1 john 2:15-17 Is everything that involves fun, pleasure and entertainment is sinful? 1 John 2:15-17

[BreakingTheHabbitWithJesus]

2 hours ago, Willa said:

In the 50s there was a group of people who prescribed what others should or should not do, and judged them harshly by those standards.  We weren't to go to movies (but TV was OK);  we were not to play card games, especially with playing cards, but animal rummy was OK if you didn't gamble;  we weren't to dance at all;  we weren't to smoke or chew tobacco;  we weren't to drink beer or other alcohol.  These were all considered to be "worldly",  

So my pastor treated me with disgust when I told him on the day that I was baptized that I had been up late playing pinochle with my parents the night before.  We never gambled but we did use playing cards.  It was purely a time of family fellowship and fun.  Some of my best memories are times like these.   My parents also enjoyed square dancing, which the pastor deemed sinful.  

 I had another pastor tell me that listening to any classical music other than Bach was sinful.  Listening to music that didn't have an ending was sinful.  I could only listen to hymns and Gospel music.  Christian rock had a "sinful beat."  I should never listen to anything in a minor key.  

My experience has been that those who continually condemn others for things like this are diverting our attention from the things that really matter to God--our hearts.  That is what God looks at.  In Matthew 5-7 Jesus takes a hard look and peoples hearts.  He says you are told not to murder, but I tell you if you are angry at a person (wishing he were dead) you are guilty of hellfire.  He is doing this to point out that we need to be born again, born of God as a new person whose desire is to love God and love others, and who is growing daily to be more like Jesus.   God's word is what the Holy Spirit uses to our purify our minds and our values become transformed and conformed to the mind of Christ.  God changes us from the inside out.  

Our pastor says he does whatever he wants to do.  God has changed what he wants to do.  So if you go to a tavern and feel out of place and uncomfortable with all the dirty jokes and drunkeness, God has changed what you want to do.  If you are wronged by someone and know very soon in your heart that you need to forgive them because you also make mistakes and have hurt people, God is changing a behavior.  If you can go to a rugby game and have no desire to gamble or get angry and throw beer on people or call them names, please go and enjoy it for me.  Some dancing is not lewd.  So do everything to the glory of God and your fun will be even better.

 I agree that some people see most anything as sinful.  My reply would be that if it is sin to them, they should avoid it.  I find that music with crude hateful or rebellious lyrics is depressing and makes me angry.  So I avoid that.  And I want to be able to invite Christ in me into all of my activities.  So If I think He might be uncomfortable doing it, I don't do it.   We do know that Jesus enjoyed boating and hiking, and that He spent a lot of time outdoors.  

You are doing well to check out what the Bible says about your concerns.  I don't listen much to man's opinions when they contradict the Bible.

Great post, but it doesn't address 1 John 2:15-17, it's one thing to say that everything is a sin, but it's another thing to say that everything's a sin and use scripture to support that claim, which people do, and that scripture is 1 John 2:15-17.


Something else I thought I would share:

I wish that picture was smaller, anyway, it's a a billboard from a video game and it is mocking Christianity, but the question must asked, are there Christians who teach almost exactly this? Yes

Edited June 29, 2016 by BreakingTheHabbitWithJesus

[Willa]

1 John 2:15-17 Wuest's Word Studies

The word "world" here is Kosmos which in its use here is defined by Vincent as follows: "The sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (Joh 7:7; Joh 15:18; Joh 17:9; Joh 17:14; 1Co 1:20-21; 2Co 7:10; Jas 4:4)." Kosmos refers to an ordered system. Here it is the ordered system of which Satan is the head, his fallen angels and demons are his emissaries, and the unsaved of the human race are his subjects, together with those purposes, pursuits, pleasures, practices, and places where God is not wanted. Much in this world-system is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual. But it is anti-God and anti-Christ.

 Do you love something that opposes God or that prevents you from worshipping God?  This might be another religion, pursuing and loving riches, pursuing sex outside of marriage,  pursuing the glamorous sinful life of hollywood.  If God occupies first place in your life you are OK.  A marriage should be centered in God, a job should reflect godly ethics, your hobbies should not be more important to you than pursuing the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  

I know a girl who took a humanities course in college.  The professor told them on the first day that if they were still Christians by the time they finished the class, he would flunk them.  At that point, if that course were required for graduation, I would have withdrawn from the college.  I had one friend who shrugged and said she just told them what they wanted to hear.  I couldn't do that.  But that is me.  I take such a  thing as a declaration of war.  But we are all different and each of us has to answer to God for our decisions.  That may be an area she has to grow in or I need to choose my battles more wisely.  We all need to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves, and pray for God's wisdom and guidance in our choices.  But I believe it is wrong for people to stand in judgement of one another.  We need to give each other time to grow and change.  It is a slow process.  Read 1 John 2: 7-14 to put the passage in context and perspective.  Loving God and having compassion for others is what it is all about.