Lust, Sin Nature, and Kosmic System; 1 John 2:16-17

It is possible for the believer to stay in spiritual infancy because not only is he continuing to walk on the basis of his sin nature but he continues to let the unsaved, unbelieving world culture around him dictate his value systems, his priorities, how he spends his time, how he spends his money, and what his values are. That is the person who loves the world and John says if he continues in that state the love of the Father is not in him. Earlier he said that if we love the Father, if we come to love the Father we know Him, and if we love Him then we keep His commandments. So the person who doesn't love the Father doesn't keep His commandments and the reason he doesn't keep His commandments is because he is letting the cosmic system distract him.

James says almost the same thing in James 4:4 ^NASB "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." The word "adultery" often has a deeper meaning, i.e. not a physical act of sexual adultery but the root idea is unfaithfulness, covenant disloyalty. Again and again the word is applied to those who are spiritual adulterers. They are in spiritual adultery because they are unfaithful to God who has saved them. They have entered into a relationship with God but now they are unfaithful to Him. It is either one or the other. You are either hostile towards God or you are hostile to the world; you can't be both, you can't have one foot in each camp and just be a little bit attracted to cosmic thinking, priorities and value systems and then the next day try to be a little bit more in love with the Lord, they are mutually exclusive. The reason so many believers are failures in the spiritual life is because they don't want to disengage from the cosmic system, because that involves thinking, it involves self-analysis in the realm thought, and that means taking in the Word of God. Romans 12:2 ^NASB "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

A key verse on this is 2 Corinthians 10:3 ^NASB "For though we walk [metaphor for lifestyle] in the flesh…" We are believers are living in the body. "… we do not war according to the flesh [sin nature]." The sin nature is motivated by lust patterns. It has an area of strength that produces human good and an area of weakness that produces personal sins. One aspect of human good is problems-solving techniques in life, ways to handle problems in life, apart from the Word of God. They work to some degree, they make people functional, they do good things for some people, at least in a temporary manner. That is all human good and those are ways that we live our life "according to the flesh." That is what Paul is saying. We are not engage in the spiritual life, in spiritual combat, according to the techniques of the flesh. A right thing done in a wrong way is wrong. We don't fight the battle with the wrong tools, the wrong methodology, the wrong techniques. We have to do things God's way. We just don't go out on the basis of experience and try to defeat Satan or defeat the sin nature and have success in the spiritual life. God tells us exactly how to do it. [4] "for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh [sin nature], but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." Paul is using a metaphor here; this is not some kind of special spiritual term. What are these fortresses? What are these fortifications? We all have fortifications in our thinking; we have all erected walls around certain aspects of our thinking that we think are impregnable to assaults by God because we are really comfortable with that type of thinking. That type of thinking has to be destroyed and that is what Paul is says in verse 5: "{We are} destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and {we are} taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Whatever is raised up against a knowledge of God has to be comparable. It is also a form of thought; it is knowledge. We are destroying one type of knowledge that is raised up in antithesis to the knowledge of [about] God, i.e. Bible doctrine. What is our response? We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That means everything we think, all of our values, our priorities, the way in which we think, how we think; all of that has to be under the authority of Scripture, so we have to completely transform our thinking. The only way we can do that is to become continuously exposed to the teaching of God's Word day in and day out so that we can re-educate ourselves according to biblical thought and not the thinking of the world.

1 John 2:15 ^NASB "Do not love the world [put the cosmic system in priority] nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of [for] the Father is not in him." If the believer really loves God then he is going to distance himself from the cosmic system, cosmic thinking, and he is going to make doctrine the number one priority.

1 John 2:16 ^NASB "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." The "lust of the flesh" in v. 16 is not the sin nature, it has to do with lust that is related to our physical pleasure, the material part of our nature. This would include sexual lusts, physical pleasure lusts, chemical lusts, alcohol lust, the lust "of the eyes" for having other material things that we don't have, etc. The "boastful pride of life" is the arrogance that makes us think that we can make life work apart from God. All of that has its origin in the cosmic system. Then he tell us why this is wrong. [17] "The world is passing away, and {also} its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." The reason this is wrong is because it is temporal, it is all going to disappear. That is why in spiritual adolescence the issue is having an understanding of eternity. We are making decisions today on the basis of their impact in eternity, not time. Why? Because the cosmic system is passing away. All of this related to the details of life is temporal; it is all going to disappear. It has no permanent value, and so the adolescent believer has to learn to think in terms of the long-term impact of decision making.

In contrast to this the one who does the will of God abides forever. This is talking about the next stage, of spiritual adulthood. They had come to know Him and are abiding with Him and so John is saying that if they are going to make it beyond spiritual adolescence they have to get past the cosmic system and then they will hit that stage where they are abiding continuously with the Lord. That doesn't mean never getting out of fellowship but when they do they bounce back quickly. They will stay in fellowship most of the time and will be characterised by a love for God that motivates them to obedience to God. They will have happiness and stability in life no matter how horrible the circumstances are. They will live above and beyond their circumstances because of their orientation to eternity and to God. The one who is continuously in fellowship does the will of God—application of doctrine.