Taste Test
Read 1 John 1:1–2:29
15. Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
16. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
17. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. . . .
24. So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25. And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us. 1 John 2:15-17, 24-25
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You have to develop a taste for certain foods. Though some people love it, liver, for example, gags many people on the first try. It takes a commitment to continue eating this “delicacy” before you can get over the initial taste shock.
Being a Christian involves an adjustment of appetites, John writes. Love of the right things is an acquired taste, but worth every bit of effort.
John’s goal in this reading is to enlighten his readers. He does this through a message about light and dark that tells a simple truth: You can see where you are going when you walk in God’s light. Otherwise you are stumbling in the dark.
John instructed his readers to neither “love this world nor the things it offers you” (1 John 2:15). He listed three appeals that would drag believers down: “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions” (1 John 2:16). These pursuits would offer nothing of importance, and they would all fade away. Only doing God’s will would have any kind of lasting effect.
To love the world and its treasures takes no effort at all—we do it naturally. That is why God tells us not to love it. This means that we must wean ourselves from it. We must set our sights on doing God’s will, and let the world’s appeals fall away in importance.
All the acts you do for Christ’s sake will have lasting value—a changed life, an eternal reward, God’s greater glory. Learn to love and do what God loves.
