“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.”
Do not love the world
The word “world” occurs 22 times in this epistle. There are four different words for “world” in the New Testament: 1) earth, 2) the inhabited world, 3) age or generation, and 4) an adorned system of values. John uses the fourth here.
The “world” system is an enemy of God (4:4). “Love” here is the love of fondness or devotion. Some Christians love the arrangement of a world apart from God, a seductive system that lures people away from God.
The “world” here is not the earth or the physical globe on which we live. The “world” is the Devil’s system of values.
1 Jn 5:19, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Jas 4:4, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
The Greek forbids an action already in progress. John’s readers were already in the process of loving the world. They were in a system of values, priorities, and beliefs that excluded God in their lives.
PRINCIPLE:
A Christian in fellowship with God does not adopt the value system of this world.
APPLICATION:
Worldliness is not taking pleasure in the natural realm, for God wants us to enjoy the spectacular Grand Canyon. He wants us to enjoy sports and symphony. Taking pleasure in the earth is not wrong but yielding to the values of this world violates our fellowship with God.
God expects us to love the birds and the bees! He wants us to enjoy flowers and the world of nature. We glory in God’s handiwork of nature. We love people. Neither does love the world mean that we are to become eccentric or odd. It does not mean that we live like a hermit in a cave.
Rejecting worldliness does mean that we do not enter its system of greed and develop an attitude of the survival of the fittest and might makes right.
Secularism tries to ostracize God from the core of its life. All they want is what they can taste, see, feel, hear, or touch. They want nothing of a God who has sovereign authority over them. They do not want to take God into account for the values of their lives.
Good Morning:
Since this is such an old post maybe you don’t want comments, but that will have to be seen.
I love your comments and they show how much can be said in only a few words. Sometimes it is more important to keep things simple if we are striving for clarification. I think you have done that.
When I leave here I am going to see if you have a website and look up what else you might have available.
IN Christ,
Tom
Thanks Tom, you hit the nail on the head about keeping it straightforward.
Thank you for explaining this verse. Some Christians I've heard take this to mean that we should deny all pleasure in life, but that contradicts what Paul wrote elsewhere, so your explanation makes sense.
Dan, there are passages that indicate that we are to intrinsically appreciate the world that God created, not the world-system of Satan. For example, Paul arguing against those who have scruples about eating a certain kind of food said, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (1 Co 10).
Hi Grant, I hope you are well, I know this post is 20 years old now, so I’m not sure if you’ll see my comment.
I’ve always assumed that (agapaó) was the verb form of (agapé) the noun. Both in John 15:9 and 17:26 for example.
In this verse (and Luke 11:43), that appears to be far from the case. Because how could they agapaó if they didn’t have the agapé of God in them.
If you have any free time, would you be able to clarify my understanding please. Thank you very much. God bless you.
Marc, thanks for your insightful blog. As you know, every Greek word has a range of meanings. When either the noun or verb has reference to God or Christ, there is special meaning to the words because of the persons associated with them. When John uses agapao in John 3:16, for example, other words give meaning to the verb such as “so” and “gave,” which characterize the kind of love God had for the world. In other cases, such as this verse and Lu 11:43, the use is entirely different depending on the context. In the latter two verses agapao carries meanings such as like, value, or high regard for. Some very old interpreters, and even lexicographers, held to the idea that agapao was a special spiritual term, but that theory has long been disregarded.