fight is – does God lie or does God speak the truth? And the second aspect is over the woman – is God’s woman a prostitute or is she clothed with Jesus?

So, yes, as bizarre as it sounds, the great action of the universe and of God is the archetype of a fight to the death over a woman. – The same as in Eden.

Laying the Groundwork. And whether you have realized it or not, this is what I have led you in doing over the last two years – a fight to the death over God’s woman. I can see now that, just as we needed the pattern of the Tabernacle to understand Hebrews and the pattern of the Feasts to understand John’s gospel, so we will need the pattern of Story to understand John’s vision.

Let’s pull back from the excitement, however, for we are not yet in John’s vision. Rather, John is laying the groundwork for things to come. Understand also that I was 21 when this call came out from the heavens into me and filled my soul with wonder.

The Boxes. Okay, I can see that the boxes on this page are of great importance to set out all that is to come. For that reason we need more explanation than simple statements of faith.

The first box will be “Our Pathway,” and will present Source – Fulcrum – Completion. We will not define “To overcome” until Session 11, but we might need, not “The Battle” which is John’s vision, but “The Contention.” Then, the third box will be “The Setting,” and the fourth box will be “Kept from the Siren’s Call.” And, of truth, Homer’s Odysseus sailing through the Straits of Messina is simply the best picture to convey God’s purpose in “Do not love the world.”

Our Pathway. ~ I come out from Fellowship with God; I come through the Blood of Jesus, kept every moment by His devotion and purity. I am sent into the world that I might speak Christ into victory. Our source together is fellowship with the Father; our victory together is the completion of Christ in His Church, in the setting of this world. The in-between, our sacrifice, is the victory we win over the accuser for the sake of our brethren. ~

The Fight. The difference between the “contention” and the “battle” is that the battle is the happenings of history and the contention is what the fight is all about. The Fight (overcome) is all about the Source as the Word and the Completion as the Church.

“Did God indeed say” is the assault against the Word all the way through. And “The woman brought forth a male child” is the visible completion of Christ as the Church. The contention, the FIGHT, is over the Word and over the woman. Does God speak the truth? Is the Church without blemish and pure, the completion of Christ?

Purity. Look upon the Church. She is a prostitute. She is not just caught in the grip of this world; she is there willingly. – When we were still sinners, Christ died for us, for our sakes (Romans 5:8).

Yet the Word God speaks is inside of her, the Lord Jesus, and Christ must be proven True inside this world. Who will see her pure by substance regardless of outward appearance? Who will call forth the Word inside of her that she might be clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ? This is the contention – the purity must be in our eyes first. This is our sending – to rescue the Church..

The Contention. ~ The Source of everything is the Word God speaks, yet that Word was challenged by the accuser right from the start, “Did God indeed say?” The completion of Christ is the Church, yet the Church is caught inside the grip of this world and under a spirit of speaking against. Christ Jesus as every Word God speaks must prove Himself true inside His Church, here on this earth and now in this age. Jesus sends us in the same way and for the same purpose He is sent, that the Word might be True in the Church. ~

Distraction. The Setting is a world of death that defines itself as an eternal struggle of good versus evil, something not real. Yet the world is not the object of our fight; the object of our fight is the Church. The world is the setting where the fight takes place.

Let me add another point of definition to our understanding of the world. The world is any and every distraction intending to get your eyes on the spin of your own false identities and off of Jesus inside of you sharing God and all things with you. Even the law gets you to look at yourself and not Jesus.

The Spin of “Me.” All that is in the world-cosmos, the desire and passionate longing of the flesh and the desire and passionate longing of the eyes, and the boastful ostentation of biological life, is not out from the Father, but is out from the present world-cosmos.

Notice that “the world,” in this part of its definition, is taking place entirely inside one individual bubble of self, the swirling spin of “me, myself,” that is, “I – not Christ.” A shiny new car is not “the world.” Gaining a spin in one’s identity from a shiny new car is “the world.” Spinning “I am righteous” for driving a rust bucket is “the world.” Both serve equally well as a distraction from Word inside.

The Antidote. Here is the antidote to the world. – Shut your mouth (about your own self-identity), stand still (upon firm, upon one unlimited sacrifice), and SEE the Salvation of God – Jesus always connecting you with Father. And thus the world ceases to exist inside of you, and now all things are of God, whether a shiny new car or a rust bucket.

The Word God speaks, a Personal Spirit Word written upon our hearts and shaping all our identity is what is at stake on the one hand, not in us, but in our brothers and sisters. And the spirit that rules in the church, the high angel in the tree of death, turns their eyes away from Word to self.

Another Definition. Wow! We now have another definition of “the world,” one that fits fully with our previous definitions. We are looking at how the world entices its victims with three things always together.

The first is the spin of self-identity, directly related to the desires of the flesh. The second is the sense of belonging, a “place to stand” as part of something bigger, that is, the longing of the eyes. Yet this second is always shifting. And the third part of the lure is the grandiosity of “I – (not Christ), that is, the boasting of self, the belief that “I” have it figured out. Thus the world and its “antidote” are matched.

The Setting. ~ This world, all the interactions among humans and demons, is the setting of our victory, both in proving the Word God speaks as faithful and true and the Church as the fulness of Christ now. The world entices every human with the lure of a self-sufficient identity, a belonging that is not Christ, and a platform for arrogant boasting. The world is any distraction that takes one’s eyes off of Christ our life and onto “me, myself” in imagination. God sends us as firstfruits together into this world to make visible His purity of Word, His steadfastness of Devotion, and His sacrifice for others out from a true world of life. ~

A False Dichotomy. Nicene theology places a false dichotomy of good versus evil into the Christian imagination regarding what “salvation” is all about. It’s all about having the “right ticket,” so that, after death, you’re allowed “into” heaven and are not cast “into hell.” For this reason, everything in the Bible is forced into this same definition, that it’s all about “having the right ticket” for “someday,” one way or another. And so it is with this warning John gives concerning the world. – Get it right concerning the world and you “go to” heaven. Get it wrong and you don’t.

All About Our Sending. NOTHING in the Bible, including 1 John, has anything to do with that false dichotomy.

This set of verses from John 17 continues to grow in weight and importance in my knowing. – Make them pure and devoted to You inside of the truth; Your word is truth. Just as You sent Me into the world, in the same way I also send them into the world. For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth.

EVERYTHING in the Bible, for us, is all about our sending, that God sent us here to fulfill His business in the world, that is, to make God visible.

My Identity. I have – and I cultivate – only one identity of myself. “Father, You share even this with me, and we together turn our next step into goodness for the sake of others.” This is God’s sending of me, His purpose for me to turn all things into goodness and into the knowledge of God. The world is anything that distracts my story, that I would spin concerning myself, away from this one line.

Now, in the actuality of the battle, we will address every aspect of “the world.” In 1 John, however, we are setting out the definitions of our sending. And so our final box is about the distractions whether for us or our brethren.

The Siren’s Call. On Odysseus's ten-year journey home from Troy, he passes through the Straits of Messina. He has been warned about the sirens that live on the land, creatures that send out a call so appealing that no man who hears it can resist.

Yet all they want to do is kill and eat.

Odysseus is willful and strong. He takes the danger of the siren’s call as a challenge. He has his men bind their own ears, and rope him to the mast. He orders them to pay no attention to him until they are past the siren’s coast. All the way through, Odysseus hears the siren’s call and screams at his men to turn to the shore.

What God Wants. In The Odyssey, Odysseus persuades his men to set him free and to turn to the shore. They sail straight into the jaws of Scylla and Charybdis. All his men are eaten, and the ship is destroyed.

Odysseus floats on a broken mast alone in the midst of the sea, crying out to Poseidon, “What do you want of me?” Let’s translate that to God. “God” spoke to Odysseus, “I want you to acknowledge that you can do nothing of yourself, but that I alone cause you to live and to win the victory. I want you to give thanks inside of all.”

Odysseus had boasted in himself that he had defeated Troy. – And yes, I can preach the gospel from The Odyssey.

Our Task Together. The “world” sends out a call so appealing that no one who hears it can resist. It is the voice of accusation, hating God without a cause. The purpose of that call is to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And the “appeal” is the spin of one’s own self-story.

Jesus has bound us to the Father, and our eyes are fixed on the purpose for which God sent us into this world. My own personal task includes laboring over the Bible until every word is found only inside the Tree of Life. And our task together includes breaking the demonic anointing that turns our brethren to the appeal of a false “self.”

Kept from “the Siren’s Call.” ~ God keeps me safe from the lures, distractions, and death of this world. I am free from self-rightness and self-wrongness because my identity is every Word that is Jesus. I have no need to belong to anything of this world for I come out from fellowship with Father and I stand firm upon the redemption of Jesus. Boasting in self has no meaning to me, for God my Father shares every moment of my life with me and we together turn all things into goodness for the sake of others. I am kept safe from “the siren’s call” because Jesus is pure and devoted for my sake. The Love of the Father fills me full to overflowing even as my eyes are set upon the Church, God’s people all across this earth, that she might know the Salvation in which she lives, that she might bring forth the life of the knowledge of God into creation. ~

Inside of Life. The power of the world is to distract. A person thinks, “What’s the big deal. I can speak words of self-cursing and contempt for others if I feel like it.” And they don’t understand that being turned from sharing life with God for the sake of others is – death.

Here is where we place ourselves utterly and aggressively. – For their sakes, I [Jesus] make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also [you and me] might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth. – That is, inside of Life. The truth is a pure Word written upon our hearts. The truth is a pure Church as the completion of Christ.

The Love of the Father. The whole point of everything is the love of the Father moving through us into our world, for the love of the Father is something that flows THROUGH.

It’s a question of value. Offer me a million dollars if I go for a week without eating, that is, a water fast. The value of a million dollars will make every cry of the flesh to eat seem as nothing. The value of Father’s Love through is greater than anything. BUT – a million dollars and the desire to eat are unrelated. The Love of the Father and the siren’s call of this world ARE related, for the object of our love and the proving of the Word God speaks through her are entrapped inside the grip of the world, and we must rescue her – Revelation 12:11.

A Faithful Woman. Let’s complete Odysseus’ story. Poseidon has prevented Odysseus from returning home because Odysseus boasts in himself and does not give thanks. Yet through all the years Odysseus wanders in refusal, his beloved wife, Penelope, remains at home waiting for him to come, and resisting all the false suitors trying to win her love. Only when Odysseus has lost everything and agrees, “Apart from you, I can do nothing,” can he return home, humbled but still strong, to rescue faithful Penelope from horror.

This is our sending. This is the meaning of Revelation 12. This is why we do not love the world – for the Church’s sake.

Reading for Next Time. The lesson next time is “The Anointing Teaches Me.” And the thing is that John does not introduce the Anointing without also matching it with the spirit of anti-Christ. Thus the next session is two S/spirits operating in our world, One Devoted and the other contradictory. Read 1 John 2:18-29 for next time, three or four times.

The anointing that you have received from Him lives and remains inside of you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all, and is true, and is not a lie; and just as [the anointing from Devotion] has taught you, so you are dwelling inside of Him.

Our Prayer. There is so much in this lesson that could direct our prayers, but this time, I would ask you to pray for me. I have completed my life story except for what now appears to be the most difficult time-period to write about, the twelve months from December 2020 to December 2021. Through this time, God has led me to give my all for the sake of His Church in intercession, yet the mechanism through which that came is a whole series of events filled with autistic pain and inability greater than most in my life.

It is no problem to take the reader into my own pain and failure, the problem lies in the cause of those things from my interactions with others. Yet this is the meaning of my whole life and of God’s sending of me.

Let’s Pray Together. “Oh, Father, how do we give an account of our lives inside of Your presence without giving hurt to those with whom we interact? How do we reveal Your intercession through us without sharing the deep hurt that others have caused?

“Lord Jesus, You are my Friend, close and real, and You protect me from all hurt and dishonesty. Yet these are also my friends, no matter what I feel like in the moment and no matter what foolish mistakes they and I have made. Lord Jesus, how do we walk together inside of the light? How can there be light inside of an unwillingness to be wrong?

“There is no darkness in You, oh Father. Nothing can be hidden. Yet You have sent us to cover one another and your entire Church. Father, Your Love is inside of us. It is so.”