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.”
Given the primacy the Lord puts on love, it is imperative that we focus our love in the right direction and on the right things. In this passage, John explicitly tells us not to love the world. It is significant that the love he speaks of in this passage is agape, which you will recall is the highest form of love.
The message is that love for God and love for the world are incompatible. It is not possible to have agape/love for God and for the world. The passage gives several reasons why we should not love the world or the things in the world.
The first reason is that love for the world displaces love for God. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” The world wants your allegiance and commitment. It wants your attention and affection. It wants you to believe and behave according to its standards. So you must choose to whom you will give allegiance: the Lord and what he offers, or the world and what it offers. You cannot have both.
Jesus taught the same thing. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6.24). This message is also in the book of James: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4.4).
The second reason is that the way the world works is incompatible with the way the kingdom of God works. Another way to say this is the culture of the world is in direct opposition to the culture of the kingdom of God. “Culture” is a set of beliefs and behavioral standards—a way of operating—that a group of people share.
Culture is a very powerful thing. The world has a set of beliefs and behavior standards (a way of operating) that is very different from the beliefs and behavior standards of God’s kingdom. In fact, the great battle that we fight is the belief/behavior/culture of the world vs the belief/behavior/culture of the kingdom.
Therefore, if someone embraces the culture of the world, if someone aligns with the beliefs and behavior standards of the world, that person is out of alignment with God and his kingdom. This is what James meant when he wrote, “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.”
Thirdly, John tells us that the world and its distorted desires is passing away. It will not last and will ultimately fail. John is saying don’t give your allegiance to something that is temporary and doomed to failure! You can see the fleeting, transient nature of the world, can you not? You can see its destiny of failure. Those who give themselves to the ways of the world will often experience a season of pleasure, popularity, or prosperity, but it doesn’t last. It’s transient and fleeting.
Love for the world ultimately fails.
More tomorrow …
