"Atlanta's Race" is the title of Sir E. J. Poynter's most
successful paintings. The story behind the painting is from Ovid's
Metamorphoses. Atlanta was the daughter of Schoenus of Boeotia,
and she was famous for her matchless beauty. She was also so swift
of foot that none could outrun her. To everyone who asked for her
hand in marriage she gave the same answer. She would be the prize
of him who could vanquish her in the race. Defeat, however, would
carry the penalty of death. Many lost their lives in trying to outrun
her. After a lull there appeared a youth by the name of Hippomenes
who challenged Atlanta once more to race. He knew he could not
conquer her by fleetness of foot, so he carried with him three golden
apples, for he had received this advice from Venus:
When first she heads the from the starting place
Cast down the first one for her eyes to see,
And when she turns aside make on apace.
And if again she heads thee in the race
Spare not the other two to cast aside,
If she not long enough behind will bide.
The race began, and he followed these instructions. As Atlanta
was about to pass him he dropped the first apple. She looked down,
but ran on. He dropped the second apple and she seemed to stoop,
and when he dropped the third she did stoop to pick it up. It was
only a few seconds lost, but it was enough, for Hippomenes had
touched the maple goal, and Atlanta had at last been defeated.
Poynter's painting pictures Atlanta at that decisive moment when
she turned her eyes from the goal and stretched her arm toward the
golden temptation which brought her to defeat.
The painting is an illustration of the danger that faces every
believer in the race toward the goal of Christlikeness. We must be
looking always unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, but
along side of us runs the world competing for our love, and John
says it also has three golden apples to cast in our path: The lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world casts
these down before us hoping we will take our eyes off Christ and
stoop to gain these earthly prizes and forget the goal.
All of life is a competitive battle between the love of the eternal
and the love of the temporal. One or the other must win, for one
excludes the other. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Atlanta must either win the race by keeping her eyes on the goal, or
she must sacrifice the race to gain the golden apple. A choice must
be made, an John says the Christian must make this choice as well.
He cannot love God and the world, for love must be limited to one or
the other. John knows that Christians will be tempted to stoop and
pick up the golden apples of the world, and that is why he warns
them and commands them to love not the world.
He had just written about love being the very essence of the
Christian life, and that to be without it is to be in darkness. Now,
however, he makes it clear that love must have its limitations, for it
cannot be indiscriminate. The object of one's love must be God, and
if this be so there are some things that cannot then be loved, and
they are called in one word-world. Fortunately John goes on to tell
us just what he means by the world. He names the three golden
apples of the world's appeal, and he thereby defines the worldliness
that we are to avoid. It is important that we see this clearly lest we
misunderstand and pervert the statement, "Love not the world."
Many have done so.
St. Bernard would spend days by the shore of Lake Constance
and keep his eyes glued to his book lest he raised them and see the
beauty, and be seduced away from God. John did not mean the
creation when he said we are to not love the world. Jesus loved the
world in that sense, and He said, "Behold the lilies of the field and
the birds of the air." The heavens declare the glory of God and all
of nature shows forth His handiwork. The earth is the Lord's and
the fullness thereof. It is not the work of the devil. It is legitimate
for us to love the world in the sense of delighting in God's creation.
It can be excessive to the point of worshipping the creation rather
than the Creator, and this of course is folly. But to love and enjoy
nature is a part of our appreciation of God's nature.
Not loving the world does not mean we are to not love the people
of the world. This would be a denial of what is commanded. God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for them.
We are to love the world in this sense of loving the people. We must
see that the world in this context is what we call worldliness. It is
that order of fallen society, and the attitudes of fallen people. It is
the lust, pride, and all that is opposed to the light of God's
righteousness. The world is that realm where darkness reigns.
David Smith says the world here equals, "The sum of all the forces
antagonistic to the spiritual life." This is the world we are not to
love.
John does not just give a command and leave it at that. He says
love not the world, and then he goes on to give reasons for
command. God expects man to use his intelligence and to weigh
values. He does not compete with the world by brute force. He
offers reasons for choosing His was rather than the way of the
world. We want to examine the 2 reasons that John gives us here
for not loving the world. First-
I. IT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE LOVE OF GOD.
The Christian cannot love the world, for to do so is to forsake the
love of God, since it is impossible to love both. Paul said, "Demus
has forsaken me having loved this present world." Demus had no
choice but to forsake Paul if he was going to love the world, for
loving it and serving God are opposites that cannot be reconciled.
He had to forsake Paul if he was going to love the world, just as he
would have had to forsake the world to truly serve God with Paul.
To love is to give someone a supreme and central place in your
life. You cannot have two supreme loves. It must be either God or
the world on the throne, for neither of them will share the throne
with the other. If you love the world you are electing to lose the love
of God. Show me a man who is lustful and proud in an evil sense,
and I will show you a man who may be very kind, helpful, and even
religious, but a man in whom the love of God does not abide. I
believe, however, this can even happen to a Christian. John is
wasting his time and ours if he writes to warn Christians about what
they can never be tempted into. Who needs to watch out for what is
impossible. It is possible for a Christian to lose the love of God, and
cease to be a servant of Christ by letting the love of the world
overwhelm their hearts.
Each of us must constantly examine our hearts lest we end up as
castaways, and no longer worthy contestants for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We are not talking about losing
salvation, but about losing one's usefulness for the kingdom of God.
Our love and loyalty must be continuously examined to see if its
object is Jesus Christ or some selfish and worldly object. Just as a
person can get a dishonorable discharge from the army and still be a
citizen of the country, so a Christian can be set on the shelf and no
longer be an active member of the soldiers of the cross, and yet still
be a part of God's family. But this is a terrible demotion.
When two people get married they limit the expression of their
romantic and sexual love to their partners. So it is in the spiritual
realm. When a person is saved and enters into a relationship with
Christ as Savior, he becomes a part of the bride of Christ. From
that point on his love and faithfulness is to be to Christ alone. To
love the world is to commit spiritual adultery. This was the most
common sin of the Old Testament people of God, and it is doubtless
in first place also in the New Testament dispensation. The message
of the prophets is the message needed today. We need to forsake all
other gods, and be loyal to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Set your affections on things above and not on the things of
the earth, for these things are incompatible with the love of God.
The challenge of John is for believers to be loyal to the Lord in
their love, and not corrupt it and diminish it by allowing the world
to gain their affection. Young put it, "Let not the cooing of the
world allure thee, Which of her lovers ever found her true?" E. J.
Poynter, whose painting we earlier considered, painted another well
known picture called "Faithful Unto Death." It is picture of a
soldier at his post during the great volcano eruption that buried
Pompei in hot lava. All the people were fleeing for safety, but the
soldier grasped his spear firmly and stood erect. His eyes revealed
terror, and one can sense the struggle that rages in his mind between
duty and the desire to save himself. Obedience wins, however, and
he remains at his post faithful unto death.
The Bible nowhere says it will be easy to be a Christian, but if a
pagan soldier can be faithful to his superior even unto death, then
any Christian should be ashamed to do less for his Lord who died
foe his eternal salvation. The world desperately needs Christians
who will love Jesus supremely, and forsaking all others keep
themselves to Him alone. To love the world is incompatible with
God's love, and so the degree to which you love the world is the
degree to which you suffer the loss of God's love. Let our decoration
then be that of F. W. H. Meyers:
Who so has felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny;
Yeah, with one voice, O world, tho' thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.
II. IT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE WILL OF GOD.
Not only is it impossible to reconcile the love of the world with the
love of God, but it will be impossible to do so in eternity, for the
things of the world have no part in God's will for the future. These
things will not last is what John is saying. They will pass away, for
they are temporal and transient, and will have no place in God's
eternal plan. To love them is to trade the solid diamond of eternity
for the melting Popsicle of time.
The love of the world, which is really lust, is centered around
pleasures that are purely a matter of the flesh, and do not go deep
and affect the soul. The lover of the world has only surface
pleasures. They are real, but not lasting pleasures. They do not
produce joy and a sense of ultimate purpose and meaning.
Fading is the worldling's pleasure,
All his boastful pomp and show.
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None by Zion's children know.
This is why it is of no profit to gain the whole world if one loses
his own soul. You can never come out ahead by trading the timeless
for the temporary. The world throws down its golden apples of
present pleasure and say enjoy yourself, for its later than you think.
The world appeals with the same urgency as the Gospel. The world
says today is the day to satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, and so let us eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we die. Now is the time to live.
The Christian, however, with the eyes of faith looks ahead and
sees the world and its lusts pass away. We claim the promise of God
that those who do His will abide forever. John fights worldliness, not
by shouting and getting angry, but by the calm appeal to the believer
to consider how incompatible it is with God's purpose and will. He
appeals to their sense of values and makes it clear that to choose the
world is a poor investment, for the world and its lust are going to go
out of style for good, but those who are in God's will have a style
that will last forever. Omar Khayyam wrote,
The worldly Hope men set their hearts upon
Turns to ashes-or it prospers-and anon,
Like snow upon the desert's dusty face
Lighting a little hour or two is gone.
The Christian does not invest his time and trust in that which is
fading and passing away, but it the will of God which is lasting and
eternal. Love for both are incompatible. The world has a strong
appeal in spite of the fact that it offers only fading pleasures, and the
Christian can only refrain from stooping to snatch up its golden
apples of temptation by keeping his eyes on Christ. John Henry
Newman wrote,
Unveil, O Lord, and on us shine in glory and in grace,
This gaudy world grows pale before the beauty of Thy face.
Till Thou art seen, it seems to be a sort of fairy ground,
Where suns unsetting light the sky, and flowers and fruits abound.
But when Thy keener, purer beam is poured upon our sight
It loses all its power to charm, and what was day is night.
Do not love the world, for it is incompatible with the love of God
and the will of God. To love the world is to lose the best for time and
eternity, and so limit your love to the Lord. Keep your eyes on Him
as your ultimate loyalty, and make sure all other loves are
compatible with loving Him supremely.
