1 John 2:15-17
“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 of life—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.”
In the kingdom of God, love is pre-eminent. We must get it right. We pay a terrible price if we get it wrong.
With this in mind, it is essential to understand there is a love that God hates. The fallen world wants your attention and affection. It wants you to believe and behave according to its standards. Therefore, you must choose wisely to what and to whom you will give allegiance: the Lord and his standards, or the fallen world and its standards. You cannot have both.
Before digging into the First John passage, it is necessary to understand what scripture means by “the world.” The NT uses several different Greek words when referring to “the world.”
(1) The word oikoumene refers to the inhabited world. Scripture uses it to describe the people who inhabit a region or nation or the planet. It can also mean a group of people.
Acts 17.6: “And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world (oikoumene) upside down have come here also’.”
(2) The word aion is sometimes translated “world,” but is better translated “age.” It refers to a time period in the world.
Galatians 1.3-4: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age (aion), according to the will of our God and Father.”
Romans 12.1-2 : “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world (aion), but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(3) The word kosmos is the the most frequently used (187x) word in the NT for “world.” With regard to its meaning, context matters. Sometimes it simply means the physical creation and/or the people that inhabit creation.
John 1.9-10: “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world (kosmos). He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.”
John 3.16: “For God so loved the world (kosmos), that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Other times kosmos refers to the system of ideas, beliefs, and activities that are governed by the Evil One and in rebellion against God. This is the word used in James 1.27 which says “keep oneself unstained from the world (kosmos). James 4:4 says that “friendship” with the world (kosmos) is “enmity with God.”
It is kosmos that is used here in 1 John 2:15-17. “Do not love the world (kosmos) or the things in the world (kosmos).”
(4) The word ktisis refers to the physical, created world. This is the word Paul uses in Romans to describe the impact of sin on creation, that is, how sin brought entropy and decay to the world that God created.
“For the creation (ktisis) was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Romans 8.20-22)
Summary: The present evil age (aion) began when Adam & Eve rebelled against God in the garden, and that is when Satan’s system of distorted beliefs/behaviors (kosmos) took hold. Ever since the Fall, the inhabited world of people (oikumene), as the well as the physical creation (ktisis), have been disrupted, afflicted, and subjected to decay and entropy.
More tomorrow …
