Do not Love the World

Introduction

“Do not love the world,” John tells us. Few commands in Scripture are put so succinctly and yet offer more confusion for those reading. Does this command means to not love anything or anyone that we find on this planet? Does it mean to simply go against what the current society dictates? Does it mean we should separate ourselves from the society in which we live and devote ourselves to a monastic lifestyle? Such a simple concept can seem very hard to implement, the black and white lines of loving the world and loving God can seem very grey in our experience. However, that stark contrast is put into our text for a reason, and it is important to understand why John draws such a clear line between these two loves. It is also important to understand how we can take the paradigm given to us in the text and fit our own experience into it. How can I know if I am loving God or loving the world? Let us get into the text and discern what the Spirit is telling us through his Word today.

A War of Loves

What is absolutely clear in this text is the dichotomy John draws between two warring loves. The Love of the Father and the Love of the World. Now it is clear in the context that the love of means love for, the world and the Father and the objects of this love. This makes sense of John’s dichotomy. According to the Apostle, you can either love the world or you can love God, the two cannot be true at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. And this is not a hard concept for us to grasp, there are many things you cannot love at the same time. You cannot love crime and the law, for example. If your two children both want the last cookie, they cannot love their sibling and themselves at the same time in the scenario. There are certain loves where you might feel pulled to one love or the other, but since the things you love are antithetical to each other, the stronger love will become the absolute love. Once you take a side, you are on that side 100%. This is because we know that love, as biblically defined, is not primarily a feeling, but is a complete package of affections and actions.

Love is motivated by affections that are kindled by subjective worth that involves both your emotional and mental capacities. If something means a lot to you, you love it and will go out of your way to act on that love. So if two opposite things have captured your affections, the one you act on is the one your truly love. The child that let his sibling have the last cookie has shown that they love their sibling enough to deny love for self.

Every Christian will still feel the tug of the world on their hearts, a remnant of affection that makes the things of this world appetizing. What John is saying is that whether you act on those feelings or not will determine whether you love the world, and if you do then if follows you do not love God because you cannot love God and the World at the same time.

The World and Its Treasures

What is the World?

But what is the World? This is most debated and confusing part of this passage. What exactly are we being called not to love in order to love God? John uses the word “world” quite generally. It was John that famously wrote in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that he sent his only son.” How can God love the world and yet we are told that it is impossible to love the world and love God a the same time?

The word “world” refers to the general sphere of the physical world that we experience with our senses. It is this planet, this place and time in creation, but often the word carries a more specific meaning determined by the context. In John 3:16, it is clear that John isn’t referring to the planet that God loves, but the “whoever would believe in him.” He loves human beings that inhabit this world enough to die for those who predestined to know him. Likewise, in this text when he says “world” He is speaking of a realm and and age.

The realm is that which is physical, rather than spiritual. It is the world of what we see separated from the greater context of the unseen. In other words, it is the realm of a world apart from it’s place as the work of God created to glorify him alone. Love of the world is a devotion to the created world without worship of the Creator. It means to look at the physical and act like that is all there is and to therefore seek meaning and purpose in it instead of the God who made it for his glory.

Those who have sinfully rejected God as their Lord, which was all of us from birth in our original sin, also make themselves forget that he is their creator. Our sinful nature seeks to make us the lords of creation and this world as the end itself. Worldliness is when you think or act like this world is all there is, as if the greatest joys can be found here, as if purpose can be achieved. It is when our hopes and dreams are centred on what happens here and now. To love the world in the way John means it here is to put the pursuits, goals, and joys of this life at the forefront of our minds and act like they are what is really important to us.

Since John is speaking in a dichotomy, it would be logical to say that the Love of God is the exact opposite. It is to act and think like the goals and joys and hopes of this world as inferior to what is found in knowing and pursuing the eternal God, the creator of the world, and to therefore pursue the greater good of knowing, enjoying, obeying, and worshiping God.

Since John is speaking in a dichotomy, it would be logical to say that the Love of God is the exact opposite. It is to act and think wlike the goals and joys and hopes of this world as inferior to what is found in knowing and pursuing the eternal God, the creator of the world, and to therefore pursue the greater good of knowing, enjoying, obeying, and worshiping God.

One way to tell whether you love God or the world is asking yourself which one you use. What I mean is, do you use the world and the good things of the world for the end benefit of enjoying God, or do you use God and his blessings to further your goals and dreams in this world. Do you see this world as a resource to spend on making much of God, or do you see God as a resource to spend on pleasures and securities of this age?

What is in the World?

Next, John talks about what is in the world. Thankfully, he takes the time to go into some detail by listing three parts of the things that are in the world that he is specifying. Desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Desires of the flesh

These desires are not necessarily bad things. Some translate the word “desire” as lust, but that isn’t a great translation as the word is neutral. It doesn’t necessarily mean desiring something inherently wrong. The desires of the flesh are broad and encompass any desire that we feel we need. These desires are not wrong, that’s not what John is saying. What he’s saying is that it is wrong when they drive you. Hunger is a natural desire of the flesh, but to love the things that satisfy your appetites to the point where they become your focus and motivation in life than they are wrong. Scripture talks a lot about controlling even our desire for food, lest even the most basic physical desires don’t overtake our desire for Christ.

Paul describes this mindset of control in 1 Cor 9:27

1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

In the context, he is talking about food that might cause other brothers to stumble into sin and thus weaken his witness of the Gospel. Paul won’t let something that his body naturally desires to get in the way of his mission.

Sexual desire is not wrong, in fact it is a good thing God created for us to enjoy with thanksgiving to him. But when we love it, we will move outside of God’s will to satisfy it through sexual immorality. It is better to resist a natural desire than to let it control you and cause you to love it rather than God.

Desires of the eyes

These are the things we see in the world that we want for ourselves. Not like needs of the flesh, which exist naturally, but needs that we have when we look at what the world has to offer. The more you see, the more you want. Now, again it’s not wrong to see something and want it necessarily. Almost everything we own is something we saw, desired, and bought. If you’re married, there was a first time you saw your future spouse and thought, “I want her or him.”

But again, we’re talking about loves here. Someone who loves the world puts the things they see and desire in the front of their minds. Have you ever just had to have something, and it consumes your mind and whenever you have a spare moment you catch yourself thinking about it? As if it were the most important thing in your life right now. God has made plenty of things in this world for you to see, take, and enjoy with thanksgiving and praise to him for his kindness. But God will not stand for being second to a piece of his creation that has no value apart form him.

Of course, wrongful desires spring out of this attitude. You start to look at things that aren’t intended for you or belong to someone else and covetousness and lust develop in your heart. Lust cannot gain a foothold in the heart of someone who sees the things of the world as tools to glorify God.

Pride of life

Or pride in possessions. Pride in satisfaction in the success and wealth we have accumulated in this world, placing more important on our earthly value than our heavenly calling.

Not from the Father

Now we are finally told why there is such exclusivity to our love. John gives no two ways about it, these things are not from the Father, they are from the world. Ever since the worldwide rebellion of sin, the world has made itself a realm devoid of the influence of God, at least it has tried. The world acts like the desires you feel in your body, the desires of things you see and want to obtain, and the pride of all our successes are the sum total of meaning in this world. To pursue those desires and love them is to go the opposite direction of where God is pointing us. Again, this does make all of those desires bad, but when they aren’t used to further our love for God they become an end in themselves, and our love falls short of reaching the divine.

These desires and the things that we imagine would fulfill them do not have their origin in God. While God certainly created the stomach to hunger when we need food, it is tainted by sin to the point where that hunger is in itself lacking the hunger for righteousness and satisfaction in God which is eternally more significant. Don’t imagine that your desires are an indication of what God wants, it is not always the case. I’ve heard of pastors who left their wife because they supposedly found the one God really wanted them to be with. In reality, they mistook their own desires and lusts for the desire for God and as a result have tragically turned their back on him.

In the materialism of our world, this is so important to remember. When people look for the blessings of God, it is often in these realms that we look for them. Thomas Watson points out that true blessedness in not in quantity of material blessings in this world, but the quality of the blessing of knowing God. In his words, “True blessedness must have eternity stamped on it.”

Temporary Vs. Eternal

And that leads us to the end of our text. Because these desires, when pursued with meaning and love, are not from God they only last for a temporary amount of time. This is another way we can know whether the love of the world has ensnared us. Does forfeiting the temporary desires of this world cause us to despair? Or are you able to look past that temporary loss to the eternal gain that is in Christ?

English Standard Version Chapter 16

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

If you have been blessed simply by knowing you have Christ, nothing can take away that happiness and joy. Loss of even the most basic needs in our lives cannot steal such joy. How else could the martyrs suffer what they do, except that they are so satisfied in God that the neglect of every other desire and physical need pales in comparison.

Conclusion

Physical desires are not bad, but they must be put in it’s place.

Only those who love God rather than creation can enjoy creation rightly

Loving God is exclusive to any other love. We owe God the kind of allegiance that if every other obligation and desire were against him all at once, we would still submit to him.

The hope of eternal joy will always overshadow the troubles and pains of this present life if our love is in him.