I Must Love What is Of God For My Good And For The Good Of Others

Study: #718 – Church in the Houses From: March 13 – 19, 2012

TOPIC: “I Must Love What is Of God For My Good And For The Good Of Others” 1 John 2: 15 - 16 I can see where men bury their eyes, mainly in the things of this world rather than in the things of above that do not perish. It is regrettable how they go after the carnal and temporary things before turning to the heavenly things. What do you work for? Do you work for what your eyes see at the moment, or for eternity? We see in the passage from Jeremiah 22:13-17 how King Josiah lived, who was seeking the things above, and the great contrast with the life of his son Jehoiakim, who lived in all kinds of injustice because of his arrogance and pride. Jehoiakim chose to live as John 2:15-16 says. He loved the things of the world and not God. He loved what was in the world. He loved and lived for what fills the eye, for the pleasures; he left God behind. People like him, if ever, give God the crumbs. One should just think and ask: What do I give God, my life or simple crumbs? What do I give to the Lord, the leftovers of my life? Little or nothing is given to God when the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride is what is sought to satisfy life. Pride leads to arrogance, to boast. Pride and arrogance is manifested for all that is vain and empty of this world. To be greedy and vainglorious is the order of the day in this world. Let us understand that nothing on earth has any glory. Everything here becomes rotten or damaged, so when we put our eyes on what perishes the glory that we can obtain is vain, it is to rise to something that will end at some point. There is greed for things that are not essentially worthwhile. Greed can be defined as those immoderate desires for worldly things; they are those burning desires for wealth or many other things that fill the eye. To boast is when one wants the mundane and carnal things for one reason, to praise oneself, to brag, to swagger, to appear important before others. Jehoiakim was a living example of what vainglory was. He destroyed a nation; his people. That is the danger- all that is destroyed when one is not seeking the things of above! They do things to presume, not out of humility or love for the people. When we love God we are far from all this evil. Jehoiakim built his house without justice. He raised his house according to the evilness in him, according to his pride, under greed, with all his boasting and pride. He lived in crime, in pride, in ostentation and presuming. His desire was to show everything he owned because of pride, he had to be seeking and grabbing things of others to continue to show how great he was. For him, the king’s duty was to appear great before others without having the slightest interest in doing good to the people. Jehoiakim wanted a palace, he did not care that he and the people were under the yoke of Egypt and later Babylon. He had to give large sums of gold and silver in order to pay tribute to those kings (2 Kings 23: 35) while there was still pride in him, who was a vassal, a slave of Egypt and Babylon. Jehoiakim did not know how to govern a nation, he had no equity for his people he could not see or distinguish between good and evil because of his boasting. For that reason, he caused the people more pain, ruin and bitterness. Jehoiakim, because of his selfish life away from God, did not give the people the fair payment. That nation needed a king who would go to God, but he killed the prophets, loathed the word of God; he would have nothing to do with the holy. He destroyed everything holy; for this reason, God turned away and was not with him. So he and his people lacked everything. His eyes were for his greed; he shed innocent blood, he lived under oppression and was always ready to do violence. This was his miserable life, far from God!

We have seen that with greed the heart goes behind the eyes looking for the worldly things and not what is of God. Josiah was very different from his son Jehoiakim; he was a good king and a good father. If Jehoiakim wanted to follow him, everything would have been different; his father had given him a good example. That is why the prophet Jeremiah tells him that the conduct of his father should have served as a guideline for the implementation of the obligations as king. Josiah did judgment and justice and so all went well. He used the power to do well. Josiah worked, judged the cause of the poor and needy to help them. That is to know the Lord. This is to love, follow and serve Him. The blessing that Josiah obtained was prosperity and peace in abundance. On the other hand, Jehoiakim would have his sentence, much disgrace, without the protection and favor of God. That man, to what was already destroyed, brought even more destruction. He was a prisoner, but even as a prisoner he never humiliated, but on the contrary, he wanted to show that he lived in greatness because of his pride. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to him, but he did not listen or repent. In his misfortune he entangled the whole nation for more destruction. What a disgrace! This is the product of greed, of the boasting for the things of the world. Let us escape from what the flesh and the eyes want to offer us, escape from pride and vainglory. Let us be as wise as Josiah and not foolish like Jehoiakim. The best: seek God! Amen.