Do Not Love the World: 1st John Lesson 9

1 John 2:15

Do Not Love the World

 We will continue today with our study of 1 John and we are going to look at 1 John 2:15. We have seen John’s style of writing. He is black and white. He doesn’t know how to paint with shades of gray. He is direct, and dogmatic. He does not speak with ambiguity. With boldness and clarity John is putting before us truth. He is telling us how it is. His objective is to clarify in the minds of his readers the certainty of their relationship with Jesus Christ. He is writing these things to those who believe in the name of the Son of God that they may know they have eternal life.

 He has taken us through a series of tests which help us know where we stand in regards to our salvation. The first test was regarding our fellowship with God, His Son Jesus Christ and one another. If we are in fellowship we do not walk in darkness. He has given us the sin test. What we say about our sin and the way we deal with it through confession and repentance reveals the truth about our relationship with Christ. John gave us the obedience test. We know we have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord if we keep His commandments. If we say we have come to know Him and do not keep His commandments we are a liar and the truth is not in us. John gave us the love test. If we truly belong to Christ we will love one another even as He has loved us. Last week we saw the growth test. Even if we are little children spiritually, we will be growing into young men who are strong in the faith because of the abiding word of God and we are becoming spiritual fathers who truly know God.

 In verse 15 we are brought face to face with the love of the world test. John writes, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John could not have been more black and white. He gives a direct command. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. Then he says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John is crystal clear. If we harbor in our hearts a love for this world, there is a serious problem in our relationship with God.

 James spoke with about the same clarity, saying essentially the same thing. James 4:4 says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” The word adulteresses paints a vivid picture, does it not? James is addressing those who have an affiliation with the church, who claim to love Jesus, who want to give the appearance of being a Christian, but who really love the world. James and John both proclaim the same message. We cannot live in a friendly relationship with the world and be a friend of God. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.

 So, it is imperative that we understand what John is talking about here when he speaks of the world. The Greek word is “kosmos.” The basic meaning of the world is “order.” It is the opposite of “chaos.” We have chaos when things are in disorder. We have cosmos when things are ordered, arranged.

 The word “kosmos” is used sometimes to speak of the world as in the created order. The earth, as well as the planets, the solar systems, the galaxies, all have order. The word world is used to describe this planet on which we exist. Is this the world we are not to love? This is not what John is talking about. The world, as part of the created order, declares the glory of God we are told in Psalm 19. “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the works of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” See also Psalm 104. John is not telling us to not love this planet. We don’t need to go as far as the radical environmentalist who worships this planet. There is no such thing as “mother nature.” There is only God.

 The word “world” is also used in Scripture to speak of humanity. John 1:9, speaking of Jesus, John says, “There was the True Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”

 John is not telling us not to love mankind. Our text today is not a warning against loving the people of this world. It was for the people of this world that Jesus died on the Cross. We have heard it said that the Christian is to be “in the world, not of the world” and this is true. We are to live among humanity as salt and light and manifesting the love of Christ, but we are not to be like those who are of the world. We love the people of the world. We do not love the evil world system that makes them the way they are.

 There is another potential meaning of the word “world” and this is what John means when he tells us to love not the world. He is speaking of a world order. This is the invisible system of order that is controlled by Satan. This is the world that John speaks of in 1 John 5:19 that lies in the power of the evil one. He writes, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This means that because we are of God we are not a part of this world. We belong to the kingdom of Christ. This is why James warns us about friendship with this world. The world we are not to love is the enemy of the kingdom of God. 

This evil world system lies in the power of the evil one. I hope you aren’t putting too much hope in an upcoming election to straighten things out in this country. The Bible does not say that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, except for the United States of America. I appreciate that there are some Christians who engage in the political process and want to make a difference. I will vote for them. But even if we elect them they are fighting a system that is corrupt. I’m afraid they will do no more to fix the corruption in our government than a firefighter could do with a water pistol against a raging forest fire. The corruption of this world system cannot be fixed by righteous politicians.

When Jesus comes back He will become the Almighty Ruler of this world and He will fix the corruption. He will rule in righteousness. His kingdom will come and His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. Until then, the world will continue to manifest irreparable corruption which warrants the judgment of God.

 This world we are not to love is the world that Jesus said hated Him. In John 7:7 Jesus said this world hates Him because He testified against it that its deeds were evil. Jesus also warned His disciples, and us by extension in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of this world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” Why does it hate us? The world hates us because we oppose what it stands for and we stand for what it opposes.

 This evil world system loves darkness and we shine light. The world loves evil and we love righteousness. The world deals in lies and we tell the truth. The world hates and we love. The world loves that which is destructive, immoral, and evil, and we love what builds up, is right and good and true and lovely and righteous. The difference is as obvious as black and white.

 It is this world that Paul describes in Ephesians 2:1-3. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” You cannot love a system that produces the kind of life that is so opposite of the life of Christ and be a Christian.

 This evil world system is at war with God. It is under the power of Satan. He uses his power as the prince of power of the air to influence his subjects to hate the citizens of the kingdom of God. 2 Cor. 4:4 calls Satan “the god of this world.” Verse 3-4 read, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

 Speaking of this world Jesus said in John 12:31, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” Satan’s days as the ruler of this world are numbered. John 16:11 says, “the ruler of this world has been judged.”

 We want to get this settled in our minds now because we will encounter John’s instructions regarding this world several more times in this book.  Read 1 John 4:1-6. Also 1 John 5:4-5.

 Paul describes the right attitude toward the world in Galatians 6:14. “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” To be crucified means to be put to death. We are to die to the world. Romans 12:1-2 call us to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God because this is our reasonable service of duty. And we are not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds. We should not be squeezed into the mold of the world. This world will not make us more like Jesus. This world will undermine and oppose everything Christ is doing in your life to make you more like Him.

 How does this evil world system work? Because John is talking about the evil world system that is under the power of the evil one, it isn’t hard to discern when we see it at work. We will recognize the evil world system because it will be opposing God, His word, and His people. We just read about anti-Christ in chapter 4. “Anti” means “against.” The spirit of antichrist working in the world is working in anything that is against Christ, against the Word of God, and against Christ’s people.

 We are familiar with Ephesians 6 where Paul describes the armor of God. Why do we put on the full armor of God? It is so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Satan is a schemer. He is a liar. He is a destroyer. Paul says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Our struggle is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Satan has an army of evil influencers who take orders from him and they carry out his desires. His desire is to destroy God, destroy the word of God, and destroy the people of God.

 We praise God that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We can stand firm by putting on the whole armor of God and we can resist in the evil day. (Eph. 6:13) We gird our loins with truth, we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we take the gospel of peace with us as our shoes, (that is as we go we keep sharing the gospel). We have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. And we pray!

 If you want to know that you are not loving the world or the things of the world check to see if you have your spiritual armor on. If you don’t have your armor on you are not ready for the fight. If you are not fighting this evil world system you are being influenced by it and if you are being influenced by it you are being squeezed into its mold. 

 We must not love this world because we do not belong here. This world is not our home. We are citizens of another kingdom. Ours is a kingdom which this world hates and opposes on every front. The Scriptures make it clear. We have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Christ. (Col. 1:13) We have become a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. For once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. We are therefore aliens and strangers in this world. We are to abstain from the fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. (1 Peter 2:9-11)

 John makes it clear in this verse that the love of the world and the love of the Father cannot co-exist. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them.” Those who love the world have believed a lie. This evil world system influences people away from God. It draws them away from God and into a deadly trap. This evil world system promotes self-esteem, personal freedom, personal rights, and personal satisfaction. This evil world system wants us to believe we are our own gods. It uses speculations and lofty ideas which are raise up against the knowledge of God.

 The world lies about God. The world distorts, denies, and tries to destroy the word of God. The world turns its own subjects against the people of God. I’ve watched the world lead some that I love dearly directly into a path of destruction. It breaks my heart. It makes me hate this world. I hate this evil world system that is luring people into the pit of hell.

 You may think it is wrong for me to hate this world system. It is not. I love the people who are being destroyed in this world system, but I hate the system. God hates it too. God’s hatred for it will result in its total annihilation. 

 Next time we will look at how the world works to draw people into its deadly trap. In the meantime I would encourage you to look carefully at your own life. What do you love? Jesus told us that we cannot serve two masters. He was talking about money but He also gave a solid principle regarding the things of God and the things of the world. He said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.” The love of the world makes us the enemy of God. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.

 Let’s pray.