The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1919, Page 18

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

Nature and Revelation.

When I survey the wondrous views
Which nature sets before my eyes,

My spirit feels impelled to muse

On God, who made the earth and skies.

.Creation tells me then: “He’s kind,
He is almighty and all-wise,

He blesses and preserves mankind,
And eyen hears the ravens’ cries.”

Indeed, with wonders He has filled

The world — the sprouting seed, the bird,
The fertile acre that is tilled,

The numerous voices that are heard,

The sun and golden stars that shine,
The lofty firmament of blue,

The ocean, forest, hill, and mine,

The precious gem, the drop of dew, —

All things bear witness of God’s power
And His deep counsels; and I stand
Admiringly before the shower

Of gifts proceeding from His hand. —

And yet, His grace, His inmost heart,
Are not by nature’s works revealed,
And Mary’s precious, needful part

Is only by His Word unsealed.

For when I search the Book divine
And read of Christ, who bled for me,
My heart cries out, “O Savior mine,
I know my God alone in Thee.”
A. OSTERHUS.

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Love Not the World!
1 JoHN 2, 15—17.

The last words preceding our text are directed
by John to the young people. He now utters an
admonition that is especially needful and appro-
priate for their age. In verses 7—11 he had ad-
monished his readers to Christian love. But Chris-
tian love finds no place in a heart inhabited and
governed by the love of this present evil world.
Hence he here.warns them against such reprehen-
sible love.

V.15a. Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. The Apostle here does not
mean to forbid Christians to loye this visible world,
the delightful abode prepared for us by God, and
to enjoy the temporal things which are indeed pre-
cious gifts of His bounty. We should love this world
in, and on account of, God, who created the universe
and gave us these earthly blessings. But we should

not love the world as far as it antagonizes Christ
and His Church. The Apostle has just said that
the young Christians to whom he writes have over-
come Satan. But by loving the world, which is ruled
by him, and thus constitutes his realm, they would
deliberately deprive themselves of the fruits of the
hard-won victory and willingly reenter his servitude.
The term “world” here includes all human persons
and temporal things. We should not love this pres-
ent world, which is imperfect, subjected to vanity
through man’s fall, in a high degree ruled by Satan,
hence largely serving sin, an object of temptation
for evil unto men, and therefore appears in our
verse as being apart from, and in opposition to,
God and Christ. Neither should we love the things
that are in the world, that is, everything which is
found in, and belongs to, this present world, the
rival and enemy of God. We should not love the
world which is in such a foul condition; should not
love it, because and inasmuch as it is in this state
of antagonism against God.

V.15b. If any man love ihe world, the love
of the Father is not in him. No divided allegiance
between God and the world is permissible or even
possible. The human heart will either be God’s,
or set its affections on the world. Half-heartedness
in spiritual things, neutrality between God and the
world, is really enmity against Him. “He that is
not with Me,” says Christ, “is against Me.” Those
who are addicted to worldliness have not the Father’s
love within them, otherwise they would loathe and
shun the yery things of which they are so fond.
And again, those who daily and gladly dedicate their
hearts and lives to God will not, according to ths
real and better self, the new man which rules thengy
care for the world, but despise it. The love of God
and that of the world exclude each other. They.
cannot be found together, jointly ruling the heart,
for they are irreconcilable foes. Hence we Christians
should beware of being drawn into that most perni-
cious vortex: the love of things which look very
enticing to our flesh, lest we be seduced unawares
and reduced to the old slavery of darkness. — In
this second half of verse 15 John opens to our view
a wide vista under which we may write the words
either —or. The love of the world and that of the
Father is one of those great contrasts with which
this epistle abounds. Others are: spiritual, eternal
life and spiritual, eternal death; spiritual light and
darkness; sin and forgiveness; truth and lie; love
and hatred; the Father and the world. All these
contrasts may be reduced to these two: the King-