1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever."
I know it's been a long while since I've posted but I wanted to start the new year making more posts and the first topic I wanted to discuss is a about the debate on Christians living for their own pleasure just the secular society does and whether it's wrong or not. For many among the Christian community, Christians purpose on earth are to please God our Lord and Savior.
Many scholars, pastors and the church teach the mentality that anything Christians do that doesn't involve pleasing God or growing closer to Him, from how they dress, how to style their hair whether to dye it or not get a haircut or not, get a tattoo, wear makeup, jewelry, shopping, fashion, dating the opposite sex or what hobbies and interests to pursue and only about pleasing themselves is sinful. Their reasoning is that we are to serve God only and engaging in our own personally pleasure is selfish and engaging worldly pleasures using the verse 1 John 2:15-17 to confirm their ideas.
Afterall, this verse does tell us not to love anything in the world and if we don't love God and we are to do the will of God. By that logic that could include not loving the planet and the environment and wanting to take care of it, or loving normal secular activities, such as reading, sports, dancing, sewing, fishing, camping, going to parties etc. Some churches even go as far make church members sign contracts, that forbid them from drinking any alcohol beverages, smoking and other churches ban women from wearing pants, makeup or jewelry.
I myself get annoyed when I read comments on the internet or articles by other Christians that they shouldn't read a fiction novel, dye their hair, go on a date unless it's about going closer to or serving God or else it they are selfish or sinful as just doing what your like is selfish and sinful period and I don't believe it is a godly model. The Christian community including churches have a tendency of using the scriptures to justify man-made legalistic rules and regulations on what is allowed or not allowed among fellow Christians.
I wrote about this too in my first blog on the topic of legalism(you can check it out if you like). The problems I have with this philosophy is that it implies that Christians have to choose between their pleasure and pleasing God but there is no room for both as if pleasure itself is a sinful nature a source of shame that needs to be abandoned in order to give ourselves to the Lord. This could cause Christians to place extra burdens on themselves in order to hold themselves to a higher standard, to feel shame and guilt in desiring to please themselves which can lead some believers to constantly second guess if they partake anything for their own pleasures, enjoyments and happiness. I don't believe for one moment that a loving God wouldn't want his children to pursue their own happiness, to find fun and joy in their daily lives be it in their hobbies, pastimes, music or whatever in pleasure that suits us.
Our Lord certainly wouldn't want us to be unhappy, miserable for his sake, therefore I hardly believe he will be disappointed when you go to the beauty salon, nail salon, see a sports game, listen to your favorite music, read your favorite fiction novel by your favorite author, enjoy dressing up and putting on jewelry etc simply for your own pleasures as if you not allowed to have those things in your life. I have looked more into the scripture 1 John 2:15-17 and understood to be about a letter possibly written by John the Apostle to Christians regarding the influences of some false teachers in order to test our faith in Christ.
In not loving the world, John was telling us to rebuke the sinful nature of the fallen world like lust not just sexually gratification but lust for power, greed and pride to the point of arrogance, envoy to the point of bitterness. Being more consumed for with materialistic and superficial things and other things of the secular society to the point of turning away from God. In these cases, choosing your own personal pleasures for sinful things of this world over God or just prioritizing our pleasures of the things in the secular world above Him is wrong.
For believers,God has to come first in our lives that is clear. What is also clear is that seeking pleasure in our lives for just ourselves isn't wrong or displeasing to the Lord since he would wants us seek pleasure in whatever we desire as long as it doesn't cause us to stray from Him. For Christians who truly give their hearts to the Lord, we can still seek in pleasure and joy that makes us happy without worrying about displeasing God since since as long as our hearts our with God, we would never turn away from Him, therefore we would never do anything to cause us to sin for our own self indulgence.
Many scholars, pastors and the church teach the mentality that anything Christians do that doesn't involve pleasing God or growing closer to Him, from how they dress, how to style their hair whether to dye it or not get a haircut or not, get a tattoo, wear makeup, jewelry, shopping, fashion, dating the opposite sex or what hobbies and interests to pursue and only about pleasing themselves is sinful. Their reasoning is that we are to serve God only and engaging in our own personally pleasure is selfish and engaging worldly pleasures using the verse 1 John 2:15-17 to confirm their ideas.
Afterall, this verse does tell us not to love anything in the world and if we don't love God and we are to do the will of God. By that logic that could include not loving the planet and the environment and wanting to take care of it, or loving normal secular activities, such as reading, sports, dancing, sewing, fishing, camping, going to parties etc. Some churches even go as far make church members sign contracts, that forbid them from drinking any alcohol beverages, smoking and other churches ban women from wearing pants, makeup or jewelry.
I myself get annoyed when I read comments on the internet or articles by other Christians that they shouldn't read a fiction novel, dye their hair, go on a date unless it's about going closer to or serving God or else it they are selfish or sinful as just doing what your like is selfish and sinful period and I don't believe it is a godly model. The Christian community including churches have a tendency of using the scriptures to justify man-made legalistic rules and regulations on what is allowed or not allowed among fellow Christians.
I wrote about this too in my first blog on the topic of legalism(you can check it out if you like). The problems I have with this philosophy is that it implies that Christians have to choose between their pleasure and pleasing God but there is no room for both as if pleasure itself is a sinful nature a source of shame that needs to be abandoned in order to give ourselves to the Lord. This could cause Christians to place extra burdens on themselves in order to hold themselves to a higher standard, to feel shame and guilt in desiring to please themselves which can lead some believers to constantly second guess if they partake anything for their own pleasures, enjoyments and happiness. I don't believe for one moment that a loving God wouldn't want his children to pursue their own happiness, to find fun and joy in their daily lives be it in their hobbies, pastimes, music or whatever in pleasure that suits us.
Our Lord certainly wouldn't want us to be unhappy, miserable for his sake, therefore I hardly believe he will be disappointed when you go to the beauty salon, nail salon, see a sports game, listen to your favorite music, read your favorite fiction novel by your favorite author, enjoy dressing up and putting on jewelry etc simply for your own pleasures as if you not allowed to have those things in your life. I have looked more into the scripture 1 John 2:15-17 and understood to be about a letter possibly written by John the Apostle to Christians regarding the influences of some false teachers in order to test our faith in Christ.
In not loving the world, John was telling us to rebuke the sinful nature of the fallen world like lust not just sexually gratification but lust for power, greed and pride to the point of arrogance, envoy to the point of bitterness. Being more consumed for with materialistic and superficial things and other things of the secular society to the point of turning away from God. In these cases, choosing your own personal pleasures for sinful things of this world over God or just prioritizing our pleasures of the things in the secular world above Him is wrong.
For believers,God has to come first in our lives that is clear. What is also clear is that seeking pleasure in our lives for just ourselves isn't wrong or displeasing to the Lord since he would wants us seek pleasure in whatever we desire as long as it doesn't cause us to stray from Him. For Christians who truly give their hearts to the Lord, we can still seek in pleasure and joy that makes us happy without worrying about displeasing God since since as long as our hearts our with God, we would never turn away from Him, therefore we would never do anything to cause us to sin for our own self indulgence.
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