Do Not Love the World - 1 John 2:15-17
Introduction
Love is not virtuous by itself. The object of love is what makes love good or bad. “I love my wife” is not the same thing as “I love my neighbor’s wife.”
The Passage
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15–17
Summary of the Passage
Throughout the letter of 1 John, he gives indicators a true believer and indicators of false believers.
Today, he gives another indicator—the love of the world. Notice from verses 14 to 16 in this chapter, John mentions our three-fold enemy: Satan, the world, and sinful flesh. When one enemy like the world is in view, you can know that the flesh and Satan are close at hand too.
If someone loves the world, he does not have the love of the father. Now, how you interpret “love of the father” is tricky. I can mean the father’s love is not in him. Like God doesn’t love this person. Or it could mean the love for the father is not in him. Like this person doesn’t love God.
John isn’t talking about spiritual things verses physical things. He’s talking about godly things verses worldly things. The world and the things in the world are this world’s evil system. John says don’t love the world or the things in the world (2:15). He then explains what the things in the world are in verse 16. Notice he doesn’t say alcohol, women, and guns. He says the things in the world are lust and pride. The things in this world order are our sinful desires.
No Loving Father (15)
Angela Davis is an activist who makes a lot of money claiming America is a uniquely racist country. Many of her ancestors were slaves and were likely treated horribly and unbiblically. But it was also revealed recently that she also has a white ancestor who traveled on the Mayflower.
Our nose size, hair line, and personality traits comes from our fathers and mothers. The same can be said spiritually. What you want reveals who you come from. Your spiritual desires reveal your spiritual parents.
Jesus told the Pharisees
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. John 8:44
John agrees with what Jesus said. If you want the world and the lust of the flesh, then you prove your father is Satan. The worldly system lives under the power of the Devil (1 John 5:19). We were all once children of Satan (Ephesians 2:2).
Jesus came to bring us to God the father.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6
We also know Jesus came to undo the works of the devil (John 12:31).
To be born again is to be born to a new set of desires. Before you desired selfish ambition, now you desire righteousness (Matthew 5:6).
We are now overcomers because of our father. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Lust of Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life (16)
The word for lust in verse 16, doesn’t specifically mean sexual desire. It simply means an intense desire. Most sexual desire are heavy and powerful, but they aren’t the only desire that would fit this word. The desire to pig out after a stressful day or the desire to hit the center console in a traffic jam both count as powerful desires.
The “boastful pride of life (v.16)” means arrogant living (Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2; James 4:16). We think of pride as a tolerable vice at time. “He’s just a little cocky.” Instead, we need to think of this kind of person as a worshipper of self. They sacrifice family, friend, and truth in worship of self. If we were to listen inside their minds, we would hear motivations all about self.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 1 John 2:16
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6
Worldly desires have three components: What you feel, what you want, and what you think is best for you.
First, you feel the desires and lusts of the flesh. Now, this stage is the most difficult for us to think about because our sinful desires usually hijack and kidnap true, genuine, and God-given desires. God gave us desires for good-tasting food, a good-night’s sleep, sex, and respect. These are all good desires because God gave them to us. But our sinful nature hijacks these desires by redefining the desire. A restful person, a restless person, and a lazy person all use the term “rest,” but they mean different things by it. Wanting good sleep is not the same thing as wanting nothing but sleep.[1] Eve wanted to be wise without God.
Second, you see something you want to satisfy that desire. Eve saw the fruit on the tree as her solution to a life without God. The young man sees the images on the screen as an answer to his lack of respect. The young girl sees her new friends as an answer to her lack of attention at home.
Third, you think you are in a position to satisfy yourself in that way. Essentially, you think you can edit and correct God’s word. I know God said not to eat of this tree, but. . . Notice with Eve, she saw that the tree was good for food. But what did God say? The tree was for the knowledge of good and evil.
We do what Eve did every day. If the only command in the bible was for every Christian to wear a pink baseball cap in church, next Sunday only a handful of people would bring in their cap and I think very few would wear it. Some would wear a pink toboggin because they don’t like baseball while others would wear a blue hat because they don’t like pink. We live like God’s word is up for debate.
God said Christian men should be biblical leaders (Titus 2:2) and prayerful protectors (1 Timothy 2:8) in the church. But Christian men hop from church to church because they don’t want to stand up for the faith. They would rather hide their disobedience and cowardice behind a nice smile. Christian families are sacrificing their kids on the altar of transgenderism and homosexuality, our society is drowning in debt, prostitution, drug addiction, and poverty, and our churches find every way imaginable to ignore the problems facing people in the pews. But hey, our men are nice and have a sensitive side.
God said Christian women should remain quiet and submissive in church (1 Timothy 2:11; 1 Corinthians 14:34). But we think feminists who don’t know what a woman is loves women more than God. So, we let women lead their families and churches into ruin like Eve did the human race. Christians live worldly lives like this passage says.
But if you have faith in the father, then you will do what your father says. You may be wondering, “Caleb, that sounds a whole bunch like works. I thought the Bible talks about faith.” Abraham is the father of our faith (Romans 4:16), but how do we know he’s the father of our faith? When we meet Abraham in Genesis 12, he lived in Mesopotamia and God told him leave there and move to Canaan (Genesis 12:4). If Abraham lived the way many of us live the Christian life, he would say “Yes, Lord, I’m with you in Spirit” but stay in Mesopotamia. But we know Abraham had faith because he obeyed God.
The World is Passing Away (17)
The world and its lusts are passing away. But sometimes Christians give this evil world and its lusts life support. We say things like “little johnny just needs to sow his wild oats” or “Sally is just going through a tough time, give her some slack.” We budget for certain sins under circumstances we can explain away. John reminds us this kind of thinking means you hate God. We can hate God in action but love God with our words. We can act like Satan and lie and make excuses for what we do.
The kingdom of this world will pass away, and the kingdom of Christ will endure. We should be building a worldly system that will last. Remember, we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. Instead, we make excuses for inviting the world’s thinking into the church. Instead of following the words of king Jesus concerning Christian worship, we sing what the world sings, but just rewrite the words. Instead of leaning into God’s word on how to have a Christian family, we do what the world does—we drop our kids off at school for someone else to worry about, we just call it Sunday School and Vacation Bible School.
We know God loves the world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2; 4:9). But when God loves the world, He loves the world by destroying the world and He destroys the world by loving the world. So, when He tells us to not love the world, He is telling us not to love that which is passing away. When God is finished with this world, you won’t be able to recognize it because the old ways of the world passed away (1 John 2:17; 1 Corinthians 7:31; 2 Corinthians 4:18). We overcome the world by believing (1 John 5:4) in Jesus who overcomes the world (John 16:33). The old-world order ran on lust and pride. The new world order runs on faith in Christ.
Much can be said about Christians engaging the world. We should. This passage does not teach Christians retreating from culture. However, this passage does remind us of either/or. Sometimes, we need reminding of both/and. For example, we need to love both God and our neighbor. But in today’s passage, God reminds us of some either/or’s. Either you love the father or you love the world. If you love the world, you hate God.
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4
Jesus said you can’t serve two masters (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13). So, serve a master that offers eternity.
Conclusion
Jesus saves the world. But He saves the world by not taking what the world offered. The world offered Jesus opportunities to be quiet, give up, and run away. Instead of taking what the world offered, Jesus gave His life to save the world.
Jesus saves the world by transforming the world. As more and more of the world become Christian, more and more people die in Christ and will be resurrected in Christ. We pray for our fathers will to be done in this world as it is in heaven.
[1] Those who ignore nature (the restless person) think they solve the sin problem by ignoring human nature. But eventually nature wins out. And if you haven’t been cultivating habits from a godly nature, then when the dam breaks you aren’t in a position to respond faithfully. The restless man can easily become a lazy man after a health diagnosis scares him. Those who outright sin (the lazy person) use the nature for their sin. Only the faithful man knows that sleep is a gift of God and uses that gift in the way God intended.