Day 6 - Resident Alien
1 John 2:15-17
Scripture Passage: 1 John 2:15-17
Focal Verse(s): Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ~ 1 John 2:15 (CSB)
For the last several years, my TV watching has really taken a nose-dive. If I watch anything, it’s mostly vintage shows of my youth. The reason? Because most shows today try to beat me over the head with an agenda of some kind and frankly, I’m just getting sick of it.
But I’ll admit to catch a few modern shows from time to time. One such show (if you couldn’t already tell by the title of today’s devotion) is SyFy Channel’s sci-fi dramedy Resident Alien, which is about an alien from a warlike species who is sent to earth to destroy it (and consequentially, all humanity). Of course, as such things go, this alien bent on the destruction of our entire world crashes and is forced to take a human form while he gathers debris from his ship to finish his mission.
Along the way, he comes to a quaint little town in the Colorado mountains and becomes the town’s doctor (sans medical degree…but hey, he’s secretly an alien and therefore, far smarter than any human, right?). The cute and often funny series is then all about him trying to acclimate to humanity to prevent anyone from discovering his secret and that’s where the hilarity comes in.
Funny thing is, the more time Harry the Alien spends on earth with the people here, the more humanity begins to rub off on him. Until, eventually, he’s literally turned human without any alien essence to him whatsoever [thankfully, this was only a brief thread of the show and he eventually gets his alien essence back].
Now before you begin wondering if this devotional has suddenly evolved into a review blog for wacky television shows, have no fear. It’s not. I just found Harry’s antics paint the perfect picture of what John is telling the churches he’s writing in today’s verses.
“Do not love the world or the things of the world,” he says. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
Now why do you suppose John would tell us that? After all, the same apostle also told us in his Gospel that “For God so loved the world…”
Should we not do the same?
First, the Greek word for ‘world’ in both verses is the exact same: kosmon. It comes from the Greek work in which we get cosmos, and is, in fact, the same word in Greek. So, if both words are the same, why is it okay for God to love the world and not for us?
It’s all about context of the passage. That’s how hermeneutics (the proper study of text to glean its true meaning) works.
You see, despite using the same word for ‘world’, John is actually talking about two different types of ‘worlds’. In John 3:16, where it says ‘…God so loved the world’, he’s referring to us. To mankind. To all humans throughout history.
From the context we’ve already seen in 1 John, we know that he’s not dealing with the world in terms of ‘people’, but about culture. About the fleshly realm. About false doctrine, materialism, hedonism, and human morality. In other words, the ‘world’ mentioned here is talking about the ‘world system.’ The same world system that is controlled and ruled by the Enemy.
So, knowing all that, let me repeat the question: why would John tell us not to love the world? For the same reason that Harry the Alien got in some real hot water in the final season of the show. Because he became so absorbed by humanity that he became human altogether.
The same is true for us as well. Love the world and the things of the world and we can’t help become more and more like the world. It draws us in. As verse 16 tells us, the world is alluring. It’s attractive. It grabs hold of us and drags us further and further away from God.
Think of ourselves like a mirror. We reflect what we spend the most time looking upon. Gaze into the world for too long and we’ll start looking more like it. Gaze into Christ and we’ll start looking more and more like Him.
Confession time. Recently, I’ve been feeling a bit down about the world around me. Feeling a bit lost. Confused. For a while now, I’ve just not understood it or anything that comes from it. I don’t know the jargon. Don’t understand the mentality. Scratch my head over it’s quirks. I can never seem to say or do the right thing, or rather, more often than not, find myself saying and doing the ‘wrong thing’ from a social point of view. And it appears as though I’ve become just as much an enigma to the world as it is to me.
For a while now, I chalked it all up to my age. I’m just getting older. Generation X has never really understood the Millennials. And the Z’ers? Don’t get me started on them! Get off my lawn, you kids!
But this past Sunday, my pastor reminded me of something that brought me even greater hope. He reminded me that this place is not my home. This world and I are at odds because I don’t belong here. C.S. Lewis put it like we’re spies behind enemy lines advancing the kingdom of God. I think Resident Alien might be an even better example. We’re aliens on an alien world. The culture is alien to us. Strange to us. Bizarre. Try as we might, if we’re truly God’s children, we just don’t fit in here. We’re not understood by the natives here or vice versa. We don’t speak the same language or have the same customs.
The danger, my friends, is the longer we dwell in the world (i.e. the world system)…the longer we try to blend in and fit in…the more like the world we’ll become and the farther from God we will grow. We don’t fit in and honestly, we never should fit in. The more and more God sanctifies us…grows us more and more into Christ’s image…the more alien we will become. As this happens, it’s only natural that the world itself will become stranger to us every day. And as uncomfortable as it might be to many of us, the more we grow in Christ’s image, the more alien we will appear to the rest of the world.
So be proud of your alien status! Take heart in it. It simply means that God is doing a mighty work in your life!
Father God, guide us through this alien world. Protect us, but lead us through strange territory. Help us, Lord, to keep on the road you have set aside for us and do not let us veer off into the mire and webs this world sets for us. Abide in us, God, and keep us abiding in you through all things.