1 John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 3:17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (ESV )
"By what can it be know that a man has a true sense of the love of Christ for perishing sinners, or the love of God that has been planted in his heart by the Holy Spirit, if the love of the world and it's good overcomes the feelings of compassion to a perishing brother" -Matthew Henry
My observations- Notice it refers to not just the evil things of this world but the good or goods. We can say we don't desire to do evil, but do the good things of this world (comfort, convenience, security, enjoyment, entertainment...just to mention a few without specific things attached to them) hinder us from being like Jesus to those around us? Very convicting for all of us. Repentance is a way of life to all Christians who are growing in the Lord. God ill show us things that we need to repent of and we need to respond to progress or we can begin our inevitable regression.
I like what John Wesley's mother once wrote to him. She said:
"Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself." -- Susanna Wesley (Letter, June 8, 1725)
