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I Don’t Need Anything the World Has

Sabbath School Net Posted on by avatar

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. 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. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 1 John 2:15-17 NLT

When Paul stood before Agrippa, he showed us the attitude of someone who has truly experienced the unconditional love of Jesus and has a genuine relationship with Christ. When someone has a sincere conversion, the things of this world lose their appeal. The tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet” is not a struggle to keep. When Christ abides in the heart, the Christian is not looking at the things everyone else has and wishing they could have those things too. Instead they look at the world and desire for the world to have what they have. This was Paul’s attitude as he stood before King Agrippa.

Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?” Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.” Acts 26:28-29 NLT

Paul is standing in chains and his prisoner uniform before king Agrippa in all of his royal splendor. Yet Paul does not desire what Agrippa has. He wants Agrippa to have what he has! Likewise those who have had a real experience with Jesus will not be looking at the world, longing for what the world has. Instead, we long for the world to have what we have.

Coveting becomes an impossibility when your heart is filled with God’s love. When your heart is filled with God’s love, you do not envy the world. Instead, you feel sorry for the world because it does not have the love and joy that you have. Instead of having worldly ambitions, we have the ambition of Paul, when he said,

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts 20:24 NLT

I don’t need anything the world has. The world needs what I have.

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Comments

I Don’t Need Anything the World Has — 5 Comments

  2. And yet, there are things that this world has that we, even Christians, need just as much as the world needs, and Jesus mentioned this when He said to not worry about them because His Father knows that we also need them as well — namely: food, clothes, shelter. So, to me, the words of John should read, “Love not the “Sin of the world,” nor the “Sinful things in it.” Then Jesus said to “Seek His Kingdom and also His Righteousness,” and these things would also be added to us.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi, Pete. You make a great point. However, there is still the fact that the sinful ways of the world very much include a lust for unnecessary possessions, at the expense of the good that could otherwise be done with those material resources.

      The Father knows what we need, and also how we can experience the greatest sense of fulfillment in life, and the latter probably has a lot less to do with the acquisition of material goods or means than we are often tempted to think.

      Reply ↓

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At a camp meeting 40 years later, I happened to see Dr. I. demonstrating some kind of health product, if I remember correctly. (In my mind, I see only the image of him, much older, but still looking much like he did when I was a student, with a friend by my side.) I lingered a little but did not introduce myself. I briefly wondered whether he recognized me. I’m fairly sure that I was as recognizable to him as he was to me.

Had he changed? Or did he still feel superior in his “humility”? Should I talk to him? I didn’t know how to approach him, and was busy with friends. I still don’t know whether I should have said something. (Maybe I’m just a coward.)

If God wants him to see my story, his and my identity are clear enough in this post, that God can direct him to it.