1 John, Part 5: Do Not Love the World

1 John 2:15-17 (BSB)

We are in week 5 of our series on 1 John. As I mentioned before, John is old now, and he’s writing to his spiritual children. We don’t know specifically who this letter was written to; most likely he intended it to be passed around to all the believers he had personally known and led to Christ or preached to before. He wants his beloved children, as he calls them, to abide in Jesus’ love by obeying Jesus’ commands and loving one another, walking as Jesus walked.

Last week, we examined three verses where John addressed fathers, young men, and little children, encouraging each of them individually. Rather than thinking he meant those terms literally, though, it seems he was addressing people in varies stages of maturity of faith. And he ended by saying in verse 14, “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

To grow in faith from little children to young adults, we must overcome the evil one. And now, John is going to tell us how to do this. Although he doesn’t call it a battle, it clearly is, and it must be fought and won. It’s the battle against loving the world.

Let’s read what he says in our text for today: 1 John 2:15-17 (BSB):

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world. 

17 The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

These are just three little verses, but they hold a key to following all of John’s other directives, because if we fail at this and love the world, we won’t be able to walk as Jesus walked and love one another.

Since these verses are so very important, let’s look carefully at each one. Verse 15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Even though John wrote these words directly after addressing the “young men,” I think he’s intending this directive to be followed by everyone. He says, “If anyone,” so I think he means all of us.

But what does this verse mean? He says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It’s a rather sobering verse, isn’t it?

You might wonder what he means by this. “Do not love the world or anything in the world.” Does that mean we can’t love the things God has created? What about people? Can’t we love other people?

John’s been writing about loving one another, and we can trust that he’s not contradicting himself now, so he must not be talking about people. The Greek word for world is “kosmos,” which means universe or ordered system. John’s telling us not to love the system or things of this world. As Barnes’ Notes says, “We are not to make this world the object of our chief affection; we are not to be influenced by the maxims and feelings which prevail among those who do.”

John is not saying that we can’t appreciate all the beautiful things that God has created. We can enjoy nature and love other people, but both of those things can potentially unseat God’s rightful place on the throne of our heart.

So, while we can appreciate all that God has created, and while clearly, we are called to love our neighbors, we are to do so without letting those things interfere with our love for God. We should not give our hearts away to them. If we want to overcome the evil one and be strong in faith, we must not only wear the full armor of God and stand strong with God’s Word abiding in our hearts so we can wield the Word as a sword, but we must have correct fealty.

I know this word has gone out of fashion, but I think it’s the right word to use here. Fealty is an old word that means loyalty or allegiance, but also so much more than that. In monarchies of old, citizens pledged fealty to their king or queen. Or in medieval feudal societies, a person would make an oath of fealty to his lord and become his vassal, agreeing to fight for him when needed. That person gave up their claim of self-governance, even giving up their life if needed.

If our fealty truly lies with God, then there won’t be some other thing, person, or government that has claim to it. We will willingly pledge our lives to God’s purposes and will alone.  

Have you pledged yourself to God and His purposes? We should examine our hearts and see where our fealty lies, asking ourselves some hard questions. Are we living for ourselves and this world or are we living for God? Whose system of thought are we following? The world’s way of thinking or the Bible’s?

In Matthew Henry’s Commentary on this verse, he says, “Unless this victory over the world is begun in the heart, a man has no root in himself, but will fall away, or at most remain an unfruitful professor. Yet these vanities are so alluring to the corruption in our hearts, that without constant watching and prayer, we cannot escape the world, or obtain victory over the god and prince of it.”

Jesus warns us about this in Matthew 6:24, too. He says, “No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

That is why I call this a battle. It’s not easy to resist loving the things of the world. It takes constant effort to reorient our minds so that we don’t imitate the world’s way of thinking. Its influence is powerful. The world, with all its attractions, wants to win our hearts. We must regularly ask ourselves: What direction is my heart tilted toward? Where does my fealty lie?

No matter the answer to those questions, there are consequences to deal with. If we give our fealty to God and follow His will, the world won’t like it one bit. In fact, Jesus says the world will hate us. In John 15:18-19 Jesus says, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”

But if the answer is that your heart is tilted toward the world, the consequences are far worse. John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

The Father’s love won’t be in us if we are loving the world. This is an echo of what John said earlier in 1 John 1:5b-6, which says: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” God doesn’t walk in darkness, so if we walk in darkness, we can’t be in fellowship with God.

John also explained this again in 1 John 2:5-6, which says: “But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him: Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked.”

So, the Father’s love won’t be in the person who loves the world because the world runs opposite to God’s will. The world is not following God’s Word. If we love the world, then we will walk as the world walks and not as Jesus walked.

This is so crucial to understand, and the Bible warns us elsewhere of this same thing. Romans 12:2 says: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

If we want to mature in our faith, we must engage in the fight. But this battle to not love the world is a battle we can’t ignore. If we don’t wage this war and win, our minds will be conformed to the world. We must constantly guard what goes into our minds. And we must be transformed by renewing our minds through reading the Word and praying.  

Alexander MacLaren, in his commentary on this verse in Romans, says: “And remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic change effected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace ourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of more completely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be a solemn question for each of us whether we can say, ‘To-day I am liker Jesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which renews the mind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before.’”

I love MacLaren’s advice to ask ourselves that question. Am I more like Jesus today than I was yesterday? That is a great way to take personal stock and examine ourselves. If we aren’t honest about our answer, the consequences are grave. Not only will we not be able to figure out God’s will, but as John warned, the love of the Father is not in those who love the world.

That probably sounds harsh to our ears. If so, that’s an indicator that the world’s influence is coloring our minds. If we shake that off, we see the Bible clearly saying this same thing in other places—and saying it even more bluntly than John.

For example, James 4:4 says, “You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.”

James pulls no punches. He basically smacks us upside the head. He is saying that if we have friendship with the world, then we have broken our marriage vow to the Lord and are enemies of God! I don’t think any of us want that to happen.

I like what Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says about this verse in James. He says, “It refers to that strong desire which often exists, even among professing Christians, to secure the friendship of the world; to copy its fashions and vanities; to enjoy its pleasures; and to share its pastimes and its friendships. Wherever there is a manifested purpose to find our chosen friends and associates there rather than among Christians; wherever there is a greater desire to enjoy the smiles and approbation of the world than there is to enjoy the approbation of God and the blessings of a good conscience; and wherever there is more conscious pain because we have failed to win the applause of the world, or have offended its votaries, and have sunk ourselves in its estimation, than there is because we have neglected our duty to our Saviour, and have lost the enjoyment of religion, there is the clearest proof that the heart wills or desires to be the ‘friend of the world.’”

James had said it is a choice— “whoever chooses” —he said. Like Barnes’ pointed out, what choice of friends are we seeking? Is our desire for applause from the world greater than our desire for applause from God? That’s the way to know where our heart lies.

But if we still don’t understand why friendship with the world is so bad, John explains it to us in verse 16. He says, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.”

John lists three categories of the world’s enticements: “the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Let’s look at each of those.

The first is the desires of the flesh. Some translations say, “the lust of the flesh.” This, sadly, is how a large portion of the world operates. They live according to their fleshly desires and make the fulfillment of those desires their primary goal. This is why pornography is such a huge snare for so many people. This is why overeating is a problem for so many others. The battle against our flesh is an ongoing one, for the devil will always try to find a weakness and exploit it.

The second is the desires of the eyes. This would be all the things in the world that seek to entice us. Whether it is literal gold or jewels, fancy cars or palaces, or attractive people. Our eyes see tempting things, and we are drawn to them. Now, this doesn’t mean we should live in squalor. After all, every good and perfect gift is from God, says James 1:17. And Jesus said in Matthew 7:11, “So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” What John is warning us against is when our hearts are set on these things of beauty and not set on Jesus. So many people live only for the goal of acquiring more stuff, and they go into great debt to achieve it.

The third desire is the pride of life. This one is much more subtle. Pride manifests itself when we seek recognition and honor from the world. Remember how Jesus said that if we seek to follow God’s will, then the world will hate us? Well, it’s painful to have people hate us. It’s much more comfortable to compromise and mold ourselves in such a way that the world accepts us. Our pride is at stake. If we want to preserve our pride and want the world to applaud us, then we will most likely have to compromise and mold ourselves to gain the world’s approval instead of doing what the Lord would have us do.

It can be difficult not to fall into these three traps. After all, we live in this world. We have to make money and buy the things we need. How do we live here and not fall into these temptations? I think we have to keep a proper perspective on what our goal in life actually is. Is it to accumulate stuff and applause from the world or to please God?

We must keep a proper perspective on eternity in mind. As Jesus asks in Matthew 16:26, “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Do we want the world’s approval or God’s approval? At the end of our lives, don’t we all want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

Let me urge you as MacLaren urges us in his commentary: “Oh, I pray that you may ask yourselves the question, ‘What am I going to be?’ and may answer it, ‘I am going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might’; and to overcome, as He also hath overcome, the world and the flesh and the devil.”

There is good news! We can overcome the evil one and win the battle against the world and our flesh because Jesus has overcome the world. In John 16:33, Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” As Romans 8:37 says, “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

If we stay in God’s Word, wielding it as a sword, we can strike down the world’s wisdom and hold fast to the truth. Because what is true is what verse 17 states. It says, “The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.”

When we really consider all that is at stake, what choice is there, really? Are we going to choose to side with things that are temporary? Or with what is eternal?

The world and its system of being and thinking run opposite to God’s will. It’s fleeting. It’s not going to last. As 1 Corinthians 3:14-15 says, “If what [a person] has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.”

What do we want to spend our time on? We have only so many minutes in this lifetime. Do we want to waste them on things that will pass away or on things that will last for eternity?

That brings us to the question of how we know which “things” will last or not. MacLaren notes that, “The difference between the work that shrivels up and disappears and the work that abides is not so much in its external character, or in the materials on which it is expended, as in the motive from which it comes.”

In all things that we do, let’s examine our motives. Let us work for the glory of God, not for the glory of ourselves. Let us spend time on what will last, seeking to earn God’s favor and reward, and not worry about what the world thinks about us. In that way, we won’t do what John so urgently warns us not to do: we won’t love the world. And then the love of the Father will abide in us, and we can walk as Jesus walked, loving one another.

Prayer: Let us pray according to Colossians 1:10-12.

Heavenly Father, please help us not to love the world. Help us live according to Your will. Help us walk in a manner worthy of You so we may please You in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of You, being strengthened with all power according to Your glorious might so that we may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to You. In the name of Jesus, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light, we pray. Amen.