Editor’s Note: Part 2 of 2. The second column was published July 24 and is available at Dangers Love Affairs, Part 1
One day while Jesus was teaching, He was asked what was the greatest commandment. The Master Teacher without hesitation stated that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Sadly, in the culture we live in today, very few people truly pay attention to Jesus’ command. In fact, it is often ignored altogether. Many professing Christians could be described by the words of John in the pointed accusation against the church at Ephesus, “You have left your first love.” We have allowed the things of this world to become much more important to us than God.
Last week we examined three dangerous love affairs that many have developed that causes us to commit spiritual adultery. The first one we looked at was when we love ourselves more than God. The second was when we love our money and possessions more than God. The third was when we love the praise of men more than God. Today we’re going to look at three more.
A dangerous love affair can occur when we love darkness rather than light. Jesus said in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” There are many believers today who have a love affair with secret sin in their lives. These are sins that we want to hide, not only from God, but from men.
In the Bible we see Achan who hid forbidden possessions he had taken from Jericho in the floor of his tent to keep others from discovering his deed. We see Cain who buried Abel in the wilderness hoping God would not discover his sin. Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament held back some of the money they had promised to God, hoping it would remain hidden. Many times, we find ourselves trying to hold onto secret sins instead of releasing them under the blood of Jesus Christ. We often hope they will bring us happiness, when in reality they will only bring us misery. Are you having a dangerous love affair with a secret sin that should be confessed and placed under the blood of Jesus Christ?
A dangerous love affair can occur when we love the world more than God. In 1 John 2:15 John tells us that we are to not love the world or the things that are in the world, because if we love the world the love of the Father is not in us. There are many professing believers who are chasing the things of the world instead of pursuing the things of God. Many are seeking power, position, popularity, fame, honor, or glory instead of a faithful relationship with God. Paul spoke of a man named Demas who loved the world more than Jesus. In fact, Demas even forsook following Christ.
Sadly, there are many people today that have drifted away from following the Lord and are following the world because they love the world more than God. Another example is Lot’s wife who could not walk away from a sin cursed city even while it was being destroyed by fire and brimstone. She paid a great price by losing not only the things of the world, but her family and her life.
One last example from the Scripture is the rich man Jesus spoke about who had a bumper crop and was more concerned about storing his crops than he was about where his soul would spend eternity. Many people today are desiring to accumulate and protect the things of the world. As a result, they are missing that which is more valuable than any earthly treasure, and that is a relationship with creator God. Jesus warned in Matthew 16:26 when he said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Are you having a dangerous love affair with the things of the world?
A dangerous love affair can be when we love pleasures more than God. When Paul wrote to Timothy, warning the young pastor that “(men) … are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” It seems we live in a world where people have put pleasures ahead of serving the Lord. People find more time to spend on recreation and pleasure than they do serving the Lord. In the Scriptures we see an example of this in King Solomon. He allowed himself to drift away from his once faithful relationship with the Lord and begin to seek satisfaction in the fleeting pleasures in this world. He wrote in Ecclesiastes that in the latter years of his life that all pleasures were vain, empty, and useless. As believers we need to be more like Moses when we’re told that he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Are you in a dangerous love affair with pleasures?
In the past two weeks we have examined six ways of committing spiritual adultery against God. We need to pray and examine our lives daily to see if we are flirting with or engaged in a dangerous love affair. If so, we need to pray and confess that sin, asking God to forgive us and by His Holy Spirit flee and forsake any sin keeping us from wholly loving and serving Him.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com