The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

The following is a summarized, paraphrased version of a sermon by Thomas Chalmers. The content is too good to miss, but the language is archaic and difficult to follow. This new version makes the sermon accessible for modern English readers.

“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.” (1 John 2:15)

There are two ways to try to make a human heart abandon its love for the world. The first way is to demonstrate the worthlessness of the world; the other is by demonstrating that there is something of far greater value – specifically, God. This second method aims to not simply remove affection for the world, but to exchange it for a better affection, affection for God.

My purpose is to show that only the second method can really rescue the heart from worthless affection.

There are two forms of love. The first form is when you love something at a distance, in which case your love manifests itself by desire. The second form is when you love something that you already have, in which case your love manifests itself by indulging itself.

Love that desires forces man to move forward in pursuit. He begins to think, and all his interest and attention is directed toward what he hopes to attain. He becomes busy with thoughts and plans and schemes. Even though he may not always attain his desire, it still animates him.

If this desire goes away, and no new desire takes its place, the man would be in a strange predicament. It is odd and unnatural to be able to desire deeply, to be animated for action, but to be without anything worth desiring – to be without a stimulus worthy of effort.

We often see how miserable this is when we think of those who have retired from great careers, or even from their favorite activities. Human nature so demands pursuit, that it does not matter how much success we had in the past. Often, those who have been most successful in life are most miserable in retirement, because their active mind and nature no longer has any great and lofty goal to pursue.

Similarly, the gambler knows that it is not the monetary prize, but the excitement and possibility of future success, which motivates him to hazard his money. The gambler is not persuaded by the stupidity of gambling to leave the game-table – unless some new interest distracts him.

That is the way it is in the world. It is never enough to show that someone’s desires and affections are worthless. It is not simply what the man pursues that motivates him, but it is also the pursuit itself that he finds pleasure in. So, it does not matter whether we expose the worthlessness of his pursuit. We must rather show him something that is so charming that he is willing to forget the first to pursue the second.

This is why it is so useless to harp on the vanity of the world. A man would rather enjoy the pursuit of something that is worthless, than not be engaged in any pursuit at all. Hence, the best way to make a man stop pursuing the world, is by showing him something even more appealing.

This is why the boy loses his interest in boyish things – because he has gained an interest in something higher, manly things. A boy may love pleasure, and find it in his toys, but he forgets his toys when he is allured by money. Many men lose that interest in money because they find something more alluring, power. Each time, something more alluring takes the place of something less alluring – but each time, something new must take the place of the old.

This is the nature of the human mind. It must have something to hold on to. If everything is torn from it, there is a deep void. It does not matter when one is living in a beautiful and pleasant world, or a distant, solitary, dark place – the heart must have something to cling to. Without it, it feels only misery.

An example of this is those who live their lives with so much excess, that sooner or later they lose their taste for pleasure. Then life becomes monotonous, and even though they have all they could want or desire, they find that it is insufficient. They are like Solomon, who found that even the pleasures of life are only vanity and vexation of spirit.

Perhaps now you can understand why the heart is so desperate to hold on to what it already loves. The heart will not consent to lose its affections. A strong man can only be robbed if a stronger man comes – but if a stronger one does not come, he will never allow others to take his goods. The moralist – the one who tries to get you to give up your love of the world – never succeeds because the heart refuses. It is a hard and hopeless thing to try to make the heart give up its affections.

In this passage, the Apostle tells us to leave behind affection for nature. For the one who has not been regenerated by God, this is a call to give up the only affections that he has.  The world is everything for the natural person. Everything that he desires is in it. He does not love anything other than the world, and he does not care for anything except the world. To tell him not to love the world, is to tell him to get rid of everything that he loves.

To imagine how difficult this is, it would be as difficult for a man of the world to not love wealth, as for him to set all his possessions on fire. Perhaps you could get him to do it – though he would be very reluctant – if he genuinely believed that his eternal salvation hung in the balance. But you could get him to do it very easily if he genuinely believed that, by destroying his possessions, he would immediately gain new possessions worth ten times the value of his current possessions.

This is more than getting rid of old desires. This is replacing old ones with new ones. But it impossible to get rid of the old ones without new ones to put in place.

We hope that at this point, you understand how useless it is to spend your time pointing out the problems with worldly desires. All that this can accomplish, is to leave the heart in a position of bitterness, without anything to love or pursue or desire. Surely you have noticed that you quickly returned to things that you saw were useless, because you had nothing better to do.

It is not enough, then, to demonstrate that the world is worthless. However, could it be that love for the world could be removed by a greater love? So, if we would get rid of the love of the world, we must present a greater and more excellent love.

This explains the charms that come with real gospel preaching. The love of God and the love of the world are two loves that are not only rivals, but actual enemies. They can never live together in the same heart. When the New Testament commands us not to love the world, it is demanding the greatest possible change that it can demand.

But God’s Word, which commands such a dramatic change, also gives us access to what can create that change. It recommends an affection which is so powerful that, if it enters our hearts, will either remove or subordinate every other affection in the human heart. It presents before us God, and we see him presented in such a way that we might love him. It is only in the gospels that we see God presented as the last best hope of sinners, and as one who is not inaccessible because of our human failures. Only God, found in Christ, is able to deliver us from the love of the world. It is only when we see God, without his terrors as an offended judge, but in the character of love in the face of Jesus Christ, that a new affection comes into the heart, so powerful that it can remove the old affections.

Now we can understand what makes for the most effective kind of preaching. It is not enough to show the worthlessness of the world. It is not even enough to remind others of the experiences of memory and conscience, and of the evil of the human heart, and of the worthlessness of human desires. There are few who can accurately describe just how worthless the world is. But very well – it is unnecessary. If someone will faithfully present the gospel, that is sufficient to overthrow the love of the world.

So, may we never stop using this powerful instrument of the gospel. May we use every legitimate method to bring it into your hearts. May we do everything possible to remove the veil of unbelief. May we be faithful to proclaim this truth – that God presents himself to you in such a beautiful and charming and alluring way, that you only need to respond with faith and understanding, and this new affection will enter your heart.

I want to refer back to the unbelieving character of the worldly man. Many such men think that all this talk about regeneration and the crucifixion of the old man and the resurrection of the new man is foolish. Many people think this is just theoretical discussion for Sunday mornings. They may find it important enough to vaguely try to live a decent life. They may even agree that the cares of this world are really worthless. However, they still resist the application. All this talk sounds rather speculative to them.

It is not surprising that such people think that the New Testament is difficult to understand, since they rarely take the time to read it. Of course they cannot change their hearts from an old affection to a new one. Only God can do that. But it is their unbelief that prevents them from seeing God. It is a mystery to them how a man can go from loving the world to loving God. Because they do not see God, they never get rid of their inclinations for the world

On the other hand, the one who believes the truths of the Bible will quickly obey them. When he is told to love God supremely, others may be startled by the greatness of the task, but it will not startle the one who observes God’s peace and pardon and reconciliation. When he is told to get rid of the love of the world – this is an impossible task for many, but not for the one who has a greater love to exchange it for. Tell someone to be holy, and it is an impossible task. Only the atonement of the cross can do this.

If you remove the command from the truth, you are left with only two options: an obedience that can never be reached, or a system of dry orthodoxy. But bring the command and the truth together, and the true Christian can obey the one through the empowering of the other.

As a result, the more we present the Gospel freely, the more it will be powerful to make men holy. The more we emphasize grace, the more we will see godliness. This is one of the secrets of the Christian life. The more a man feels that God has shown him grace, the more he will feel indebted to serve him with his life.

But if we preach from an attitude of ‘do this and live’ – then fear will enter. It becomes a legal bargain. No longer is there a relationship between God and man. In an attempt to do what is ‘right’ before God, the man pursues his own selfishness rather than God’s glory.

It is only when, as the Gospel teaches, we are freely accepted by God, that man can really be content in God, and not troubled that he is not doing enough to retain God.

Salvation by free grace, rather than by works, frees us from the fear of justice and from the weight of ungodliness. If you keep a thread of legalism in salvation, then there is a sense of distrust between man and God. The power of the gospel is diminished.

People are terrified that we will introduce antinomianism into the gospel, and they miss that the very heart of antinomianism lies here, in legalism. It is when we present a free gospel, that our hearts are filled with the love of the gospel. By setting stipulations around the gospel, we chase it away. A sinner never feels more powerfully changed, then when – believing that he has been freely forgiven – he feels that he must give his whole heart to God as an offering. If we would do something to the best that we can, we should use the best tools that we have.

Perhaps what has just been said will be helpful for that person who would like to obey this verse, but feels that the love of the world is too strong to be overcome. The only way to keep the love of the world out of our hearts, is to keep the love of God within. And the only way to do that, is to grow in the faith.

Imagine that a man was standing on the edge of the world. Everywhere he looks, the world is prosperous and filled with blessings – fruitful fields, happy families, sunlight everywhere. But imagine that past this happy planet was nothing but darkness and the unknown. Would this man leave the world to wander through the darkness? If space was nothing but a wilderness, would he be content to leave behind everything that is so dear? But imagine if, while this man is considering what he would do, he suddenly saw a heavenly world drift by him. It is filled with peace and beautiful and sweet melodies, far more beautiful than anything on earth. There is no pain or death there. Would he now be willing to abandon earth if he could gain entrance to this far happier land?

This remarkable change can happen through the astonishing realities presented in the Bible. By recognizing the compelling greatness of God, he is able to die to the present world, in the hope of a lovelier world that is farther away.