12First John 2:15-17 Separation from the world

Okay, well, actually chapter two, 15 through 17, and I titled it, The Separation from the World. Some really interesting verses that I can, very apropos for today. Okay, so let's just go ahead and go to the verses. So we've been covering, the previous chapter was about little children, young men and fathers, and about kind of talking about maybe spiritual maturity possibly. Well, this section kind of maybe it's a little bit of a change and it focuses on the world, the world, the world system, and a really interesting set of verses.

So let me just read them. It says, do not love the world, nor the things in the world, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. So just lots of interesting things to think about, interesting. And with John, there's always challenges. John is just not your, he's not Paul. Let's put it that way. But really just a tremendous thing.

So actually, if you look carefully, you'll see that verse 15 starts with this phrase, do not love the world. And after studying this for the last time period here, several weeks here, and thinking about it, the rest of the verses, including the rest of that verse 15, explain that statement, do not love the world. So what's that all about? Does that mean we don't love men and women in this world?

We hibernate? I mean, some have taken that approach. No, it doesn't mean that. I'm sure you guys know that. So let's dig into what it does mean. And so all right. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and go to the first phrase. So actually, the subject there is implied.

You, brethren, in context, believers, you do not love the world. So the next three charts, we're going to look at three words, the word for love, The word for not, this is like, well, what's is? We're looking at what not is important. The phrase not loving is important. And then what's the world? So let's get into the first one, love.

Agapao is used to express God's divine love. And this is one of the ones that most believers understand, agapao, agape. It's just this tremendous statement of God's love. And so I have some verses here that talk about that. It's used in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world and gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. So it's use of God's love for the whole race of lost men and women. So it speaks of that. It also speaks of his nature, and in 1 John 4, 4, 8, which we'll get to here down the road, it says, the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. So God in his essence, in his very essence is love.

Then it's a product of the Holy Spirit in the believer's life. That wonderful verse in Galatians where it says, I always have to remind myself, it's a singular fruit, not plural. And it's all, we get a package deal here. The fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and so on. So that's the description of this agape, or agapao in this case.

So the challenge is, what does it mean in this verse? And as you learn in Bible study, real estate – this is off, I've probably said this a thousand times – real estate is location, location, location. In Bible study, it's context, context, context. What's love in this context?

So Uist kind of weighs in on this. And he puts forth the idea, which I've studied before. He says, Acapella here is used in this classical meaning of one's heart by the preciousness of the object love. So my understanding is that the original language, it was used in the culture. And it had a meaning that was not the superlative definition we have of God's divine love. It was less than that, but it still was a preciousness, a love of the object. And we actually have another verse that kind of shows the classical meaning, if you will.

And it's this verse in 2 Timothy 4.10, it says, the U.S. is that the U.S. team is having loved this present world has deserted me as Paul and gone to Thessalonica so in this context love means the love that you know the mess he was with Paul ministering the gospel and he Paul says he loved this present world.

Well, he didn't have God's divine love in that. That came out of himself. That was apparently a selfish act that he did. So what's trying to be pointed out in thinking this verse is that the love here is not, do not love the world, cannot really be Agapao. God is not the source of this love. Man is the source of this love.

So in this case, this agapao is present tense, which means continuous action. It's a command, and we're to do it. We're to not love the world. So John, in this letter, is saying that this continuous action in the present is possible. It's possible that the believers may love the world, and we're told not to do that. So that's the word love. So now we're gonna go to the negative here. So you brethren, we're looking at not now.

Not is this word may, M-E in the Greek. It's what's called a particle, which I'm not exactly sure I know what that means in the Greek. But anyway, Constable helps me out here. He says, the Greek negative, the Greek language negative, prohibition may with the present active imperative, That's kind of a significant thing.

It means, and this is really cool, it means either stop doing something or it could mean do not have the habit of doing it. So it's really pretty forceful. He says, he realized that it could be going, people, brethren, the brethren could be loving the world.

And he's saying, Stop doing that, just like you might tell your children. Stop doing that. Or it could be translated, don't have the habit of doing that. Stop doing that, just like we tell our children. So John to his children that he's writing to, he says, stop doing that. So the Greek speaks here of an action. As I said, it's already going on, and he wants them to stop that action.

So some of John's readers were still loving the world, the system out from which they had been saved. And then I like here, and I know Karen will appreciate this, if you look at the first part of the translation of Wiest here, he says he, and this is what makes Bible study great, at least for me, is that I can look at the original as my ability allows me, but then I can come to Somebody like Weiss, and he will take the definitions I've studied and he will use it in the translation of the verse. So Weiss renders this verse, the first part of this verse.

Stop loving the world. Stop loving. I'm looking at it and reading something different. OK, start over, Roger. OK, stop considering the world precious. with the result that you love it. So he brings in several aspects, right? He uses this negative, stop doing something, and the idea of that love is you consider it precious. So people are evaluating the world as being precious when God says it's not precious. It's a fallen world, basically. And stop doing that. Stop considering the world precious with the results that you love it.

And if there's questions, you know, let me know. We have, we actually have a lot to do, but we can, I think we have time for some questions. Okay. So that's a, that's just that. Okay. That's two words. Go ahead. Yeah. Just a little bit, uh, expanding on that. The negative. It, uh, usually because of the context here would be not even the things of the world.

Excellent. Excellent. That's good. That's good, because we're going to see. Yeah, that's great, because we're going to see we get to the next verse, right? He's going to expand on that and talk about, well, what are the things of the world, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. So, yeah, great. Thanks. Thank you. OK.

Okay, so now let's look at the world, the cosmos. Cosmos, cosmos, cosmos. You say spaghetti, I mean, you say potato, ice cream, or whatever. I'm not sure. Anyway, so looking at, I looked at Schaefer here and Schaefer had a really good approach, I thought here.

So there's at least three, some have a lot more, three general meanings of the world of cosmos and how it, or actually how it's used in the context. So it can talk of the material earth. And you can see that if you look at Acts 24, you'll see that it says that God made the world. God who made the world is in the text there. And then it's used of the inhabitants of the world.

The one whom God loves and whom Christ died for, like in John 3.16. So it's used in that sense. And then the third area of the world is the one I think is here in 1 John.

It talks about the institutions, I put it in philosophies, of men as set up independent of God and headed by Satan. And then Chaffer kind of elaborates, he says, that is the satanic system organized upon the principles of self, greed, armament, commercialism. And then here's the, this is really cool. Andrew asked a question in the Bible study last week, and this is, I'm glad he did.

He says, this is a world that God does not love. And the believer is warned against loving. And he references our verses today. So I think that the conflict or the seeming conflict between God so loved the world and God commanding us not to love the world can be answered by God loves sinners, right? But he doesn't love their sin. He doesn't love the sinful system that man has created and that Satan is head of.

So any thoughts on that or comments? Because Andrew, if he's on, let's see, Andrew, I don't see him. Yeah, Andrew. So Andrew, is that good? Is that OK? Yeah, no. That's clear. That helps to break down the word cosmos into three different groups like that.

Because it clears up my understanding of John 3.16. So it doesn't include the organized system. You know, so it's just the sinners of the world. Yeah, right. Yeah, that seems like that. And that fits with a lot of other scripture to God loves. He loves the sinners and wants to save the sinners. But the the world system headed by Satan, which unbelievers are part of, he says, don't don't love that. Don't love that system, certainly.

So, OK, good. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Good. OK, cool. OK, so we've OK, we looked at don't love the world or stop loving the world. And we looked at the definition of those three words, love and world, especially. So now let's go on to the next. Actually, and it occurs 176 times, if you wanted to count. Computer can count much better than I can count. I like it. Okay, so it goes on.

Nor the things in the world. and so, this is kind of Constable's, Constable says, Cosmos represents a system of values, priorities, beliefs that unbelievers hold that exclude God. And if you had to say one thing about this term for world, the whole world view excludes God. And boy, aren't we seeing that today? Aren't we seeing, I mean, if there ever a time, I don't know about you guys, but I might talk all the time.

The world is displaying its worldliness in red letters. It's just like it's flashing out there. All the time we see the values of the world being put forth and how if you don't align with that, you're a bad guy. You're intolerant or whatever it might be.

In a way, we should totally expect that. So verse 16 is going to give us more details about that. We're going to see, if anyone loves a world, So now we kind of switch, okay, this switches to the second part here. If anyone loves the world, so here's an if statement, and in the Greek language, there's different classes of if statements, and this is one called the third class condition. So it says, it has not happened, but it probably will. So, So this – I think this is from Weiss – expresses a hypothetical condition in the subjunctive mood. So it's possible, and it probably will happen.

So Weiss renders this, if anyone, as a habit of his life, is considering the world precious and is therefore loving it. So it's saying it's – that's what Paul – that's what John is talking about here, talking about people... loving the world system over loving God, basically. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, he's talking to Christians. They can. And, you know, it's certainly.

And so what I'm thinking about this a little bit is challenging. So I can't. Aren't there some parts of the world I can like? Like, I like I like my car, right? Can I not have a nice looking car? So we'll see as I go through and see if we can have like a nice looking car. Can I can I, you know, Anyway, all kinds of questions do arise, but actually I think... the choice has become much clearer with the world system the way it is now.

Actually, at one time, the world system looks pretty good. You had what we thought was a nice government, maybe, and people would seem to be, quote, nice and tolerant and whatever. But their true colors weren't shown, in a sense. But now, the true colors of the world are on view 24-7. You can get more than you can stomach. So actually, it's a lot easier to spot the things of the world.

OK. I wonder if we can go ahead. I wonder if we can look at this as the organization of the world. OK. OK. So that's that's back. You know, the definition that let's just go back here. The definition that. Right. Institutions, philosophies of men set up in. Yeah, right. It's the entire world system, right? Right. And it's a fallen system. Exactly.

Exactly. and roger sure go ahead where it says this first do not love the world nor the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him and you were just saying that you know as we get as we keep going their true colors come out and i just wonder if if it could be true also that the colors were always there but in our youth we do look at the things of the world or at least in the youth of our of our Christian life.

And the more that we are in his presence, that those things, we're not loving it like we used to, so that we're able to see that better than we had before. Would that be true or not? Yeah, I think so. I think as we grow in grace and the knowledge of him, we come to, you know, we recognize what is from him and what's not from him. So yes, I agree.

So let's just – and along that line, just to keep going here, sorry to – okay, this phrase, the love of the father is not the end, is a little bit problematic. And actually, this is where I need Roy's help here. as familiar with as I should be, it could be translated, the love for the father, which is the idea that, which seems to fit more in the context, it's love for the world versus love for the father. But in the original, there's two possibilities. It could be love of the father or love for the father.

And this one, most of the people I read say this is the correct rendering. And it's objective genitive, but it could be what they call subjective genitive, which maybe is too much information. But anything, any comment on that, Roy, that would be helpful, you think? Or I'm happy to leave it alone.

Love for the father fits totally. Love for the world versus love for the father. That's what he's talking about. Right. The grammarians, they have two ways of looking at this case in that it could be the source or it could be object. OK. In this particular context, which is how we are supposed to look at it, We don't have his kind of love. We got in harmony with him. I think that's where we should be taking this. It's not so much loving him as being the perspective different than his. Okay? Okay. All right.

We don't have his love towards the world. We're looking at the things that have fallen and liking them, and he doesn't. What he likes is the people, and that's the kind of love we should have. The people, not the fallen system. Excellent. Okay. I like that.

And to kind of continue here on that, go ahead. Can the unbeliever have agape love? No, no. In fact, actually, that's that's that's my next love that even the believer has, because I don't think he could have it otherwise. And when he's filled with the other kind of love, no, he's going to miss that agape love, isn't he? He is. He is. And that's that's in John three. I think it's what,

18. They love, agape love the world, and you also gave another example earlier.

Young believers can have agape love, but it isn't of the Father. It's not His love. His love is different. I don't know if that helps. as generated in the hearts of yielded believers by the Holy Spirit. And that's the way the Christian life works. It's not, it's his love, it's his life. That's what the believer is representing. That's what comes out from us, right? It's his love, his life.

So the unbeliever can't do that. He can't ever do that. And so that's why that love for the father, it fits within the, you know, This is a love for the Father as generated by the Holy Spirit, basically. Go ahead. Roger, I was thinking that a carnal Christian doesn't have the fellowship with Christ. No. So the love of the Father is not in him. In other words, the fellowship is broken.

Excellent. No, that's good. That's good. Yeah, you have your mic on, right? Can people hear? Good. Okay, good. Everything has to be on. Okay, good. Thank you. I want people to hear. Okay, good deal. Okay, let's keep going. I wouldn't go so fast. Okay, so John's warning us is our love for the world. And this is the tension here.

And we know this just from so many things about the Christian life. It's either A or B. There's not a middle ground, right? We either have a love for the world, sinfully, or we have a love for the Father. In the believer's case, I'll just stick to that, he's either displaying the love which comes from him, he's in fellowship with the Father, and he's displaying that love, or he's not in fellowship, displaying something else. And there's not a middle ground, we either are or we aren't. And here's a verse that talks to that.

Galatians 5.16, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So as we walk by the spirit, and actually it's really strong, it's impossible.

It's really, it's even the stronger, the better version of that, but we're gonna use that verse here shortly. And then we says here, so as you go through here, you gotta, you know, context, context, context, context. So in this case, agape is the divine love. He says the New Testament sense, which he means, I believe he means the, it's not the classical meaning, it's agape in the divine sense. Okay, so now we're gonna go to verse 16. So verse 16, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

So now he's going to give us, if you will, the details. We're going to get the details of what the world's like. And actually, this is actually no, this is not new news. This is in today's world. You think, wow, here it is. Okay, for all that is in the world. So John summarizes the world system in three ways, those three things.

And I had not heard this next one here. So this is from Constable, I think. Here is a picture of the so-called Infernal Trinity. I had not heard that referred to in that way, but it was interesting. So the three facets of the world, the three sources of worldly temptation. So, actually before, let me go back. Before, so actually this is not a new problem. Adam and Eve had this problem in the garden.

Nothing's new, nothing's new. So let me just read in Genesis 2, 2, 16 and 17. It says, the Lord commanded the man saying, from any tree of the garden, you may freely eat. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. Okay, so now we have our verse that comes in chapter 3 of Genesis, which we see the three aspects here. It says, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food.

So I think that corresponds to the lust of the flesh. And that it was a delight to the eyes, the lust of the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise. Isn't that amazing? This is the same picture. It's a little bit hard. The first one I struggled with, saw the tree was good for food, lust of the flesh. I thought a lot about that. Yeah, I think it fits, but you just got to think about it for a while. So there's the three aspects of the world. And you think, well, they saw the world. They were in the Garden of Eden. I thought the Garden of Eden was supposed to be. But they had their sin. Anyway, there's a lot of things that you get off on rabbit trails here, but I'm going to try to avoid that for right now.

OK, so based upon that, let's look at the lust of the flesh. So the first one is the lust of the flesh. And this is, let's see, epithymia. It's actually literally desire, craving, longing, mostly of evil, but we're gonna see that there are cases, some wonderful cases where it's used for, in a positive sense too. And flesh here, flesh is another one of these words that has a whole bunch of meanings and I didn't dive into that. I just went with the one that I think applies here.

And it said it refers to the totally depraved nature as governed the individual's reason, will, and emotions. And you know, the thing in Romans there, it says that, for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. So that's a, we definitely, scripture definitely teaches that we have a sin nature, believers. It's not gone, it's still there.

Thus the lust of the flesh is a passion desires or the cravings that come out from the evil nature or the sin nature. lust of the flesh, and okay, then what I did here, I was looking for, I thought, well, you know, can we, are there any concrete examples here? Because what I found here is no great news, is that everything, all these lusts, all the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, they all come out of our sin nature. There are different aspects of it. So here's Constable, he kind of weighs in on his take is that the lust of the flesh in the modern civilization is our hedonistic or idolizing pleasure.

And if you think about that, that's on so many different levels, you know, drugs come into play, you know, illicit sex and just so many, so many different things come into that. People are just pleasure driven. I want to get a high, you know. Remember in the 60s, turn on, tune in, drop out, and everything was about pleasure, right? What can I, and I was part of that, I grew up in that generation. I wasn't a believer. The Lord got me through it somehow, I don't know, but anyway. Anyway, so it was all about pleasure, anything to maximize pleasure. That was the thing. That was it. So that's a good description of the lust of the flesh.

And then we says the physical, and here's a good point. The physical body, our bodies are neutral. Our hands aren't inherently evil. They can do wonderful things. They can be a skilled surgeon to save lives or they can, you know, hurt people badly. So our bodies are not in themselves evil.

Okay. So, all right. So now, what you all have been waiting for. I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I took one of the house charts and I just kind of reworked it a little bit. So here we are. I wanted to get to the A, B, make sure that we, you guys know this really well.

So this is a picture he used for walking in the spirit. So we have the mind and the heart, the soul, the control center, if you will. And we have, for the believer, we have a fallen nature, a sin nature, which is called the flesh. And we have the Holy Spirit within us, the new nature. And then we have the world systems impacting. It's coming in, impacting by our sinful nature. So we're told to walk in the Spirit. So walking here is the idea. Volitional thing, we walk, we abide in Him. I say walk by the Spirit and will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So here we are walking in the Spirit.

But the point I want to make here for this situation is that we have in verse 17 We have the flesh sets its desires against the spirit and memory desires is the same word for lust And the spirit against the flesh so we have these competing the sin nature versus the Holy Spirit and So we have these two competing factors, and they both have desires. We have the desires of which we're looking at the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's coming at us by the sin nature. But what's wonderful is, oops, I'm going the wrong way. We have desires out of the Holy Spirit, out of our new nature. And I just, this is one that occurred to me, the fruit of the spirit, right? That's coming at us, love, joy, as we abide in him, love, joy, peace, patience, et cetera. So we have these two competing desires, the desires out of our new nature and the Holy Spirit, and we have desires out of the sinful nature. And we have a choice, right? We can walk with him or not walk with him. So, okay, you guys have seen this before quite a bit. Okay, all right, so let's go on. So let's look at the lust of the eyes a little bit more. Sure, go ahead, Roy. Go ahead.

In that chart, it just beautifully brings out God's perspective because it is the Holy Spirit's desires it were to be in harmony with. Amen. That's great. That's great, Roy. Great. I'm looking at that and I'm saying, wow, there it is. Great. Well, thank you. That's good. I went back and looked at that and I thought, boy, I can label one thing, but what do I label?

Well, it's the Holy Spirit's in us and He's showing us the things of Christ. And always He is the Holy Spirit in us, right? But He is revealing the Son. He is. And He's there at the desire of the Father. Right. They're all involved. Yep. Amen. Amen. No, that's great. No, I agree. I agree. Okay. All right. Okay. So now, lust of the eyes. Weiss has the passion desires of the eyes.

So now this is another, what I found in studying this, some people never... I would say never, but some people didn't include the sin nature in this. They just tried to define, well, here's the lust of the flesh. Here's the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. They tried to define those, and they had long pages of text and stuff. But boy, when I said, well, wait a minute, there's a central part to this.

The sin nature is the central part to all this. So if you don't see that, if you don't see that the sin nature is what's causing those lusts to impact us, I think you really miss a key point. And Weiss was the one that really picked up on that a lot. I was really thankful for that.

So this is another manifestation of the evil nature or sin nature, the lust of the eyes, the passionate cravings for satisfaction, Okay, so Cosmo takes his crack at where this, you're like this. He says that the comma is excessive buying. And what he means is materialism, idolizing possessions. And don't you see that?

Isn't that just what, I mean, the advertisement industry just goes bonkers with this. I mean, you've just gotta have, I gotta have a new phone, right? I just can't have my old phone that I had for two years. I got to have a new phone. I got to have a new this or it just, just constantly. Amazon makes it really easy. That's right. But I will, Amazon is nice sometimes when you, I think of my daughter-in-law, she has, uh, we have our four grandchildren. I think without Amazon, she would have been underwater. I mean, my goodness. Hey Roger, here's a verse from Proverbs that really sums this up. Okay. See all in Avedon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied. Oh, that's good, Roy. I like that. That's great. That's great.

I know it more and I'll probably money will probably get me on this but I think was John D Rockefeller was asked. Is that right? Okay. He was asked about Yeah, what how much or how much would it take to make him? Satisfied, you know, he was a Bill Gates of his era and he said this is this is just blows me away just a little bit more and A little bit more you own all this every possible thing, but just a little bit more That's that's that's in nature. That's a there's just always a little bit more There's gotta be more of this and more of that Roger sure go ahead Back on the thing with with Adam Adam and Eve when she said the fruit was good uh-huh uh-huh weren't sure how that was the lust of the eyes uh-huh I wonder if it's because Maybe she wasn't hungry and she was just saying, you know, maybe it wasn't something she needed, it was just extra. You know what I mean?

Okay, okay. Well, actually, I thought about that too. I went back and forth on that. I thought, well, you know, it's not that these things aren't attractive. They're very attractive. I mean, they do phones. I love electronics. That was my career. So cool electronics are interesting to me. It's not that they aren't interesting or look good. They do look good. So I was thinking that tree in the middle of the garden looked good. I'm sure it literally looked good. She says it looked good.

And, you know, but God says, no, just like with your children, right? You say when they're younger, you say, don't don't do that. That's not going to give you it's going to be dangerous or it's not going to give you what you think. You know, another another chocolate piece of chocolate is not going to help you.

Right. It's going to make you. What? No, no. I got to have another piece of chocolate. So, you know, that's what it's all about. Anyway, I'm going to get off the rabbit trail here. I'm going to lose it here. Okay, let's go on quickly. I'm sorry to have to move on.

The boastful pride of life, and here's what we see in spades today. The pride of life, I used to amplify it this time, the pride of life, It's the assurance in one's own resources. Boy, do we see this in politics, right? Boy, to be a politician, you've got a major in the boastful pride of life. I mean, you've got to be. Stability and earthly things. I think about the Titanic, right? When the Titanic was launched, it was a big uproar. It said, it's unsinkable. Well, that was quickly proved it wasn't unsinkable.

So man is very boastful, very boastful pride of life. They're all wrapped up in self. Exactly. And it's another thing of the sin nature. Uh, and he, so basically, uh, constant ways in here. In fact, he thinks it's egoism, idolizing power. Boy, don't you see that in today's world? Men want power. How about, how about Putin? He wants, he wants power. He's going to get power. It doesn't matter what it costs in lives and people, he's going to get power. And then we get people that want power in this country.

And it's a, it's a mess. So you don't, you don't need to actually, you got a perfect, here's a, here's my Bible and here's the world system. Wait a minute. It's right there. So, very apropos message today. Okay, the last verse here, which could be a little problematic, but I don't think it is. The world is passing away. Yay! Okay, so this is a word that's in the present indicative passive, which means it's not only passing away, it's passing away because of God's plan. This present world is passing away.

When the rapture happens, and the tribulation period happens, and the millennial kingdom, this world is going to pass away. So that's what the first part is, passing away, and God is in control of that passing away. It's being caused to pass away, and God is the cause of that.

And also, it's lust. Isn't that wonderful? The lusts are going to pass away. Because we're gonna be with him with no more sin nature Okay, therefore the lusts mentioned in verse 16 are also passing away all right Really strong in the Greek here is the lust of itself is passing away, okay? Well, that's good.

I like that That's good really good Okay All right, so now the last part here, okay, last part here, and this, some people might have problems with this, but actually I don't think it's that problematic, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Okay, so let's think about this for a second. You know, you look at that and you think, well, boy, am I always doing the will of God? Maybe not, but let's just, here's my thought process.

Okay, well, actually, let's go back to waste again. And we says, but the one who keeps, because this is the tense of the verb here, but the one who keeps on habitually doing the will of God abides forever. So you can say, Roger, that makes it even worse. You add the word habitually in there. You didn't say just once in a while, you said 24 seven.

So anyway, I think the way to approach this is to look at our position and our condition. So think about this, and we all know this positionally, Every believer has done the, we've all done the will of God by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That's God's will. I'm not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance. We have done God's will. And so we accept that as being, doing his will. We've accepted Christ as our savior. Okay.

And he, many promises with that. And John 20, 31 is just a beautiful promise about the words that were written, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is a Christ, the son of God, and believing you may have life in his name. So there's no, we have life, we'll live forever. That's a wonderful verse.

And then conditionally, we're told to walk by faith, abide in him moment by moment. That's to be the habit of our life. And then this verse that kind of talks about that some more. Therefore, if you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. So the process doesn't change right in the Christian life. We received him by faith, and now moment by moment we're to walk by faith. And that's a Christian life. Yes, we will sin, but we confess those sins.

But kind of the bottom line here is that God is keeping us, right? I I have I have given eternal life to them They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand God is maintaining our salvation based upon our faith in him. So I think you can take that verse and look at and say It's not he I don't think he's saying that if you mess up if you don't do the will of God well If you can't do it 24-7, you're out of luck. He's just saying that the one who does the will of God, and we have done the will of God, lives forever.

So that's my take on that verse. I looked at Constable, I agree. I didn't look at everybody else. Anyway, any thoughts on that last part of that verse? One of the things that we're getting into is those who do not remain with us is the immediate following context.

Okay. And I think he's drawing up those that are doing the will of God, looking at the world the way God looks at it. They are abiding, they're at home. Okay. Anyway, that's kind of the contrast there. Okay, I see what you're saying. The ones that go off and are at home in the world system, if you will. Right. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. That's all right. No, fine. I'm good.

It says, but the one who does the will of the father, would it be the one who is in the will of the father as does? I don't understand. That does. Well, I don't know what the Greek says. Well, the Greek actually always brings it out pretty good. It's it that does have has the idea. I didn't I don't have it written down, but it does has the idea of how much, you know, keeps on habitually doing the will of God. abides forever. And so...

So it's an action? But if it's positional, it's not action. No, it's not. Go ahead, Roy. You had something you wanted to say? Well, I just did say participle. It's a present form participle. It's modifying what you're doing. It's doing things done, okay? That might help a little. Okay.

What is God doing? He's leading men to love his son. What is God doing? Having a perspective of the world that's correct rather than incorrect. And I think that's what's in focus here. Okay. Okay. Roger? Yeah, go ahead. I think one of the neat words in that with the least two is that he uses, um, but the one who keeps on habitually doing the will of God abides forever. It's not lives forever. It's abides forever. When we're doing as well, obviously we're abiding in him. And when we're not, we're not, which is our daily condition here and there all the time.

I think for me, it's a comfort going. But when I get to that judgment seat, I'm so thankful that he's gonna say, okay, here's all the stuff that you did on your own, Karen. We're burning that. It's a reward for the things you did while you were potentially doing that and abiding in me. So it's so, there's a comfort there. It's, yeah. But you know, your first, it is, you look at that, it does kind of challenge you.

And so I think keeping in mind that we have done God's will, by believing in Him. That's His will. And so, and his desire is that we keep doing as well. We keep walking with him, but he realizes we may not. I'm getting signs here from the people in the room that music practice is coming up here and we have some musicians in the room and we better move on here.

So, well, thanks for all the great comments, great verses, actually very applicable for today. You don't need to read your newspaper, just read your Bible, right? Amen. Okay, so let's close. We thank you, Father, so much. We thank you for your marvelous word, Lord. Thank you for your care for us. Thank you that you care for us so much that you sent your son and that as we walk by faith and trust him day by day, that's exactly what you want us to be. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.