WHO DO YOU LOVE?/1 JOHN 2:15-17
The real question for all of us is simply, "Who do
you love?" Notice I didn’t say, What do you love? The
strongest desire of love is the love of self, and the love
of things is wrapped up in this love of self. What John
knows, and what we need to know, is that "we are by
nature worshippers and lovers," and that "most of
the time we worship ourselves." With this in mind, John
begins this section of his letter with ...
I) A COMMAND–V.15
A) The command is "Do not love the world, nor
the things in the world." John wants us to know that if
we love the world, then "the love of the Father is not
in [us]." It is important for us to keep the context in
mind here. John, on the heels of commending the young men
for overcoming the evil one says, "Do not love the
world ..." This is another test of the genuineness of
one’s faith and salvation. John just cannot get off this
theme: Assurance of salvation!
1) It is important to define what John means here
by the term "world." It is not the world in
the sense of the earth, the universe, or the created order (Matthews
16:26). It is not the world in the sense of the
inhabited earth or human beings (John 3:16). It is
the world in the sense of "the sum total of human
life, human culture, the ordered world considered apart
from, alienated from, [and] hostile to God with Satan as its
head" (1 John 5:19; John 12:31; 14:30).
B) Here’s the point, the test John puts before
us: "If anyone loves the world (as I’ve just
described it), the love of the Father (His redemptive,
saving love) is not in him." John wants us to sit up
and take notice with these words. Hear then what John is
saying, "One cannot profess to be a Christian ... one
cannot be a Christian if one habitually, continually, time
after time, invests his or her time, effort, [or] energy in
the things of the world, in the things that are hostile to
Christ and the Gospel."
1) It is important to define what John means here
by the term "love." It is not used in the
sense that we say we love coffee or NASCAR racing. It is used
in the sense of loyal devotion. "[John] is referring
... to a fondness and affection for an object because of its
value ..." to us. It is that which rules us within, and
drives what we do without–good or evil.
a) Let me add another Scripture that highlights
this more fully cf. Matthew 6:24.
C) One more thing before we move on to the next
verse. John is not saying to abandon the world, nor to
separate from it, but that we should keep ourselves from
love for the world cf. James 1:27. We must learn to
use the things of the world to advance Christ’s kingdom,
to meet the needs of our families, and to grow in Christ.
But, we must never pursue the things of the world as an end
in themselves–money, possessions, status, pleasure, etc.
Next, in the text, John moves on to tell us of some specific
things Satan uses to tempt us to sin, to pursue (desire)
what is not of God, but of the world. We can understand them
under ...
II) THREE CATEGORIES OF TEMPTATION–V.16
A) Category number one consists in "the lust
of the flesh." "‘Flesh’ refers to ‘the
outlook oriented towards self, that which pursues its own
ends in self-sufficient independence of God’ ... and in
self-sufficient independence of one’s fellow man."
B) Category number two consists in "the lust
of the eyes." It is "everything that entices the
eyes." The most basic thought is "of greed and
desire for things aroused by seeing them."
C) Category number three consists in "the
boastful pride of life." The Greek term for the phrase
"pride of life" "describes a pretentious
hypocrite who glories in himself or in his
possessions." As one commentator put it:
"Pride of life" will be reflected in
whatever status symbol is important to me or seems to
define my identity. When I define myself to others in
terms of my honorary degrees, the reputation of the
church I serve, my annual income, the size of my
library, my expensive car or house, and if in doing this
I misrepresent the truth and in my boasting show myself
to be only a pompous fool who has deceived no one, then
I have succumbed to what John calls the pride of life.
Now John, in our final verse, gives us ...
III) TWO REASONS TO NOT LOVE THE WORLD–V.17
A) First, the world, as we defined it negatively,
is continually and surely passing away, out of existence.
And, that which belongs to it, its lusts, is also
continually and surely passing away. So, don’t buy stock
in a company sure to go belly up. Or, don’t buy the wonder
drug that promises to cure you, which is but a placebo. In
other words, don’t waste your money.
B) Second, if you want to live forever in God’s
heaven, then do the will of God. And, the will of God is
clearly revealed in the Word of God that most of us carry to
church each Sunday.
