Twinkies or Broccoli
TCF Sermon
August 14, 2005
Opening illustration – I need someone to help me eat a snack. This is an either/or demonstration. Either eat a good snack, or eat a bad snack food. Maybe we’ll have a little of both. In one bag is the twinkie. Classic junk snack. In the other is the broccoli.
Now, let’s think about this for a minute. On the one hand, you have twinkies. Twinkies are classic junk food, aren’t they?
Hostess estimates it uses eight million pounds of sugar, seven million pounds of flour, and one million eggs to produce the 500 million Twinkies baked every year. Twinkies are cream-filled sponge cakes which pack 160 calories per cake. Yet for all their nutritional drawbacks Twinkies are a hugely popular treat in the USA.
On the other hand you have broccoli. Now, personally, I like broccoli, but like the taste of it or not, broccoli’s good for you. It’s the superhero of vegetables. It has:
Vitamin A, beta carotene, folic acid, calcium, iron, vitamin C, vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc.
So, having a twinkie every once in a while is not going to kill you, but as a regular part of your daily diet, it may shorten your life. Having broccoli as a regular part of your diet may actually help you live longer, and be more healthy.
It’s up to us to choose how we eat, what we consume, isn’t it? We can eat well, with the resulting positive impact on our physical health…or we can eat twinkies, with the resulting negative impact on our bodies.
It’s also up to us to choose what we put into our spirits. And, yes, this twinkies or broccoli illustration, and that’s the memorable title of this morning’s message –
Twinkies or Broccoli
actually does have something to do with what we’re going to look at today.
1 John 2:15-17 (NIV) Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Here we see the apostle John giving us a command. Do not love the world. As a command, it makes it clear that we have a choice. We can obey this command, or we can ignore it. But we cannot say it’s optional in a spiritual sense, if we truly want to be followers of Christ.
If we ignore it, we’re denying the authority of scripture. While there are some things in the Word that are clearly both/and, this is one of those things that is very clearly either/or. Either we love the world, or we love God. There’s no real in between.
And John presents this idea pretty seriously, doesn’t he? He says, if we love the world, our love for God isn’t real love…Love for the world and love for God are incompatible.
Now, this is where our twinkie analogy might break down just a little, because I might be able to actually enjoy twinkies and broccoli, though not together. An occasional twinkie will not kill me, I don’t think.
However, our analogy still works when you think of it this way: What we love is what we’re committed to, not just what we enjoy, or gives us pleasure. We cannot be committed to a diet of junk food, and to a healthy diet at the same time.
Eating lots of twinkies for lunch, and then nothing but healthy broccoli for dinner, doesn’t undo the lunchtime twinkie damage, does it?
They’re incompatible. John’s saying, if anyone loves the twinkies…if you’re committed to a diet of twinkies, you can’t also, at the same time, say you’re committed to a healthy diet. If you say you love God, but it’s clear by your attitude, your heart, illustrated perhaps by your behavior, that you love the world, then, in fact, you don’t really love God – no matter what you say.
Wow! What an indictment! Isn’t that something to consider? That’s what brought this illustration to mind to begin with.
We have this tendency to want to straddle the good and the bad. To have one foot planted in the world, and the other in the things of God, the love of God.
Part of this tendency is because we’re in the world, and we’re supposed to be. And, after all, God loves the world, doesn’t He? Everybody’s favorite verse tells us that:
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world.
And didn’t Jesus pray in John chapter 17 as He prayed for His disciples: Lord, don’t take them out of the world, but protect them from the evil one?
John 17:15-16 (NIV) My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Lord, don’t take the twinkies away, just protect them from the twinkies, or keep them from eating too many?
So, with these things in mind, let’s clarify a few things here. The world that Jesus loves is mankind… that’s us fallible creatures who need His redemption. Jesus loves the world, the people of the world, but the world needs saving – the world needs His redemptive love. The world that the apostle John is talking about in our text, is more along the lines of what Jesus was praying about in John 17.
It’s the world in rebellion against God. Jesus knew the world was a danger. Jesus knew that the world would be a temptation, a snare, a trap, the realm of the enemy who seeks to entice us away from God.
He knew that we’d have this tendency to want to have a foot on both sides of this spiritual divide. If the world wasn’t dangerous, why would we need the Holy Spirit’s protection – why would Jesus need to pray for our protection?
So, yes, we’re in the world, and we’re supposed to be. But we are not to love the world. There’s only room in our hearts for one truly committed spiritual relationship. Just as there’s only room in our hearts for one truly committed marriage relationship. How well do you think it would go over if I were to say to my wife, I love you, dear, but I also love so and so.
Not too well, I suspect, because my wife does not want me to love another woman the way I love her…. and in fact, I cannot love two women in that way.
It’s one or the other – not both of them. Even the secular world recognizes this – why else would we outlaw polygamy? At least for now.
You’ve heard the phrase, “there’s a God-shaped hole in all of us.”
Blaise Pascal, a famous French mathematician and philosopher, put it like this: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ." If we try to stuff anything but God into that God-shaped hole in our lives, we’ll end up dissatisfied, restless, discontent.
Well, I might add that hole’s only big enough for God, and it cannot include love of the world, too. There’s even a song with this refrain:
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us, And the restless soul is searching..
There’s a God-shaped hole in all of us, And it’s a void only he can fill
Yes, there’s a God-shaped hole, and I might add, it’s not a twinkie hole.
Charles Finney said: “to love the world is to make worldly things the principal objects of desire and pursuit.”
Another definition: friendship with the world = sharing the world’s values...
“The world” in this context refers to all that is hostile, rebellious, and opposed to God. The world, Scripture tells us:
- is under the power of “the prince of this world” (John 12:31;John 14:30; John 16:11),
- “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephes. 2:2),
- the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4);
- “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19 NIV).
So when we’re talking about the world, and the things of the world, we’re talking about loving them, desiring them more than the things of God. We’re talking about a heart attitude here.
We’re talking about being more anxious to obtain the things of the world than the things of God.
Finney said:
To spend more time in their acquisition, than in efforts to glorify God, and save the souls of men, is to love the world in the sense of the text. Where the love of God and of men is supreme in the heart, there may be a suitable desire for worldly objects; but where an individual manifests a disposition to give the acquisition of wealth, or of worldly objects, the preference, and aims rather at obtaining worldly things than at glorifying God and of doing good to men, it is certain that the love of the world is supreme in his heart.
In other words, it’s about our priorities. What is most important to us? Is our love for God first and foremost? It’s what we mean when we talk of putting Jesus first,or making Him central in our lives.
It’s what we’re referring to when we speak of seeking first the Kingdom of God (Matt 6:33). Or are the pursuits of the things of the world more important?
It’s important to note here that John is writing to believers. The verses right before our passage make that clear.
1 John 2:12-14 (NIV) I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. 14I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Sometimes we find it easy to dismiss passages like our primary text about loving the world, because we think, well, he must be writing to, or about, unbelievers.
But, not only is John writing to Christians, but he’s writing to Christians who’ve had a real taste of living as faithful believers. He says their sins have been forgiven, they’ve overcome the evil one, they’ve known the Father, they’re strong, the Word of God lives in them.
But the encouragement of these verses, 12-14, is then balanced by this stern warning, and command, as we’ve noted. In the Greek, this phrase “do not love the world,” could be translated – “stop loving the world.” John gives us two primary reasons for this.
First, as we’ve recognized, and will examine further, love for the world and love for God are not compatible But another reason is that investing our love in the things of the world is a foolish exercise.
Why? Because these things of the world will be gone someday. The world is “passing away” says John.
One commentary said this:
All the vanity of this evil world with its devices is passing away. It has already begun to putrefy. It is a corpse, not yet buried.
So, as we’ve seen, love for the world and love for God cannot mix…they do not, and cannot, live together in the same spirit – our spirit. Again, only God fits in that God-shaped hole. Love for the world and love of God are like oil and water. They’re like twinkies and broccoli. They’re like drinking and driving – things that don’t go together.
You cannot truly love God and love the world at the same time.
Harold Lindsell said: “It is right for the church to be in the world; it is wrong for the world to be in the church. A boat in water is good; that is what boats are for. However, water inside the boat causes it to sink.”
John Piper says: “love for the world pushes out love for God, and love for God pushes out love for the world.”
Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters.” Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
Now, the context of this Matthew passage is love of money, and, of course, money is one of those things in the world that we’re not supposed to love.
But I believe the admonition here, “no one can serve two masters,” can apply beyond material things as well.
The apostle John recognized this:
Divine love is always in danger of being crushed out by a rival love, the love of the world. Worldliness is identified with love of the things in the world. ...everything in the world refers to its spirit, its tone, its values.... Worldliness consists of attitudes: the three characteristics of the world being sensuality, materialism and ostentation.
Bible Knowledge Commentary
If we’re to take John seriously, and literally, then it’s not a stretch to say that when we say someone is worldly, we’re saying they’re a world-lover, and we’re saying that they cannot possibly be a God-lover.
That’s pretty strong. But so are John’s words in verse 15:
“If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
A.W. Tozer said: “A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to ‘accept’ Christ without forsaking the world.”
The apostle John, says it isn’t possible. John isn’t the only one who taught this in scripture. James saw this same dilemma just as clearly, maybe even more strongly so than John.
James 4:4 (NIV) You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James doesn’t just say love of the world and love of God are mutually exclusive. He compares friendship with the world with hatred toward God. So, to put it in the world’s vernacular for adultery – you’re cheating on God…the person who’s overly friendly with the things of the world is “running around” on God….
James rebukes the readers of this passage for spiritual unfaithfulness. Using the word adultery is blunt and shocking, and it’s meant to be. It’s supposed to be a slap in the face, waking up the readers to their true spiritual condition, if they love the world.
Adultery is the same theme used so often in the Old Testament, when the people of God were unfaithful to God’s commandments.
For believers, however, there are two possible objects for affection: the world and God, and these two are direct opposites. To have a warm, familiar attitude toward this evil world is to be on good terms with God’s enemy. It is to adopt the world’s set of values and to want what the world wants.
The Greek could be translated – “if you make the choice to be a friend of the world, you are in fact an enemy of God.” Whether that’s the choice you want to make, or think you’re making, it is in fact the choice you make if you are overly friendly with the things of the world…
Believer’s Bible Commentary
So again here, we see that this is a choice. Just as clear a choice as choosing twinkies or broccoli. James is condemning love of material things as spiritual adultery. This theme of the danger of loving the world is a refrain we hear in many other passages of scripture as well. Let’s look briefly at a few.
1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Peter tells us we’re not of this world. At least, when we’re born again, we’re new creatures, born of the Spirit. As such, we become aliens and strangers in the world. It’s not our home anymore. And in the world, we are tempted by sinful desires that war against our soul. That implies a mortal threat, doesn’t it? War is a dangerous thing to be in the middle of.
There are some very sad consequences to loving the world. Some of the things that love of the world can produce in the believer’s life (from the Open Bible) are:
1. A turning away from the Lord’s work and other believers
2 Tim. 4:10 (NIV) for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me…
What a thing to be remembered for! Demas loved the world, and because of that, deserted the writer of much of the New Testament. He left the side of the man responsible for much of the initial spread of the gospel among the Gentile world. All because He loved the world.
2. Alienation from God (James 4:4) which we just read about.
3. Corrupting sins (2 Pet. 1:4)
2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
When we love the Lord, He gives us all we need to love Him not just in word, but in deed. He equips us to live for Him. This allows us to escape the corruption in the world, caused by our sinful, evil desires. Could these be the same things John wrote of, in our text this morning?
16For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.
The cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does – the pride of life. Another way to describe these things might be the way Peter does here… Evil desires.
4. a fourth potential consequence of loving the world: we’re more susceptible to deception by false teachers
1 John 4:1 (NIV) Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Where are these prophets - in the world…
2 John 1:7 (NIV) Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
When we love the world, we open ourselves up to all the things in the world, including false prophets and deceivers, as described by the apostle John in these passages. So what’s the solution? We have this warning – this very clear warning, seen not just in our primary text of the morning, but throughout the New Testament. We could find similar warnings in the Old Testament.
What’s a believer to do in the face of this onslaught of the world? This clear and present danger. The easiest, but least effective solution, is what we usually do first - come up with a list of do’s and don’ts.
I could easily do that this morning, and some of it might be helpful. I think there are many things that probably should be on such a list. I have to resist that approach, because I like the kind of clarity lists can sometimes seem to bring.
But there are good reasons I’m not going to do that this morning. The first is that, as we’ve noted, worldliness is a heart attitude. It may be revealed in our actions, even as Godly, agape love is revealed in what we do. But it starts in the heart, and God looks at our hearts first. We can be worldly, I believe, and have no one else but God know it. In other words, we can hide our worldly attitudes, just by not doing somebody’s list of don’ts.
In some churches, it’s worldly to wear your hair down if you’re a woman, instead of in a bun – no offense to the bun-wearers among us.
Another reason I don’t think we should just come up with a list of things we should and shouldn’t do is this: If we come up with a list, then we’ll want to use that list to measure ourselves in worldliness, and if we do that, and then actually live up to the standards on the list, we’ll fool ourselves into thinking we’re doing pretty well.
And when we do that, we’re well on the way to becoming legalistic Christians, who look, sound and act like the Pharisees Jesus strongly condemned.
It’s easy to define what it means to be a Christian, what it means to love the world or not love the world, on the basis of a specific list of things we do or don’t do. But God looks at our hearts. And some of us who don’t do certain things, are no better than those of us who do those very same things.
I’d rather the Holy Spirit convict you about what’s worldly, than me come up with a list you try to live by.
We have to live here in the world. But the solution is we just have to die.
We have to die to our old self – die to the world, and the pull of the things of the world.
Galatians 6:14 (NIV) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Life Application Bible says:
The world is full of enticements. Daily we are confronted with subtle cultural pressures and overt propaganda. The only way to escape these destructive influences is to ask God to help crucify our interest in them, just as Paul did. How much do the interests of this world matter to you?
As with all of the Christian life, this is only possible by His grace. But we can, and must, cooperate with His grace, by making godly choices in all we think, and do.
A scuba diver dives in the water but breathes the air -- he takes his environment with him. We live in the world, but we have to daily immerse ourselves in the environment of the Spirit. In His Word, in fellowship with God through prayer, in the fellowship of the saints. If you dive underwater without a tank of air, you can’t stay there very long before you’ll die.
We cannot straddle the fence. We must not try to keep one foot in the world, and one foot in the things of God.
A donkey, having heard some grasshoppers chirping, was highly enchanted; and, wanting to possess the same charms of melody, demanded to know what sort of food they lived on to give them such beautiful voices. They replied, "The dew." The donkey resolved that he would live only upon dew, and in a short time died of hunger.
Christians cannot live off the dew of the world. We have to have some broccoli. We can’t exist on twinkies, or eat too many of them, or we’ll be sick, or worse yet, slowly kill ourselves.
A writer named Donald Barnhouse tells this story:
Some years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work. It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they weren’t in tune. The boys didn’t know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied their pitch.
So we tend to copy the people with whom we associate; we borrow thoughts from the books we read and the programs to which we listen, almost without knowing it. God has given us His Word which is the absolute pitch of life and living. If we learn to sing by it, we will easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.
There are a lot of false notes in the music of the world. Can we tell which are in tune and which aren’t? If not, maybe there are portions of our lives in which we think we love the Lord, but we really fool ourselves, because we love the world.
Let’s remember that these things are incompatible. And let’s pray that God would help us root out every vestige of the world from our spiritual lives, starting today.
I must say that, as I’ve studied these passages of scripture in preparation for this morning’s message, I’ve found myself very convicted. I don’t want to be a Demas. I don’t want to straddle the fence. I don’t want it said of me – the love of the Father isn’t in Him. I don’t want to be a spiritual adulterer, not even a little.
Because you know what – you can’t commit adultery just a little.
I don’t want to be a friend of the world, with the exception of loving the world as Jesus loved the world, as the object of His Godly love for the salvation of souls. I want to be an instrument of His love for the world, and crucify the worldly, fleshly things in me. I want to love the Father wholeheartedly.
Do you?
Let’s pray…
