Do Not Love the World

Introduction

Has anyone here ever been to Banff?

There’s a lot of beauty to this world that God created. So why does John say:

1 John 2:15–17 CSB

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 everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

Well first of all there’s an idea of preference behind the word love in the New Testament. The Bible speaks harshly about the people who exchange the love of God for love of His creation. Consider Romans 1:25

Romans 1:25 CSB

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

But secondly the word “world” in the New Testament is used a few different ways. It is used to describe all of creation, everything that God created, but that’s not what it means here. The physical world and creation doesn’t cause us to lust and have pride after all. Another way the word world is used in the Bible is to mean the people of the world. Well that isn’t the way John is using it either, since if he was he would be contradicting Jesus’ call to love our neighbors and even our enemies, and that wouldn’t square very well with John 3:16

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

So what then does John mean by the world? Well another way that the Bible uses this word is in contrast to the Kingdom of God. So when used this way the word “world” means the kingdoms of this earth and the evil one that are in opposition to God’s kingdom. So this is the world that hates God and the things of God and that rejects us as believers because of Jesus’ name.

The trouble is that for the meantime we are still in this world. So the natural question becomes, how do we keep from falling in love with the world? How is a Christian supposed to withstand the temptation to sin that comes with living here and persevere with love for the Father intact? Today we’re going to walk through a few important aspects of this passage and talk about

The Conflict between the World and the Father

The Things of this World

The Difference Between the Passing and the Eternal

The World vs The Father

Imagine you were sent to another country as an ambassador of Canada. Your job was to represent our country there. Now imagine that when you get to this country you learn some really troubling things about it. That crime has run rampant, people own slaves, women have no rights, just terrible stuff and the government is corrupt and doesn’t care about their citizens.

Now this isn’t a perfect metaphor, because Canada is certainly not a perfect country, but imagine that you’ve been there before and to your own surprise you start to like it there, and you start to act more and more like the citizens of this new country. That’s what it’s like to be a worldly disciple. We’re the citizens of another world, and we’re here to be ambassadors not to become locals. That’s why John says:

1 John 2:15 CSB

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.

The thing is that we tend to become like the people that we spend most of our time with. This often happens subconsciously and you don’t even notice. I mean think about the different circles of friends and acquaintences that you have. Unless it’s just me, I think we all tend to act a little different depending on who we’re with. That’s just a small picture of the kind of influence that group is having on you. The same is true on a larger scale. We’re living in the world, so if we aren’t careful we start to look and act just like everyone else in the world. During His prayer for the disciples Jesus says this in

John 17:14–19 CSB

I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

When John says ‘world’ here he clearly doesn’t mean people, since it would contradict what Jesus said in John’s own Gospel about God’s love for the world and our need to love our neighbors and our enemies. So what does John mean by ‘world’ in this context? He will give a few examples in the next verse, but the big picture seems to be the kingdom of this world in contrast to the Kingdom of God.

From D.A. Caron’s The New Bible Commentary: “Do not love the world, he says, and some see a contradiction here with ‘God so loved the world’ (Jn. 3:16). But that passage speaks of God’s love for all people, whereas this one is concerned with setting one’s heart on worldliness. John makes two points: first, love for the world in this sense is incompatible with love for the Father (cf. Jas. 4:4), and secondly, in any case the world and all that is in it are temporary.[1]”

The Bible sets it up as an either-or choice that we cannot escape. We either love God or love the world, you can’t do both. James agrees saying in

James 4:4 CSB

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

The Kingdom of Heaven is God’s domain, and for the time being the world is the domain of the evil one as John will say later in

1 John 5:19 CSB

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

Remember that this isn’t about people. It’s about the abstract idea of the world and its values and principles. SO when we are trying to live out this verse it doesn’t mean we should seperate ourselves from the world. Paul is careful to explain this in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10

1 Corinthians 5:9–10 CSB

I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.

And if we remove ourselves entirely from the world than we can no longer bring the gospel to the world, so that removes us from our God-given mission. So how do we still live with and love the people in the world without loving “the world”?

Well we need to be certain we’re immersed in God’s Kingdom, and setting our hearts and mind on the things of God. I know I probably make “read your bible, pray and go to church” the application of so many of these points, but it’s just the truth. If we want to love God and not the world we need to be building our relationship with God by going to Him in prayer. We need to be setting our minds on God’s Will and Truth by reading the Bible. We need to be influencing each other for the better by gathering together as a church on Sunday morning as well as in discipleship groups and just living life together. That’s how we make sure that the love of the father is in us instead of love for the world.

The Things of the World

Illustration on temptation from working at McDonald’s this week.

I experienced maybe not all of the categories of temptation that John describes in our next verse, but certainly some. Let’s read

1 John 2:16 CSB

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Now similarly to “the world” when John says “the flesh” he doesn’t mean our actual physical bodied, but “the flesh” as opposed to “the spirit.” The Bible frequently contrasts Godly desires which are from the Spirit with ungodly desires that come from the flesh. Notably sin in general and these three categories of sin in particular are always corruptions on good things which God has given. The desire for food for example is good and right, but gluttony the over indulgance in food is a sin.

Sun Tzu in “The Art of War” said “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” In our case our enemy of course is the evil one, and he has tactics for coming against us and trying to ensnare us in sin. Remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 5:8

1 Peter 5:8 CSB

Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

So we need to know our enemy’s strategy if we want to resist Him in the name of the Kingdom of God. Thankfully John gives us Satan’s playbook. So let’s take a look at these three temptations that Satan uses against us.

“Lust of the flesh” means our base or animal desires. In this case those that are against or in excess of God’s will. Desiring wrong things or desiring too much of good things. Think gluttony, lust, hedonism.

“Lust of the eyes” is likely wanting those things that we see, even if they belong to someone else. In other words greed and covetousness. Dennis E. Johnson says “Our eyes are, of course, wonderful gifts, but once again John has in view the sinful use of these gifts. Jesus spoke of the eyes as the “lamp of the body,” with potential either for good or for causing the “whole body” to be “full of darkness” (Matt. 6:22–23)[1]”

"Pride in ones possessions” is more obvious. We know that we rely on God not on our possessions, and that we cannot serve both God and money. Again John emphasizes the dichotomy. God doesn’t give us our sinful desires or our pride in possessions. These are the things of the world, which we are not to love. From Clifton J. Allen: “The third element here is particularly interesting. The Greek term for pride here is alazoneia. The verb form of this word means to act the alazōn: a boaster, a braggart, an empty pretender. Pride here is braggadocio, empty talk, the foolish presumption of one who trusts in his own resources and disdains the power of God and the rights of others.[2]”

These same temptations are as old as the first sin, and are what tripped up Eve in the garden of Eden: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [the lust of the flesh], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [the lust of the eyes], and a tree to be desired to make one wise [the pride of life], she took of the fruit” (Gen. 3:6).[3]

So if we know that this is how the Devil comes after us, what do we do to counter his strategy? Jon Courson I think gives a great outline for the Bible’s answers to each of these temptations, after saying this really funny quote:

“To this day, every temptation, every attack from the Enemy and every worldly seduction falls into one of these three categories because Satan has no other plays.”

He breaks down the three temptations and there three answers with verse references. To counter the lust of the flesh we have 1 Corinthians 9:27

1 Corinthians 9:27 CSB

Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

And to lust of the eyes we have Psalm 101:3

Psalm 101:3 (ESV)

I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.

I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

And to the pride in one’s possessions he quotes Philippians 2:7

Philippians 2:7 (CSB)

Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,

So the answer to these temptations is self control, avoiding the things that tempt you when you see them, and humbling yourself like Christ. That’s how we avoid the traps of the devil.

The Passing vs The Eternal

Who doesn’t love building a good snowman? It’s a lot of fun to go out in the snow and lovingly assemble one, but we all know they’re temporary. Even a long winter ends eventually, so it would be silly to invest a lot of time and energy into a single snowman, right? There’s nothing long with a little bit of frivolous fun but if you spent multiple days and hundreds of dollars building the perfect snowman how would you feel when the thing melted?

Well actually, when you think about it everything is kind of like that snowman isn’t it. It’s just that the timeline is longer. Eventually this world will end, everyone agrees on that, and a significant amount of the things that I’ve done will be gone. As John says,

1 John 2:17 CSB

And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

So how much of our time do we spend on the things that are temporary, and how much on the things that will last into eternity? The only things that will last forever are God and people. That’s another way we know that John doesn’t mean people when he says the world, because everyone is eternal. The question is where your going to spend eternity. So when the Bible says here that the one who does the will of God remains forever it means something more than just still existing, the same with verses like John 3:16 which say that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. In this case the one who does the will of God will remain in the sense that Jesus means when He tells His disciples to “remain in me.” The one who remains in Jesus does so forever, and the one who doesn’t is cast out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, to use Jesus’ description.

John has already expressed in a similar fashion that the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Since Jesus already won the victory on the cross, in a sense the darkness and sin present in the world is already in the process of dying out. Those who love the world will go the way of the world is the implication here. In contrast, doing the will of God grants us eternity in fellowship with Him.

So what’s the application? The application is to take a hard look at our schedules and ask ourselves how much time we’re spending investing in things that won’t last, and asking how much time we’re investing in the things that are eternal: like the Kingdom of God, our own souls, and the souls of our family friends and children. We maybe need to consider what we can cut out of our lives to make more room for things that will matter in the long loooooooong run.

Conclusion

A lot of people in the world claim to be all about love, and many of the people who don’t even like the Bible like the parts of it that tell us to love each other, and love our enemies and love our neighbors. It can be a bit harder to process verses like this one that tell us what not to love. Let’s re-read the whole three verses we’re looking at again

1 John 2:15–17 CSB

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 everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

If we want to be disciples that make disciples we must keep our “disciple-ness.” We need to stand out and be different from the world. We need to be people of the Kingdom who happen to live in this world. Remember that when James is correct people who are “merely religious” in his letter he tells them in James 1:27

James 1:27 CSB

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

The world can stain you if you aren’t careful. So let’s remind ourselves how we stay unstained. We need to be totally immersed in prayer, scripture reading and fellowship with other believers in order to be sure we’re being influenced towards God not the world. We need to practice self-control and discipline in order to avoid the traps that Satan sets in our way, and we need to invest our time and energy into things that will last forever, meaning the kingdom, ourselves and other people.