This World is Broken, Keep Following Jesus!
Dear Disciple,
The beloved elder John wrote to My disciples because he deeply loved them and wanted them to find eternal life in me. His words to begin 3 John beautifully reveal this part of his heart:
I, the elder, to Gaius, who is much loved by all and loved in truth by me.
My beloved friend, I pray that everything is going well for you and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous. I was thrilled when the brothers and sisters came and told me stories of your faithfulness as you continue to walk in the truth. The greatest joy in my life is hearing how my children are walking in the truth.
(3 John 1:1-4)
John’s letters are short, powerful, full of practical truth, and filled with emotional connection. John knew that his time was short. He knew the power of the “diabolical one” and the allure of the corrupted world were pervasive. Like Paul and Peter before him, he left words for My precious disciples urging them to stay on the right path. He wanted them to demonstrate their love for Me in the way they lived. He wanted My disciples to follow My example of obedient love for the Father, compassion for those around Me, and moral purity in My dealings with all people.
John offered a series of repeated exhortations throughout his short letter of 1 John. These repeated exhortations combine to provide a powerful and clear outline of faithful living for My disciples in any age. They serve as a necessary warning about the dangers of falling in love with the broken and sinful world and the importance of My disciples keeping their love for truth, for Me, and for their brothers and sisters in faith vibrantly alive.
Today I want you to hear a simple, but powerful message from John as the culmination of his messages to My disciples. See it as an important reminder going into the book of Revelation.
The world around you is broken. There is beauty in the created universe, but everything that humanity has touched has also been altered by sin’s grip on your world. Don’t be deceived by the world’s allure! Remember all that it offers you is temporary. The world can offer only a broken and temporary substitute for the eternal life I have shared with you.
John reminds you not to be surprised when the world doesn’t love you when you live for me:
Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us — He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way, the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either.
(1 John 3:1)Brothers and sisters, don’t be shocked if the corrupt world despises you.
(1 John 3:13)
Even more, John doesn’t want you to get caught up in loving the world and being led away from Me. His words are true. His words are your warning. Don’t trade away the life I came to bring you for the temporary, fleeting, and corrupted enticements of the world!
Verses to Live
Take a few minutes and look up all the times the word “world” is used in John’s writings — the Gospel of John; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Revelation — and you will see how this is a major theme for him in all of his writings. Not loving the world was one of John’s primary concerns. The following verses for you today help you understand why. Contemplate them. Heed them. Realize that I came to bring life to you. The underlined sentences at the end of today’s verses point out the contrast between the fleeting, temporary nature of the allures of your world and the eternal life that comes from doing God’s will. All that the world can offer you is a cheap, fleeting, and shallow substitute for life.
Don’t fall in love with this corrupt world or worship the things it can offer. Those who love its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love living within them. All the things the world can offer to you — the allure of pleasure, the passion to have things, and the pompous sense of superiority — do not come from the Father. These are the rotten fruits of this world. This corrupt world is already wasting away, as are its selfish desires. But the person really doing God’s will — that person will never cease to be.
(1 John 2:15-17)
Response in Prayer
Give me strength, dear Father, to resist the allure of the world. I know in my heart that it is a poor and deadly substitute for the life that You have given me in Jesus. Sometimes, dear Father, the ridicule of those who don’t believe and the enticements of this world do distract me and lead me away from a whole-hearted dedication to you. Please forgive me. Sometimes my losses in this world have captured all of my energy in grief, anger, and confusion. Please strengthen and reclaim me. I know my world is broken, but it is the world I know. So please help me be strong as I keep my eyes on Jesus and seek His life and not the world’s shallow substitutes. It is in His name I pray. Amen.
– P Ware
