The Christian’s Calling: Do Not Love the World
Truth Taught- The love of the world will crowd out our love for God
Why we all who are Christians need this passage. We can very easily drift into love of this world and the things within the world. We can so easily get sidetracked by this world. So, John as a loving shepherd to his flock warns them against this great temptation.
After declaring his readers who have expressed their true faith by Loving one another, Walking in the Light, Obeying Christ’s Commands, now he moves them on to an exhortation. This is John’s warning to believers. Do not love the world or the things in the world. We know this is written to believers because the lost world can only love the things of this world and cannot love God.
We find in this section a warning for us. We are saved sinners living in a sinful world and if we are not cautious, we can easily veer off into love for this world. So, John cautions us to be very careful.
This exhortation is given in a negative way…Do not love the world. Very clear and very direct. This is given as a command. Do not love the world.
What are things the world has to offer that we may be tempted to love?
Money, Houses, Cars, Stuff, Children, Family, Jobs, Status the list goes on, doesn’t it?
We should seek to understand what John is telling us here. It’s not wrong to have things. It’s not wrong to have money, houses, cars, stuff…It’s wonderful to have family and children. However, all things in this world can become idols if we are not careful. In order for those things to not become idols, we must see them as resources for God’s glory.
Money must be used for God’s glory not your glory.
Your house used for God’s glory not your glory.
The list continues.
John’s command…Do not love the world. This is God’s exhortation for us today.
Please Stand…
1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)
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. 16 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. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
1. Do Not Love the World Because it Will Crowd Out Your Love for God (2:15)
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.
Remember, John is writing to Christians who love God through Jesus Christ and have love for one another. He tells them and us to be careful not to love the world.
The world is everything that needs reconciled to God. It’s the lost system cursed and passing away. It’s all the things lost people love and value, we must not love and value those things like they do. The world is also the world of rebellion against God, it’s a world of sin and going against God’s commands. John tells us to not love the world.
Beloved don’t love this world or things of the world.
God has taken our love for the world and things of the world and has given us a new love, namely love for Him and for one another. Now, as Christians we can truly love like we were created to love. As we do, we have fellowship with one another.
John cautions us to be careful not to ever take our love for God and place it on other things. This is really the pattern of put off and put on only working in reverse.
Colossians 3:9–10 (ESV)
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Here in the life of the Christian there may be the temptation to begin loving worldly things again.
Perhaps there is something of the world and the world system that you are tempted to love in place of God? Here is God’s grace given to us as He may be highlighting this fact. What will be your response to this? Will you go on like its no big deal or will you take radical steps to rid yourself of the temptation?
Matthew 6:24 (ESV)
24 “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.
If you find yourself not growing as a Christian, you may need to examine yourself to see if there is something of the world that you are in love with. You cannot love God and the world. If you’re loving the world then you are not loving God.
2. Sinful Cravings, Lust and Pride Do Not Come from God but From the World (2:16)
16 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.
We see John gives us three categories of things of the world. He first gave us the command, do not love the world then he moves on to show us what these things look like…what forms love for the world may take.
A. the desires of the flesh…
Here in the first category, we see sinful desires. This is a lustful craving for something you either have or don’t have. This can include sexual desires and covetousness. Things you know you should not have and that are not good for you to have present a scandalous desire within our fallen conscience and minds. Sometimes we want something because we can’t have it.
St Augustine and the pears…
B. the desires of the eyes…
Here, John highlights the things we see. We walk past a store window and see what’s for sale and we desire it. This is illustrated especially around Christmas time when for kids toy adds come on TV or even adds for adults and we see people that have the items having fun and smiling and then something is triggered, we think the item will give happiness as well. Our eyes have cast their gaze and spotted something and our hearts have attached themselves to that thing.
Something is triggered within our hearts because our eyes have seen. Our eyes are the gateway to the heart and we must be careful to not allow what we see in this world to become what we love.
C. pride of life…
Here John shows us that pride can result as a great sin for even Christians if we are not careful. Pride can be a result of possessions we own; positions we have attained to or a status we have achieved. There is something of pride that turns and looks at the house you have acquired or the nice car you own. Pride says look at me and what I have achieved rather than look at what God has provided in His goodness to us.
These three things we must guard against…cravings, lust and boasting. These sins are the sins that can bring Christians down, stop their maturity and slow down sanctification.
We see the first reason John gives us for not loving the world…
The reason as John has stated is love for the world is not compatible with the love for God. Love for the world pushes or crowds out our love for God.
3. Do Not Love the World Because it is Passing Away
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
This verse really contains two more reasons not to love the world. John tells us that the world is passing away. It’s on its way out.
No one sane would invest their money in a dying company. Radio Shack, K-Mart, is not a good investment its dead and dying. Don’t love the things of this world because those are the very things that God tells us are passing away. They will come to nothing don’t love those things.
The things of the world are fleeting. If we place our love on worldly things, then we will suffer great loss because they are here today and gone tomorrow. The person who loves the world will reap a harvest of restlessness and instability. He is a Christian who has cast his lot with unbelievers. Christians, we must not love the world.
That’s not all: Not only is the world passing away, but also the lusts of it. If you share the desires of the world, you will pass away. Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. You will not only lose your treasure. You will lose your life. If you love the world, it will pass away and take you with it. “The world passes away along with its desires.”
Another reason not to love the world is that when the thing you love is gone whether moth or rust destroy it or thieves break in and steal, the person who loves the world will be devastated when the thing they attached their heart to is gone. The world is passing away and so are all the lost people who love the world.
Christian, do not love the world because it pushes away our love for God…It is passing away…it will cause our affections to pass away with it.
but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Whoever loves God abides forever. Their affections will always have a solid foundation because God is eternal. The Christian who has placed his affections on God and fights the temptation to love the world will not be sorry. When we place our affections upon God then we will do His will.
The opposite of loving the world is not only loving the Father (verse 15), but also doing the will of the Father (verse 17). And that connection is not hard to understand. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). John said in1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” So, loving the Father in verse 15 and doing the will of God in verse 17 are not really separate things.
Summary, then, the text contains one commandment and three arguments, or incentives. The commandment is, “Don’t love the world or the things in the world.” The first incentive is that if you love the world, you don’t love God like you should. The second incentive is that if you love the world, your affections are being placed on something passing away and they will perish with the world and there is also the danger that the person will also pass away with the world if he has no love for God. And the third incentive is that if you love God instead of the world, you will live with God forever.
Application
We see here in 1 John a teaching that reminds us of Adam and Eve and the fall.
Genesis 3:1–7 (ESV)
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Eve knew she was not supposed to eat of the forbidden fruit. Something about it along with Satan’s tempting words caused her to want it… the desires of the flesh.
Then she looked at the fruit. Probably she looked at it longer than normal. She gazed at it and wanted it… the desires of the eyes.
Down deep she wanted status and significance. She wanted to be like God… pride of life
As we consider God’s exhortation today…Do not love the world or the things of the world we should see the remedy to loving the world. Now, you might say the remedy is to just love God. However, the human heart is too evil for that. If it was as simple as that, John would have ended right after verse 15.
Here is the remedy to not loving the world. Being thankful for what we do already have. Be truly thankful for what God in His sovereignty has given us. Watch your love shift from the world, unholy cravings, lust and pride.
Practice thanksgiving and watch your love lift from the things of the world and move back to God to where it should be.
As Christians, we are in the world but are not of the world. We live here in the midst of corruption and sin but we are to guard ourselves from becoming like the world or here as John tells us loving the world.
In Jesus’ High Priestly prayer, He asks His Father not to remove us from the world
John 17:14–15 (ESV)
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
Jesus has a reason for leaving us in the world. John in today’s text explains why. As we are in the world our love for the Father increases as we do battle with sin, temptation, and misplaced love. By grace we are left in this world and our love for God is perfected.
Beloved feel the weight of misplaced love. Repent and enter into the sanctifying work of Christ.
Do Not Love the World…
Exalt Christ
Resources Used:
Sermon by John Piper on this text
1 John by Marshall
1 John by Kruse
1 John by Pierse
Words of Blessing
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