Do Not Love the World

1 John 2:15-17

December 29, 2002

            Turn in your Bibles this morning to 1 John 2:15-17.  1 John 2:15-17.  Follow along as I read the text.  Read text.

            We come this morning to one of the most comprehensive commands in all of Scripture.  John loves to make these types of statements in his epistle.  John writes in these broad, sweeping generalities that leave much room for differences of opinion about how to work out the particulars.  We have heard him say that we ought to walk as Jesus walked, yet he has left it up to us to determine just exactly how that should work out in our lives.  He then went on to say that we should love the brethren.  We need to have love for other believers, yet again John does not work out the particulars of this, and he leaves the application of it to the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts.  We come now to the third main command or exhortation in this epistle, and once again we find John leaving it very broad, and allowing the Spirit to work it out in our hearts and lives. 

            While John clearly is not being legalistic here, making no absolute prohibitions about specifics, many have taken this command and turned it into a legalistic precept.  This command and this passage have been often misunderstood by well-meaning believers who want to obey it.  So as we come to this section it is important that we break down what appears simple on the surface so that we can understand how to apply the particulars in our own lives, and how to make room for those who do not apply the particulars in exactly the same way we would, remembering that loving the brethren will keep us from causing each other to stumble. 

            I believe that this passage is one of the most important passages in this letter.  Because of its great importance, John prefaced it with his parenthesis that we saw last week.  We must be clear in our minds that what John is about to put before us is not impossible.  When we begin to understand the level at which we are entrenched into the world system and the absolute prohibition to love this system, we are likely to throw up our hands in despair.  It is likely that we would come at this and say, “That is all well and good in theory, but we live in reality, and certainly John does not expect us to live these things out in reality.  We are real people, after all, and cannot be expected to live as John describes here.”  I have heard this argument from people confronted by the incredibly high standard of holiness set forth by God’s Word numerous times.  As they begin to understand the incredibly high standard of living presented to us by Jesus and His apostles, they excuse themselves from having to live it out.  They protest that we are but men, and cannot be expected to reach or attain this type of life, and it is sheer impossibility. 

            John, a wise, understanding apostle of our Lord, knows our hearts are prone to rationalize our lusts and sins and excuse ourselves from obedience on these grounds, so he has preceded this injunction by telling us of our incredibly rich resources in Christ.  Our sins have been forgiven.  We have God’s Word to strengthen us and help us overcome the evil one.  We know the Lord Jesus Christ and are in intimate relationship with Him.  We have no excuse for not following John’s exhortations. 

            In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul described our resources in Christ in this way.  He wrote in Ephesians 1:3 that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.  Every spiritual blessing!  There is no spiritual blessing that we have not received in Christ.  We have no cause to complain or excuse our sin because we have received every spiritual blessing in Christ!  He also wrote in verse 19 that he was praying that the Ephesians would understand the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.  As believers we have a power of surpassing greatness.  God has equipped us with all that we need to live our lives before Him in holiness and integrity.  There is nothing we are lacking if we are in Christ. 

            We must keep these truths in mind as we approach this passage.  How many who profess Christ have drifted away from Him because they do not realize or know the incredible, infinite resources God has given to them, so they make excuses for their sin rather than dealing with it and growing to be a father in the Lord!  So let us humbly come to these verses realizing our dependence on the Holy Spirit to obey these commands, and let us come with hearts of faith that He will work in us what He has commanded us to do.

            As we come to this passage, it breaks down into three main sections.  The apostle has laid it out for us in three simple propositions, and these three propositions which we will expound all are given with the intent to teach us that the true believer must not love the world because the love of the world and the love of God cannot coexist in a person’s heart.  The true believer must not love the world because the love of the world and the love of God cannot coexist in a person’s heart.

            John intends to teach us to not love the world by putting forward to us three statements.  The first statement that John gives us is the prohibition to obey.

The prohibition to obey (v. 15)

            This is a straightforward command.  John states plainly, Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  On the surface this statement seems quite simple, but we must ask the question: What does John mean here by his use of this term world?  It is evidently clear that John must be using “world” differently here than he does in John 3:16 where he says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  John obviously has something different in mind in John 3:16 than he does here when he uses the term “world.”  So what does John mean by world?

            The “world” to which John is here referring is, I believe, the realm of the physical.  All of the system of the physical world.  I do not mean by this that John is prohibiting us from delighting in God’s physical creation, such as mountains and oceans and rivers and sunsets and stars.  We can and should delight our hearts in these things as long as this delighting is a delighting in the power and majesty of God, and these aspects of the physical world are pointing us toward the glory and majesty of God.  John does not prohibit us from finding delight in God’s creation because we can see the divine power of God in it.

            His meaning is this: Do not love the physical.  Do not live for what is seen.  Do not be attached to this world.  Do not arrange your life and your priorities around the physical things of this life.  Jesus taught this same truth.  In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  What did Jesus mean by this?  Clearly He is not commanding us to hate all our family relations and even ourselves.  Jesus is saying that if we prize the physical, the seen, the realm of this world more than the kingdom of God we cannot be His disciple.  He is essentially saying, Do not love the world.  Jesus command is for us to love Him with all of our being and all that we are, which means that all of our other affections are controlled and governed and subordinate to this one great love. 

            In the same way, John is in no way commanding us to hate creation or our families or our own lives, but he is commanding us to not be attached to those things, to not live for those things, to not base our identity and worth and comfort and security in the physical realm.  All of our life should be lived for that which is unseen and eternal.

            John does not leave it at this, though, as he adds the phrase or the things in the world.  This is to make the prohibition comprehensive.  We are not to love the world not anything that is in the world.  No physical possession should have our highest affections.  There is no object which should have a place in our hearts of love.  This statement condemns materialism in all of its forms.  It prohibits the Christian from being attached to things, to material possessions, wealth, and money.  Nothing that is in the world are we to love. 

            Once again, the words of our Lord help us understand John’s statement about not loving the things in the world.  In Luke 12:33-34 Jesus said, Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Jesus’ teaching here is to focus on our eternal condition, our eternal happiness, not the things in this world.  We should not live to build our wealth and riches here in this world.  Why?  Because where our treasure is demonstrates where our heart is.  We can say that we do not love the things in the world, but if we have more earthly treasure than heavenly treasure, our claim is betrayed by our own actions.  Where are you building treasure?  Are your time and energies and money going to build yourself a treasure of eternal value in heaven, or are they going to build yourself a life of comfort and ease and luxury and earthly treasure?  Where your treasure is proves where your heart is. 

            For many years I misunderstood this statement.  I understood it to mean that what I treasured showed where my heart was.  In other words, if I intellectually understood the value of eternal treasure, but still built earthly treasure I still treasured spiritual things.  But Jesus statement is not a statement of sentiment.  When Jesus says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, He is making an absolute statement based on the location of our current treasure.  This is such a searching statement!  Jesus says that if our earthly treasure chest has more gold than our heavenly treasure chest, then it is absolutely certain, no matter how we feel or what we think or what we would like the reality to be, it is absolutely certain that our heart is on earth loving the things in the world.  Jesus and John are in perfect harmony.  Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  That is the prohibition to obey.

            At this point John does not merely give us this command without explaining to us why we are benefited by obeying it.  While God does not explain everything to us, very rarely does God give us commands without showing us why these commands are important, and what blessings we might obtain if we obeyed them.  This is no exception.  John wants us to understand the divine, eternal principle that drives this prohibition.  After prohibiting us from loving the world, John proceeds to give us the principle to understand.

The principle to understand (vv. 15-16)

            Why is this command so important?  Why, as believers, should we examine our hearts and root out any love for the world?  There is one primary reason John gives us here, and that is because the love of the Father and the love of the world cannot coexist in one heart.  If a person loves the world, he cannot love the Father.  And if a person loves the Father, he cannot love the world.  The love of the world and the love of the Father are mutually exclusive.  The statement is plain as can be in verse 15.  John says, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  If anyone values and treasures all that this world has to offer and builds his or her life around those things, he does not love the Father. 

What then, are these things the world has to offer?  We have already described them in general terms as the realm of the physical and temporal that would distract and pull us away from the spiritual, eternal things.  John goes into more detail in verse 16 and gives the three things that are considered the things in the world.

He begins with the lust of the flesh.  Lust here is simply a Greek word that basically means desire.  In Greek there is not necessarily a positive or negative connotation with this word, but biblically it is often used in a negative way, and hence the translation of this word as lust.  When John uses this word he is describing desires, and John clearly sees these desires as things we should avoid and not give in to.  The first of these desires or lusts is the lust of the flesh.  The word flesh here is often used to describe the part of the believer that still is prone to sin.  It is our physical body that has not yet been redeemed and still carries around the sin principle.  It is what we battle daily as we work out our salvation.  But I do not believe that John necessarily sees flesh here as a negative thing that contains the sin principle.  Because the eyes are used in the next phrase, I believe that John is here referring to primarily the things our physical bodies desire.  I believe that he is using flesh in the generic sense of bodily desires as opposed to spiritual desires.  The lusts of the flesh are the things the body desires, they are physical desires.  They are perfectly natural things, such as food, drink, warmth, and comfort.  These are the things our physical bodies desire and want, even need.  And we know that God has given us these needs and desires.  Yet there is something that John sees in them that is at the same time not from God.  He says in verse 16 that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not from the Father, but from the world.  I believe this phrase is our key to understanding John’s meaning here. 

When John describes the lust of the flesh, he is talking about the desires the flesh has for excess.  The desire the flesh has to be served and prized and catered to.  All of us understand that our flesh is like this.  We all long for food, which is perfectly natural, yet many people have a problem with over-eating.  Why?  Because food is one of the desires of the flesh, and as soon as it begins to be something we love, it is no longer from God.  God created us to need food to live, but He never desires for us to live for food.  The desire of the flesh is often not just to eat enough to live for God’s glory, but to eat until we are so stuffed we can hardly move.  These inordinate desires are not from God, John tells us.  Whenever we begin to live for our physical body and physical existence rather than for the glory of God and for the kingdom of heaven, we have crossed the line. 

Paul explained it this way in Romans 14:17.  He wrote, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  The kingdom of God has nothing to do with eating and drinking, fulfilling the desires of the flesh.  Eating and drinking are necessary for us to live, yet they should not consume our lives.  We should not love the things in the world, John tells us, and one of the things in the world is the lusts of the flesh.  We should not love what our flesh lusts after.  We should meet our physical needs so that we can build up the kingdom of God, but our lives should not center around our physical needs.

The second thing in the world is the lust of the eyes.  What is this?  This is simply a desire for those things that appeal to our vision.  It is a focus on outward appearances and images and physical beauty.  The entire world is focused on what is external.  We see it in movies, on television, on magazine covers, and on every ad we see.  We are visual creatures, and it is very easy for us to long to have this appearance that the world so values.  It is the worldly image.  It is to live our lives based on what is seen.

Yet John tells us that to live this way is to live in a way that is not from the Father.  True faith cannot be lived where the lust of the eyes is present.  Hebrews 11 makes this clear.  The writer of Hebrews goes through a list of incredible people who had faith, and the emphasis throughout the chapter is that they lived as seeing what is not seen with physical eyes.  They denied the lusts of the eyes because they had spiritual eyes, and they desired what is seen with spiritual eyes, not with physical eyes.  We cannot be the people God has called us to be unless we live for what we cannot see with our physical eyes and we live for what we can only see with spiritual sight. 

Finally, then, John tells us that the pride of life is one of the things in the world.  What is the pride of life?  The pride of life is the desire for self-glorification.  It is the desire to exalt ourselves and to have others think well of us and even to have them worship us. 

The pride of life is seen in so many different ways!  Perhaps one of the most evident ways we see the pride of life is in racism.  One man thinks he is superior to another because of the color of his skin, something he had no control over whatsoever.  This is pure vanity!  A man takes pride in the color of his skin, and because of this another man is hated, and often even killed, because of this vanity and pride.  The pride of life is seen whenever we are boastful because of anything worldly or physical.  Perhaps it is because of our schooling, or because of where we are from, or because of the color of our skin, or because of who we know, or because of how we are recognized by the community.  Yet all of this pride is not from the Father!  All of this is from the world, and it is incompatible with love for God.  Pride in the physical is never compatible with love for the Father.

Jesus Christ is the perfect example to us of what it means to avoid the pride of life.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones points out in his commentary, “[Jesus] lived with very poor parents; He was born in a stable, and His cradle was nothing but a manger.  He worked with His hands as a carpenter, a manual labourer, and that is the Lord of glory, the Saviour of our soul!  That is the life which we claim is in us.”  Jesus did not live to build up His image in the eyes of others.  He lived to build up people’s understanding of the glory and majesty and justice and holiness of God.  You cannot both build up your own glory and the glory of God at the same time.  The pride of life cannot be from the Father because it goes against everything that God is in His nature.

So we see these three things that John tells us are from the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  We cannot possibly love God and love these things because these things have nothing to do with God or His kingdom.  So the principle is clear: We must not love the world because if we love the world the love of God is not in us.  We cannot love God and the world.  Our treasure cannot be both here and in heaven.  We are either loving God or loving the world.  We are either building treasure on earth or in heaven.  So John prohibits us from loving the world because he wants us to be rich toward God and to truly love Him deeply.

Yet John does not leave us with only this principle.  He also gives us a promise.  We have seen the prohibition to obey and the principle to understand, and now John gives us the promise to believe.

The promise to believe (v. 17)

The promise is found in verse 17.  Oh how we need to strengthen our hearts to truly believe these wonderful promises of God!  The promise here is a rock-like foundation to build our faith to help us obey God and not prize the world.  The first part of the promise is that the world is passing away.  John writes, The world is passing away, and also its lusts.  The first part of the promise is that all of this physical stuff is passing away.  All of the things that are seen, all of the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, all of it, is in process of passing away.  It will not last.  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when Jesus comes back it will all be gone and this perishable, sinful, physical world will be destroyed to make way for a new heavens and a new earth that will endure forever.  Part of the promise we must believe is that all that this world values is transitory and temporal and is in process of decay.  It is passing away.  We see this in the changing fads and trends.  What the world values today may not be valued tomorrow.  Yet we see this in an even greater way and a true way when we realize that all that is physical, all that pertains to this world, is dying, decaying, breaking down, and being destroyed.  Nothing in our world lasts forever.  Governments change, generations come and go, and even we will some day see death if the Lord does not first return, and we will pass out of this world.  Nothing that we see will last, and we know that John has truly told us that it is all passing away. 

On the other hand, we know that we can abide, endure, live forever.  The one who does the will of God lives forever.  The will of God is clear – we are not to love the world.  We are to not prize the temporal and things which we see and our pride and image and ego.  All that this world values we are to realize is passing away, and the only thing that abides, that remains, is the one who does the will of God.

The question is: Do we believe this promise?  John Piper has an excellent quote that was on his website the other day.  He wrote, “God’s commands are only as hard to obey as His promises are hard to believe.”  Let me say it again, “God’s commands are only as hard to obey as His promises are hard to believe.”  The one who does the will of God lives forever.  Do you believe this promise? 

The world looks so attractive.  How we want to be important and to be seen as attractive and acceptable by this world!  How much time and money is spent on things that are fleeting rather than on advancing the kingdom of God!  Yet there is this promise: The one who does the will of God lives forever. 

John issues a prohibition to obey – do not love the world.  He gives us a principle to understand – the one who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him.  Finally, he gives us a promise to believe – the one who does the will of God lives forever.  Our faith in this promise will allow us to understand this principle, which will allow us to obey the prohibition – do not love the world.  The question this morning is, “Do you believe the promise?”  Let’s pray.

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