Each week throughout 2021, I will share a Bible study blog post taking us through the letter of 1 John. Only five chapters long, this brief book is worthy of our consideration. Whether you drop in for one post or many, I pray that you enjoy them. Access all posts here.
"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.” (1 John 2:15–17).
Imagine a medieval castle. In the midst of it sits a throne. The master of the castle sits upon the throne, giving orders and expressing his dominion. He is surrounded by guards, but also the structure of the castle itself. Its high walls, defensive weaponry, retractable door, position on a high hill, and moat all serve as protection for the throne.
Now imagine a challenger to the throne. This invader musters an army. He plots and plans, looking for a way into the castle. His desire is for the throne. He wills to oust the master. This enemy wants to be lord of the castle.
Day after day, these two lords strategize. Finally, a betrayal occurs, and a servant of the throne provides intelligence to the enemy. He gives the challenger a way into the castle. He allows access to the throne.
Now let that castle represent your heart. Won by Christ, you are His. Jesus is on the throne. But there is a challenger. How can this usurper get in? By appealing to a betrayer, a spy who should be allegiant to King Jesus, but who is often swayed to turn against Him. This spy is your body, or fleshly appetites, which are often ripe to betray Christ. The enemy uses his sinful world-system to try to stir up our rebellious desires. He tells us there is a better lord for our throne.
This is why, with vigilance, we must guard against the pull of the flesh. Paul said:
Romans 6:12 (ESV) — 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
Sin and Satan wills to use our mortal bodies' passions as a way to take the throne. We must not allow it to occur. Even though, as we saw last week, we are forgiven by the Father, in a longstanding relationship with the Son, and victorious by the Spirit, there is still a challenger to the throne of our hearts.
John calls it a love for the world or the things in the world. Rather than having the love of the Father, there is a danger of having a love for the world.
God wants you to guard your heart against this love. It competes with Him. It zaps your fruitfulness. It kills your spiritual reproductive system. It takes you out.
In our study today, we will ask a few questions of the text:
- What is this world we are not to love?
- What are the tactics the world uses to dissuade us from God? And are there strategies to overcome these tactics?
- What is our motivation for resisting these tactics?
Let's look at our first question:
What Is the World? (15)
15 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.
What the World Isn't
At first glance, the phrase sounds odd to us. John says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world." What does he mean?
Wasn't it Jesus who said, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16)? It seems God wants us to love the world. He certainly loves all of humanity, so much so that He sent His only begotten Son.
And this truth is backed up through simple interaction with the gospel. A mere glance at the cross tells us of God's love for the world. And a reading of the book of Acts shows us His evangelistic heart for the nations. And Jesus commanded us to take His message to all people everywhere (Matthew 28:18-20). So, quickly, we can dismiss the idea that we aren't to love the people of the world.
Secondly, it also seems clear God isn't asking us to dislike His creation, which is, after all, the world He made. Though broken and awaiting full redemption, He is the One who made the things in the world. Through sin, we have corrupted much of God's creation, using what God made for our sinful passions, but there is still much we are to enjoy. We eat and drink and pray and play in God's beautiful world. 1 Timothy 6:17 says, It is God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy, so it seems odd that we would be called to guard against love for His creation.
No, we are meant to love the people of the world, and it is assumed we will appreciate God's created world. So what does John mean when he tells us not to love the world or the things in the world?
What the World Is
Well, during Jesus' last night with His disciples before the cross, John heard Him say things like this:
John 14:16–17 (ESV) — 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
And:
John 14:27 (ESV) — 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
And:
John 15:18–19 (ESV) — 18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
So it seems John is using the term world in the way Jesus did during their final night together. There, the world is portrayed as a system of everything opposed to God. It is human society under the control of evil. It is hostile to God. Its prince is the devil (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11).
Later in this same letter, John would say:
1 John 5:19 (ESV) — 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
So the world is not merely the earth's population, though it affects it. Nor is it creation. But:
The world is a system organized in operation against all that is of God. Its way is opposite to and incongruent with the Father's way.
Put another way, your Father in heaven has a plan for your life. So does the world. And they are opposite one another.
The World Is Incompatible With the Father
This is the point John makes when he writes, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Earlier in this letter, John wrote, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). In detailing that truth, John had a vision of what God's light would do in a human being. He was convinced: when God is shining brightly upon a human, that human will see themselves correctly.
But when a believer falls in love with the way of the world, God's light and love are blocked. So that person cannot see. They are blind. They are stumbling, awkwardly trudging along in worldliness. When saying, the love of the Father is not in him, John didn't mean God hates the worldly Christian, but that their love for God is absent, and His love has no access to them. It is blocked from doing its perfect work in their lives.
A Word About Worldliness
But what does it mean to be worldly? Unfortunately, in different eras and cultures where Christianity has blossomed, different believers have put various definitions on the term. Worldliness has been twisted and pulled and stretched to condemn areas of Christian liberty. And, throughout the church's history, the oddest things have garnered the "worldly" label by even well-meaning believers.
Things like dancing and drum sets and wine have been called demonic. Scientific research, the findings of psychologists, or advancements in architecture, have been decried as worldly. Fashion, sports, cinema, and literature have all received the ire of Christians who have called them carnal. There was even a time translating the Bible into languages people know and speak - rather than unused Latin - was once decried as ungodly.
But neither John nor Jesus is talking about the common-grace creations of humankind or culture or society. Nor did they mean areas where Christians need to pray and form their own convictions. Instead, they are rebuking something much more severe.
Don't let Satan distract you from true worldliness by making you paranoid about imitation-worldliness. If he can get you to feel godly when you remove your television or exclusively listen to Contemporary Christian music, he'll do it, as long as he can blindingly lead you into real worldliness.
So, again, what does it mean to love the world? How do we fall prey to this anti-Christ system? For that, we must go on to the next verse, next week…
