THE last surviving apostle John, writing in his twilight years to a church suffering for the sake of her witness and under attack from within and without, wrote three beautiful letters to the churches of Asia Minor. These letters reflect the intense love he felt for the flock, and the deep sense of fear of what would befall his readers once he departed. His tenderness is reflected in the way he addresses his readers… "My little children" (1 John 2:1; 3:18); "Little children" (1 John 2:18, 28; 3:7 etc.); and on a number of occasions he refers to them as "Beloved", demonstrating that they are loved by the Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate source of the love which John himself felt for the church. This love motivated John to do two things: Firstly, exhort the church to remain in the love of God and, secondly, warn her of impending trouble. To remain in the love of God meant not only to love the brethren, but also to demonstrate one's love for God through obedience to His commands. It is in this context that the twin exhortations of 1 John 2:15-19 are to be understood. John is writing to believers. We know this because of 1 John 2:14:

"I have written unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one."

So John is writing to them because, as believers, they need to hear the words they are about to read:

1 John 2:15-19: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

John makes a very simple dichotomy between the love of the world and the love of God. Put simply, you can either love God or you can love the world… you can not do both. If you love the world, you do not love God. This obviously requires sound and proper exposition, but it still remains a very challenging passage. There are, as many of you will know, three commonly used Greek words for love which, put in simple terms, refer to different parts of the body. Study the following table:

Eros refers to erotic love, the type which finds its proper expression only between a man and a woman who are married. Phile is much broader in that one can feel phile love for anything from a close family member to a pet or object (car, stamp collection etc). Agape love is different in that it is a considered and measured love. Let us consider the following example: If you were to go to church and see a brother who tells you that he has no money and his food cupboard is empty, you would feel sorry and compassionate towards him. This is phile love ..... an emotional response to somebody's difficult circumstances. If, however, you were to stop and consider how much money you could spare from your weekly spending allowance, and then, after considering, you actually take the step of purchasing a week's shopping for the person, that is an expression of agape love. Thus agape love is the love of the rational faculty ... it is measured, considered and cold blooded.

This is the love being discussed in 1 John 2. We are not being told that we should not love our puppy or our stamp collection. We are being told that the desires and the ambitions, and the sum of the affections of our rational faculty, must not be on the world, or anything of the world, but on God. In doing this, a wonderful thing happens. Once God is the sole object of our agape love, He then orders and directs the expression of our agape love
towards others … be they family or friends, employers or tasks we must perform. But these expressions of our agape love spring from our agape love for God, and this love being worked out through our lives.

What concerned John the apostle was that believers were, and still are, open to being tainted by the world, and this will be done by our love for God waning, and our love for the world and things of the world replacing it. John was quick to warn against the "lust of the flesh", the "lust of the eyes" and the "pride of life", which will pass away with the destruction of the world. What is the point of setting our affections on that which is doomed to destruction?

Then John continues by warning of the many antichrists who are already with us. These are people who rise to prominence within the church: "They went out from us," ie they appeared to be of the same source and authority as we were, "but they were not of us".

It is in the latest of the New Testament books, such as I John, 2 Peter and Jude, that we are warned against such apostates who, having been among believers, were actually deceivers who would try to lead the church astray. This is a very important point to grasp, because the most dangerous form of attack is not that which comes from without, but that which comes from within.

What is interesting about 1 John 2 is that John speaks about such apostates immediately after he speaks about the love of the world, which is characterised by both lust and pride. This is not an accident of scripture … such things seldom if ever exist. The two are placed side by side because they are related … lust and pride, the two essential ingredients of immorality, are grouped together with apostasy and this is done for a reason. This also occurs in the book of Jude, which discusses apostasy in the same vein as discussing the unbelief of Israel, the sexual fornication of the angels of Genesis 6, and the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jude 1:1-8: "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities."

The same link between lustful immorality and apostasy is made by Peter in his epistle.

2 Peter chapter 2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unright-eousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

Brethren, we must see that scripture is very clear on this subject: Apostasy and false doctrine will always be accompanied by immorality, sexual perversion and pride. This is the problem which plagues the visible church in these latter days. Because of the failure of leaders to root out false doctrine and errant practises, we are now reaping the consequences—scandal and corruption infesting the Pentecostal movement from top to bottom. The time has come, and is surely overdue, for an axe to be taken to the root. The visible church must be purged—root and branch.

Ed—Vanguard

Appeared in Volume 4.3 November/December 1998