Paul had no charge against these things in themselves. All he said
about them was that they would not last. They were great things, but
not supreme things. There were things beyond them. What we are
stretches past what we do, beyond what we possess. Many things that
men denounce as sins are not sins; but they are temporary. And that is
a favorite argument of the New Testament. John says of the world, not
that it is wrong, but simply that it "passeth away." There is a great
deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great
deal in it that is great and engrossing; but
IT WILL NOT LAST.
All that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,
and the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not the world
therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration
of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give itself to something
that is immortal. And the only immortal things are these: "Now abideth
faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love.
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