Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 22:1 (Spring 2018)
Article: Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness (A Sermon on 1 John 2:15–17)
Author: Andrew David Naselli

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SBJT 22:1 (Spring 2018) p. 111

Do Not Love the World:
Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness (A Sermon on 1 John 2:15–17)1

Andrew David Naselli

Andrew David Naselli is Associate Professor of New Testament and Theology at Bethlehem College and Seminary, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and an elder of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He earned his first PhD from Bob Jones University and his second PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Dr. Naselli has served as D. A. Carson’s research manager for about nine years (2006–2014). His books include How to Understand and Apply the New Testament (P&R, 2017), No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What it is, and Why it’s Harmful (Lexham Press, 2017), that condenses a more technical survey and analysis of Keswick theology (2010), Conscience: What it is, How to Train it, and Loving Those Who Differ (coauthor, Crossway, 2016), NIV Zondervan Study Bible (assistant editor, Zondervan, 2015), Perspectives on the Extent of the Atonement: 3 Views (coeditor, B&H Academic, 2015), From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34–35 (Wipf & Stock, 2012), Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism (coeditor, Zondervan, 2011), and Introducing the New Testament: A Short Guide to its History and Message (editor, Zondervan, 2010).

In C. S. Lewis’s brilliant address “The Weight of Glory,” he talks about our “desire for our own far-off country.” Then he asks,

Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake

SBJT 22:1 (Spring 2018) p. 112

us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.2

This sermon is about breaking “the evil enchantment of worldliness.”3 The text is 1 John 2:15–17:

15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away a...

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