“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
1 John 2:15
In some ways this command seems to be getting easier to follow all the time. Still, there can be a lot to love in this world. Why wouldn’t God want us to love it?
You might have heard that while in English we use the one word – love – to talk about all kinds of love, there are many Greek words for love –
phileō – a friendship love
philostorgos – a familial love
‛âgab – a sensual love
eros – a romantic love
philarguria – a love of money
And that’s not even an exhaustive list.
The word used for love in the command above is agapaō – to love much, or dearly, to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing, to have a preference for, to prize it above other things, to be unwilling to abandon it or do without it.
It’s the same word Jesus used when asked “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love (agapaō) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agapaō) your neighbor as yourself.’”
Matthew 22:36-39
Jesus then goes on to say “‘All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
Matthew 22:40
The commandments in the Old Testament were given to show people how they were to love. The first four commandments pertained to their love of God, starting with the command to “have no other gods before me,” and then moved on to how they were to love others – “honor your father and mother, you shall not murder…” and others.
Christ reiterates, and makes possible in and through us as the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts, what the commandments said – that if we love God first, love for others will flow from that.
It’s even the same word Jesus used when He said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
Matthew 5:44
But when we agapaō the world, when our mind is focused on and busy with all the world has to offer (name your worldly passion), if we prefer those things, cling to those things, put those things first in our lives over and above God and above showing love to others, then we’ve gotten it all out of order.
It will cause us to put off spending time with our Father, growing our relationship with Him by abiding in Him through prayer and the reading of His precious Word.
And if we don’t remain in His love through abiding, we won’t have the love we need to fulfill the second commandment Jesus gives to love others and all that would entail.
I have very nearly perfected procrastination. I can find a million things to do before I sit down to read or pray, or do whatever God is calling me to do. And I look back and regret that countless times.
But I don’t want to just “phileō” God, to love Him as a friend on par with the rest of the world, as Peter confessed in John 21 when Jesus asked him twice if he “agapaō” Him, and both times Peter confessed that he only “phileō” Him.
Then Jesus asked him a third time if he even “phileō” Him, if he even loved Him as a friend. Peter was grieved because he could not yet say that he “agapaō” Him, that he loved Him unconditionally, that he was ready to put Christ above all things, or that he was unwilling to abandon Him for the sake of the world.
But once Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he “agapaō” Christ, even being willing to endure persecution in order to tell others the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the way to being crucified upside down.
I don’t think God doesn’t want us to enjoy the things He’s given us in this world He created, He just wants to remind us to keep it in its place, to remember that He needs to be who we love above all things, that when we have a choice, and we will have choices, our only real choice is Him because without Him we have nothing.
I pray that whatever God is calling you and me to do, we will not put it off because we’re busy doing other things. A whole lifetime can pass while we do other things, but in the end only one thing will matter – how we loved the Lord and lived our lives in Him.
In His agape,
Heavenly Father, we confess that we’ve chosen other things before you and we humbly and sincerely ask for your forgiveness. Help us to agapaō you, to walk in your Spirit every minute of the day and night, always putting you first, doing what you call us to do, glorifying you with our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
