"Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world."-I
JOHN 2:15
[KJV]
This
is a very wide sentence. It stretches forth a hand of vast grasp. It
places us, as it were, upon a high mountain, such as the Lord stood
upon when tempted of Satan, and it says to us, "Look around you:
now there is not one of these things which you must love." It
takes us, again, to the streets of a crowded city; it shews us shop
windows filled with objects of beauty and ornament; it points us to
all the wealth and grandeur of the rich and noble, and everything
that the human heart admires and loves. And having thus set before
us, as Satan did before our Lord upon the high mountain, the kingdoms
of the world, it says, not as he did, "All this will I give
you," but, "All this I take from you. None of these things
are for you. You must not love one of these glittering baubles; you
must not touch one of them, or scarcely look at them, lest, as with
Achan, the golden wedge and the Babylonish garment should tempt you
to take them and hide them in your tent."
The
precept takes us through the world as a mother takes a child through
a bazaar, with playthings and ornaments on every side, and says, "You
must not touch one of these things." In some such similar way
the precept would, as it were, take us through the world, and when we
had looked at all its playthings and its ornaments, it would sound in
our ears, "Don't touch any one of them; they are not yours; not
for you to enjoy, not for you even to covet." Can anything less
than this be intended by those words which should be ever sounding in
the ears of the children of God, "Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world?"
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
March
7th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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