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 John 2:15-17
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” sounds like a big contradiction with “God so loved the world that he gave his only son.”
To understand this apparent contradiction, we must turn to one of the critical rules of Scripture interpretation. The rule is to always take into consideration the context. Ignoring the context has enabled a fantastic amount of goofy Biblical interpretation.
How many different definitions for “world” are there?
The Greek word is the same in all instances. It is the word kosmos, which we have transliterated in English as cosmos.
When God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, the world referred to is the population of humans on earth. It would be the same usage as in the statement, “The whole world loved the Beatles” music group. Only people could love the Beatles, and to say the whole world, i.e., all of the people loved the Beatles, is an exaggeration. I, for one, didn’t. I did like some of their music, especially the melodies. Some of their lyrics are positively pagan and anti-Christian. The Beatles were the prophets to the West of Eastern paganism.
I have strayed from my point. The world in John almost always refers to the world of men rather than the whole of creation. Kosmos also carries the idea of order. It is an ordered world, not chaos.
It is the ordered world of fallen men that God loved enough to send his only Son to save those who believe. It is also the ordered world of fallen men that John says we are not to love.1
John includes in this prohibition the things of the world. The things of the world are the characteristics of fallen men. He defines them as “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.” These are not from the Father but are part of the order of fallen men. Yarborough translates the desires of the flesh as “what the body hankers for.2 Different translations include: “the cravings of sinful man” (NIV), “all that panders to the appetites” (NEB), and “the lust for physical pleasure” (NLT).
“Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.” Proverbs 27:20 Here, the eyes parallel Sheol and Abaddon (hell and destruction), which are never satisfied. The translation “desires” is probably a little mild. The old King James Bible probably gets this better with the “lust” of the eyes. There is a greater intensity than is communicated with the word “desires.” When we give in to the desires of the eyes, we are giving in to hell and destruction. This is one of the things of this world we are not to love.
Finally, the things of this world include the “pride of life.” “The word for life (Bios) can mean simply “everyday life” (Luke 8:14; 2 Tim. 2:4), but it often means “livelihood,” “material goods,” or “property.” Thus, the storied poor widow gave “all her livelihood,” that is, all she had to live on (Luke 21:4).”3 The lust for Bios conveys the idea of vain and ostentatious pursuit of earthly goods. Another translation reads, “pride of possessions.” While it adds to our understanding, it is too narrow.
It is these things, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life that we are not to love because they are not from the Father but are antithetical to the character of God.
Finally, the ultimate reasoning is that these things are part of this ordered world of men that is passing away. There is no future in these things. But he who does the will of the Father abides forever.
God is a jealous God and does not put up with sharing our affection with the things of this world. The kind of love spoken of by John is an exclusive love. This principle is powerfully illustrated in a sermon by Thomas Chalmers titled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” in which Chalmers points out that an all-consuming love for God will automatically drive out the affection for sin, or as in our text, the love for the things of this world.
Those who love the things of this world that are passing away will pass away with it, but those who do the will of God because they have an all-consuming affection for Jesus will abide forever. It is an affection with an eternal payoff.
