Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
John the Beloved. 1 John 2:15. Hi, it’s Nathan, and this is Day 5 of 30 Days Reflecting on the Kingdom. Our hearts can only be committed to the world—it’s way of life—and it’s stuff. Or to God’s way. Our hearts cannot straddle the space between them, because the anti-love ways humans do life are fundamentally incompatible with God’s way, the way of love. Other-centered love is the way God does life—and the way his followers are learning to do life. The world here, is not a reference to church people vs non-church people. Rather, the world is a reference to people who live life pre-occupied with their own interests. People whose primary calculation is how things work out best for themselves. See, God doesn’t do life that way. At all. He is unhesitatingly committed to the best interests of all others at any and all costs to himself. As individuals, we are either moving toward this way of life, or away from it. Becoming more self-absorbed, or less. And whether or not we believe in God does not necessarily determine which way we’re trending. There are highly self-absorbed folks who talk big about religion. And highly selfless folks, who don’t care for religion.
