In 1 John 2:15, we read:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
(1 John 2:15A)
This is a Bible verse many pastors turn to in order to show WHY Christians should have nothing to do with secular, sinful pleasures that this world offers to us.
But growing up as a young Christian in the church, I’ve always wondered WHY so many professed Christians around me seemed to carelessly disregard what 1 John 2:15 says and get deeply involved in an obsessive coquetry with worldly things.
One Reason
Proverbs 27:7 can help unlock to us one of the key reasons behind this spiritually odd phenomenon.
Proverbs 27:7 says:
The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
(Proverbs 27:7)
One of the original Hebrew meaning for “hungry” in this verse means “empty stomach.”
So, we could easily apply this definition as “empty soul” in the context of Proverbs 27:7.
“…..To the empty soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
(Proverbs 27:7, reinterpreted)
But what does that word “bitter” mean?
The Symbolic Meaning of Bitter
Exodus 1:14 shows us what the word “bitter” is symbolically associated with.
Exodus 1:14 (which speaks of the Egyptians and how they treated the Israelites when they were enslaved by them) says:
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
(Exodus 1:14, emphasis added)
So, the word “bitter” is associated with “hard bondage”.
But what is “hard bondage”?
Galatians 4:3 gives us the answer:
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
(Galatians 4:3, emphasis added)
So, to be “bitter” means to be in hard bondage to “the elements of the world.”
But what are “the elements of the world”?
Going back to 1 John chapter 2, we find the answer in verse 16.
1 John 2:16 says:
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
(1 John 2:16)
Conclusion
“Bitter” means being in hard bondage to the lust and pride of this world.
Those who have empty souls find this kind of bitter bondage to be sweet (or “pleasing” as it’s defined in the original Hebrew).
In conclusion, then, the reason why so many–even within the church–are drawn to the things of this world and find worldly things sweetly pleasing is because their souls are spiritually EMPTY.
Empty of what?
The rest of 1 John 2:15 tells us:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
(1 John 2:15)
In other words, they’re empty of God’s love for what is holy, true, and Eternal.
A Prayer
Dear reader, would you like to be full of God’s love, and be transformed in your soul to find His truth and holiness sweet and pleasing?
If so, then I wanna encourage you to just pray:
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?
(Matthew 16:26)
Amen! Maranatha!