The World! What is it?
The passage today is well known:
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 ESV)
And the question we are considering is what exactly is the world? What have you heard described as being “worldly”? And how do we avoid loving the world?
How do we figure out what John means by “the world”? We first need to first look at the overall purpose of the book.
The World in terms of the purpose of 1st John
1st John is all about eternal life, and that means a real, living connection with God. As Jesus said in John 17 “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3 ESV)
So immediately we can start to sense what “the world” means. It means living life cut off from God with no knowledge of Him, no relationship with Him. This world is full of people, God’s own creatures, who are living in ignorance and rebellion against their Creator. Where God’s will and wishes, are ignored, either because they are not known, or when they are known deliberately broken in utter defiance. There isn’t even any desire for relationship with God.
In chapter 1 verses 1-4 John speaks of eternal life as having become manifest in the person of Jesus. Into this dark sinful, rebellious world came a man who was not cut off from God. He was constantly connected to the Father, in intimate fellowship, always doing His will and wishes. His relationship with His Father was His greatest delight and concern. To God that man was like a spot of sunshine in a cloudy world.
Now we can see what John means by the world; human society under the influence of Satan and at odds with God. When John tells us not to love the world it is because it is absolutely impossible to love the world and the Father at the same time (2:15).
My brother Jonny owns two toyshops, ‘David Rogers Toymaster’, in Banbridge and Portadown. Now imagine his staff took over his two shops in defiance and wouldn’t let Jonny come in and were destroying the place. And it broke my brother’s heart to see the place destroyed, and even more to see his staff rebel against him. My brother has four children, now imagine he sent his oldest boy Josiah into the shop to reason with them, and because he was the oldest son and heir the rebellious staff took him, beat him up, killed him and threw him out? It would be impossible for me to love my brother and join in the “fun” of wrecking the shop and ignoring the claims of the owner. If I joined in it would be a personal insult to my brother and it would break the fellowship between me and him.
See how this fits with John’s main purpose in this letter, eternal life. John’s letter was written to encourage us to develop our eternal life, our fellowship with God. One thing that will really hinder that is love for this world?
The World in terms of the surrounding context
Notice the verse just before this; 2v14. This warning not to love the world is directed at those young men (and women) who know the Word of God enough not to be led astray by heresy. John says they had overcome the evil one’s attempt to deceive them (2v26). But there was another danger. When Satan can’t deceive our heads he pulls at our hearts. When he can’t confuse our minds he attacks our desires. And there are many Christians who know all the right answers, but their true heart’s affection is not with the Father, it is in their family, or their business, or music, or sport.
So now we are seeing more clearly what John means by the world. Loving the good things that the Father has given us as gifts: food, family, work, studies, sex, beauty but not as wonderful gifts from our Father to be enjoyed in gratitude to Him, and in obedience to His laws, but as an end in themselves. Satan tries to use the good things of life so we love them so much we ignore or even defy God in the process and it becomes a wedge in our relationship with the Father, when they should in fact bring us closer to the Father.
Two people can be doing the same things and one be worldly and the other enjoying eternal life. E.G. parents bringing up kids, one can be doing it all by themselves, idolising education and success. And the other can be doing it in prayerful dependence on God for wisdom, seeking above all that their kids come to know, love and serve Him. Worldliness is not in outward behaviour but inner attitude.
Other pictures of the World from the Bible
Another helpful approach is looking for some connections to other parts of the Bible. The truths in the epistles are usually illustrated in other stories. Does anything here remind you of anything else in the Bible? When did Satan try to use the good things of life to tempt people away from fellowship with the Father?
Two examples I can think of:
Satan with Eve. He said “look at the tree, good for food, to satisfy your hunger (desires of the flesh), good to look at (desires of the eyes), and it will make you wise, as wise as God (pride of life). Take it woman. Defy God and His stupid rules. He is holding you back.” But it was lies, God had given her everything from His loving, gracious hand, with the whole purpose that they could fellowship together. But they both took and ate and the fellowship with God was broken. They joined the rebellion and were cut off from eternal life. That was the very origins of the world.
Christ’s temptations. Satan comes along with three temptations. Desires of the flesh - turn these stones into bread and eat. Desires of the eyes – he took him up a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them. And pride of life – Satan brings him up to the temple and says cast yourself down, show everyone how much you trust God and how much He loves you.
So now we know what being worldly really means. Not just about how we dress or where we go or what we do. It means treating this world as if this is all there is to life. Effectively living cut off from God. When I hear Christians use the term “worldly” I translate it in my head to “this worldly”, earth without heaven, as if life in the here and now is all that really matters.
That means it is very possible to be “worldly” at the Lord’s Supper. The entire time for our mind to be on our business, or our family and friends, or a box set we’re watching, or our Uni studies, or even my spiritual reputation, what everyone else in the meeting thinks of me, instead of on God Himself, and having any genuine fellowship with Him in enjoying His Son together with Him.
This passage also shows us how worldliness is overcome. In three ways:
The word of God abides in you (v14). Not just knowing God’s Word but loving it, having it in our minds and hearts. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy three times when he was tempted.
The love the Father (v15). Remember the toyshop that had been taken over, if I truly loved my brother it would break my heart to see what happened to his shop and to his son, and my love for my brother would stop me joining in the rebellion.
The world is passing away (v17). The rebellion is allowed to continue for now, but God is not going to put up with it forever. This section of 1 John ends in 2v28 with Christ’s appearing. A reference to His second coming when Christ will come back to kick Satan and His rebels out of God’s world – the world will no longer be “worldly”. So why would we side with the rebellion? In the long term it is doomed.
Hope this helps us to see the usefulness of taking a step back to see the purpose of the letter, and the surrounding context, as well as other passages that illustrate these things. Not that we have to do this every time we read a verse, but looking at the context and other examples can help add depth and understanding to the passage.
