“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.”
1 John 2:15
There’s a quote by T.S. Eliot that says, “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.” Well, as I’m in the process of selling my home and moving soon...again...for the seventh time in ten years, and the eighteenth time in my nearly thirty-seven years of life, this quote is never far from my mind. I have to laugh, because if this quote were to be adapted for my life, I could say that I’ve measured out my life in moving boxes. Literally.
Thinking of how many times I’ve moved in my life, and how many more I likely will, I’m reminded that throughout Scripture, we’re assured time and time again that for believers, this world is not our home. America is celebrating her 250th birthday this week, and as much as I love this country of ours, it also is not my “forever home.”
In this life, we’re just sojourners journeying through on our way to our eternal home in Heaven, where no moving boxes have to be packed up and hauled for the journey, hallelujah! In this passage of Scripture, John instructs believers not to love the world. For if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. As believers, we’re given this instruction so that the lens by which we see the world is an eternal one. To fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 19-20), we have to live in light of eternity. If we’re living in light of eternity, we should more boldly give voice to the hope we profess.
May this passage challenge us to not live carelessly, but measured. Not as those who love the world, but as those who love Christ. We’re just renters here on earth, and Jesus already paid the mortgage in full on our Home in glory. Let’s live like it! May our boldness for Christ draw others to know Him also so they’ll someday take up residence on those streets of gold, too.
Written by Lauren Luckhart
