March 7

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. — 1 John 2:15 BSB

This is a vast statement. It takes hold of our hearts and brings us to a high mountain, as it were, like when the Lord was tempted by Satan. It says to us, “Look around—none of these things are for you to love.” It leads us through a crowded city, past shop windows filled with beautiful and desirable things, and points us to all the wealth and grandeur that the human heart admires and loves. But instead of offering them to us as Satan did, saying, “All this I will give you,” it says, “All this is taken from you. None of these things are for you. You must not love these glittering treasures or even touch them, lest, like Achan, the sight of the gold and the Babylonian garment tempt you to hide them in your tent.”

This precept takes us through the world like a mother guiding her child through a bazaar filled with toys and ornaments, saying, “You must not touch any of these things.” In a similar way, the commandment leads us through the world, and as we look at all its pleasures and possessions, it tells us, “Do not touch any of these; they are not for you to enjoy or even to desire.” Can anything less be meant by the words that should continually echo in the ears of God’s children, “Do not love the world or the things in the world”?