Love Not the World

1 John 2:15-17 (KJV)

¹⁵ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

When a person becomes a Christian, the Lord fills their heart with love. Galatians 5:22 tells us that the first fruit of the Spirit, is in fact, love. In 1 Corinthians 16:14, we are instructed to do all things in love. Matthew 5:44 also tells us to love our enemies and bless those that curse us. And yet, with all these instructions about love and how to do things out of love, we are also told NOT to love everything, aren’t we? There are some things that we cannot love if you are truly a child of God.

Let’s try to really understand why the Lord is adamant for us to not love the world. Is it really so bad to love the systems of this world?

The Character of the World

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Loving the world means being devoted to the world’s treasures, philosophies, and priorities. God tells His children to set their priorities according to His eternal value system. To continue to love the world the way unbelievers do will cripple our spiritual growth and render us fruitless for God’s kingdom.

Why can it cripple our spiritual growth?

Philosophy
Man has sought to explain the reasons for existence, the purpose of living. Everybody with his own explanation of the universe. Most philosophers deny the existence of God and try to explain everything in the universe in terms of their own rational thinking patterns. Remember, philosophy is human wisdom, after all. A human wisdom at that, finite, compared to the divine wisdom by God, infinite. Humans still continue to seek when God already saw!

Purpose
God created us for a purpose. God created us in His image so that He could have a meaningful relationship with us. God designed us so that we would be ideal stewards over His creation. Regrettably, that’s not the purpose of this world. In fact, it is the complete opposite. This world has a calculated plan, and that is to draw you away from God! Do not mistake your real purpose (to be reconciled and fellowship with God) for this world’s purpose (to draw you away from God and live indulging in the sins of this world.)

People
When you got saved, you came out of the world and you became a new creature! But this world has its own people. You are a “twice-born person” in a world full of “once-born people.” And so, you are going to find yourself swimming against the tide always!

Prince
This world has its own prince. He is called “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2. This indicates that Satan is the major influence on the ideals, opinions, goals, and views of the majority of people. As the god of this world, Satan exercises his power over the unbelieving world to keep them from Jesus. He will also try to influence Christians so that we could not live our Christian lives to its full potential, ultimately ruining our testimony to be an effective witness for Christ.

The Corruption of the World

The lust of the flesh
When you get saved, a civil war begins within you! There is this new nature that wants to serve God and there’s that old nature that doesn’t want to serve God. Anything we are passionate in doing that does not bring glory to God, is merely serving the flesh.

The lust of the eyes
If lust of the flesh is passion, the lust of the eyes is possession. If the lust of the flesh deals with doing, then the lust of the eyes deals with having! Moreover, it’s also not just the literal things that we see but those we imagine or put our “mental” eyes on.

The pride of life
If the lust of the eyes refers to passion, the lust of the flesh refers to possession, then the pride of life refers to position. The first one is doing, second is having, the last one is being. Put simply, we want recognition.

Every temptation is a perversion of something that is good.

You want something to DO?
Give your heart to Jesus. Serve God.

You want something to HAVE?
Give your heart to Jesus. You will have the fruit of the Spirit and a heavenly inheritance.

You want to BE somebody?
Give your heart to Jesus. You’ll become the child of the King.

Doing and having and being are found in the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Condemnation of this World

Now, there’s one sure thing about this world system. It’s not going to be here forever. It will pass away. Only that which is in the will of God is going to abide forever. When Noah went into the ark, he was in the minority. But when he came out, he came out a majority! This world is passing away but they that do the will of God abides forever!

Do you really love God? Then, love not the world.