When Good Seems Bad

In John's first epistle he writes, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." (1 John 2:15-16) "All that is in the world," he says, "is not from the Father."

Oddly enough, the instruction, "Do not love the world nor the things in the world" seem to many believers to be wrong. "We're supposed to love the world," they assure us. This text, then, illustrates the problem: sometimes what is good appears to some (even believers) to be bad.

I'm sure you can come up with your own examples, but let me offer a few. Scripture says that wives must submit to their husbands and Christians assure us that's bad and outdated. Scripture instructs that women aren't supposed to teach or rule over men in the church and Christians are outraged at such a suggestion. The Bible repeatedly refers to marriage as between a man and a woman and Christians will classify that as "hate." Keep going. I'm sure you see what I'm talking about.

So, if we start with "God is good ... all the time" (as we are fond of saying) and "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Tim 3:16), we would likely conclude that God and His Word are good even if our world (remember what John said about the world) is opposed to it. And if we conclude that this principle is true, it becomes pretty easy to figure out what to do when we find ourselves saying, "No, the Bible is wrong on this point." What to do? Change our thinking, not God's. Realize that we are loving the world over the Father -- embracing what is in the world which is not from the Father. We need to change how we think because our goal is to love the Father, not that which is opposed to the Father.

We should expect that what God calls good will not always coincide with what our world calls good and vice versa. The decision at that point is not "Which is good?" but "Which will I love -- the world or the Father?" It's not always an easy choice, but it is generally a clear one. Keep in mind, though, that according to John your general decision on that point will tell you whether you're really a child of God or not (1 John 2:15, 29).