Not only so, all those who love God also love the word of God. When God’s love operates in us, we also love and desire God’s word. We have God’s love and God’s word in us, and as a result, this makes us strong. What does it mean for us to be strong? To be strong means that even though there are many things and matters that oppose God, we are still able to stand. We are like a seed that has been planted into the ground and that passes through the immense pressure of layers of soil and grows up from the ground. This is similar to how a small seedling is able to break open the earth’s crust and grow up. The life strength in a small seedling is very strong.
The young men were the second category of people that John lists. They have God’s love and God’s word within them. They are strong and nothing can overcome them. The greater the pressure and the opposition, the more powerful they become. They do not love the world because they have love within. This love causes them not to love the world or to turn to the world but to turn to God. The world is against God. Wherever the world is, God is not, and wherever God is, the world is not. John uses a brief description to describe all these conditions in a thorough way. In speaking of the world and the things in the world, he mentions the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory, pride, and boast of the present life.
The lives of people in Taiwan today include many things that far exceed the basic necessities of living. The things that exceed the basic necessities of living may be described as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life. When rich people invite others for a meal, they must take them to a high-class restaurant. If the price of the meal is too low in a certain restaurant, they will not take them then. Fifty years ago in Shanghai, the biggest metropolis in China, a wealthy person would pay five hundred dollars for a piece of clothing. A few days later, another wealthy person would wear an almost identical piece of clothing, but would pay double the price for it. These kinds of people wear clothing not to keep warm but for the pride and vainglory of life. Whether we are speaking of Shanghai in the past or Taipei in the present, many department stores have made money from the pride of life. Rich people also like to have expensive French or German cars. It is not that these cars are not good but that they show man’s pride of life.
To meet the needs of our living, we all have to work. But we do not need to work more than eight hours a day to meet the needs of our living. To work eight hours a day is sufficient to properly meet the needs of our living, but to work over eight hours is to waste our effort and to sell ourselves. Some nurses in the United States work overtime every day. They are selling their lives and themselves. In Revelation 18 Babylon the Great sells all kinds of items, such as ivory and precious stone, but the last item is the souls of men (vv. 12-13). In Taiwan a husband and a wife can make a living as a couple by working five to six days a week. If this is enough to make a living, why do many still work overtime? Of course, everyone has his own reasons—a need in the company or a special need in the family. However, I hope that we all would be clear that today we belong to the Lord. On the one hand we need to work, but on the other hand we should work only to meet the needs of our living. What remains should be for the Lord’s use. We are not for the world’s use. Even if the world were to offer us a lot of money, we would not sell ourselves.
If we work eight hours a day, five and a half days a week, we should be able to earn more than enough for our living. If we, because of working overtime, do not read our Bible, go to the meetings, preach the gospel, and have the church life, then we are selling our souls. We are selling ourselves. We should see that in principle the career or business we have is our side job. If we take our business as our main job, then our business becomes something of the world, that is, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life. The will of the Father is completely contradictory to these things. We must be clear that these two lusts plus the vainglory in the world oppose the will of God all the time.
What is the will of God? Some people wonder whether it is the will of God for them to get married earlier or later, and others wonder if it is the will of God for them to marry this brother or that sister. These are all trivial matters and actually have little to do with the will of God. The will of God, according to the New Testament, is firstly for us to be saved. God does not want us to obey the Ten Commandments or to do anything else. Rather, He only wants us to take one way, which is to believe in Jesus that we would be saved and receive the eternal life. Secondly, the will of God is for us to love the Lord and to love God. At the end of the Gospels, the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” (John 21:15). When we believe in the Lord and love the Lord, we will follow the Lord.
What should we do to follow the Lord? When I was saved, I read a word about following the Lord, but I did not know how to follow Him. Romans 12 says, “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect” (v. 2). Strictly speaking, the will of God is that we who are saved, who love Him, and who follow Him, would live a normal church life. When we are properly living in the Body of Christ, we are following the Lord, obeying the will of God, and doing the will of God. Today God is doing one thing on the earth—He is building up the church and perfecting the Body of Christ. He has to gain a Body. This is the will of God.