Often the popularity of "stars" is due to their ability to stir in us dissatisfaction with our own lives. Hollywood encourages us to envy sinners and to foolishly compare ourselves with the "beautiful people" (see Proverbs 23:17). John Bunyan, in his book The Pilgrim’s Progress, pictures the believer’s position as having “his eyes lift up to heaven,” holding “the best of books” in his hand, and standing with “the world as cast behind him” (p. Isaiah 55:7 says that coming to God involves a forsaking of our own ways and thoughts. The world is what we leave when we come to Christ. Every sin imaginable can be summed up in those three evils. First John 2:16 details exactly what Satan’s system promotes: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Satan is the god of this world, and he has his own value system contrary to God’s (2 Corinthians 4:4). When we are told not to love the world, the Bible is referring to the world’s corrupt value system. The parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear we cannot pick and choose whom to love (Luke 10:30-37). And as His children, we are to love other people (Romans 13:8 1 John 4:7 1 Peter 1:22). When the Bible says that God loves the world, it is referring to the human beings who live here (1 John 4:9). In the Bible, the term world can refer to the earth and physical universe (Hebrews 1:2 John 13:1), but it most often refers to the humanistic system that is at odds with God (Matthew 18:7 John 15:19 1 John 4:5). 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." Yet John 3:16 begins, "For God so loved the world." So, God loves the world, but we are not supposed to? Why the apparent contradiction? If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. First John 2:15-16 says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world.
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