Love Not the World

By: Josh Lifford

“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. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 ESV

John in this text admonishes Christians to “not love the world or the things in the world.” One can only imagine exactly what was going on in the first century to cause the Holy Spirit to give these words to John. It could have been a host of many things, like superior knowledge, infidelity, lewdness, lasciviousness, putting other things before the Lord like jobs, sports, etc. Whatever it was, John’s admonition back then is extremely applicable today.  However many struggle with what is meant by the phrase “the world”.  It couldn’t be the physical creation for God himself said it was “very good” Genesis 1:31. Also John is not referring to humanity, for God loved mankind enough to allow His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for us (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). What then could it mean?  I believe John tells us exactly what he’s talking about right here in the text. John sums it up as “the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, pride in possessions. These things John states are not from the Father but from the world.  Let us briefly discuss these three aspects of “the world”.

First of all we shall seek to understand what John means by writing “the desires of the flesh”, This phrase literally refers to the “unbridled desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19-21). Such desires a fornication, adultery, licentiousness, hatred, contentions, jealousies, etc. These things not only destroy marriages, but they can also be grave hindrances to other types of relationships as well such as employer/employee, friends, siblings, church members, etc. Therefore we should heed Johns admonition Love not the world in this respect, just this area alone can save us from having to face the pain that comes from these types of sins.

In the second place John speaks of the “desires of the eyes”. It needs to be understand that John isn’t speaking about everything we see, for then we would need to be blind (literally), however it may be wise for us to have figurative blindness when it comes to certain things. John is referring to the “unlawful longing for things which we can see.” If there is one word to sum it up, it would be found in the word “covetousness”. In our modern world we would call it “materialism”. Materialism is defined as a tendancy to place more value on the physical things of this world rather than the spiritual. Is this a serious issue? The answer to that is absolutely, so serious John through the Holy Spirit admonishes us to stay away from it.  Consider Ephesians 5:5-7 and Colossians 3:5-7.

Lastly John speaks of “pride in possessions” or as another translation states “the pride of life”.  John isn’t teaching us not to be thankful for what we have, rather he is teaching us not to allow this to define who we are. This would include pride based upon such things as, age, experience, ancestry, past accomplishments, money, position and power. Notice what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. Paul finished that passage with saying that if we are going to glory (boast) to do so in the Lord.  The bottom line is this, if our desire is to spend eternity in heaven with our creator, then we must not allow the things of “the world” to get in the way.

If you are struggling with finding out how to balance your life in such a way as to not be a “worldly” minded person, I want to encourage you to first of all ask God to help you in your life, through prayer. If your not a Christian at all, then I want to persuade you to become one as soon as possible, John said that the world is passing away along with it’s lusts. Will you be prepared, or will your current life keep you from eternal life?