Chapter 41—Love of the World
The temptation that was presented by Satan to our Saviour upon
the exceeding high mountain is one of the leading temptations which
humanity must meet. The kingdoms of the world in their glory were
offered to Christ by Satan as a gift upon condition that Christ would
yield to him the honor due to a superior. Our Saviour felt the strength
of this temptation, but He met it in our behalf and conquered. He
would not have been tested upon this point if man were not to be tried
with the same temptation. In His resistance, He gave us an example
of the course that we should pursue when Satan should come to us
individually to lead us from our integrity.
No man can be a follower of Christ and yet place his affections
upon the things of the world. John in his first epistle writes: “Love not
the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Our Redeemer, who met
this temptation of Satan in its fullest power, is acquainted with man’s
danger of yielding to the temptation to love the world.
Christ identified Himself with humanity by bearing the test upon
this point and overcoming in man’s behalf. He has guarded with
warnings those very points where Satan would best succeed in his
temptations to man. He knew that Satan would gain the victory over
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man unless he was especially guarded upon the points of appetite
and the love of worldly riches and honor. He says: “Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also.” “No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Here Christ has brought before us two masters, God and the world,
and has plainly presented the fact that it is simply impossible for us to
serve both. If our interest in, and love for, this world predominate, we
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