“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 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
One major problem with the Church of Jesus Christ in our day is that too many church members are in love with the world and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has uncovered this truth. Instead of living contrary to the ways of this present evil world, many professing Christians think like the world thinks and therefore live as the world lives. As Proverbs 23:7 teaches, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” But the Apostle John says in our text, “love not the world or the things in the world.”
John sets before us two loves: love for the Father, and love for the world, and he says these two loves are antithetical. In other words, you cannot love the Father and at the same time be in love with the world. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” And we read in James 4:4, “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.”
When John uses the word “world” in our text, he is referring to the “world order” or the sphere of humanity that is in rebellion against God. It is a sphere of people who are dead in trespasses and sins and are at war with God and his Word. The world that John is speaking of is the realm of darkness that lies under the sway of the Wicked One (1 John 5:19), and walks according to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Jesus called Satan the prince of this world in John 12:31. This “world” that John speaks of is the city of man and his institutions and vain philosophies, psychologies, and practices (Colossians 2:8), which are controlled by Satan (2 Tim. 2:26). We read in James 3:14 that the wisdom of the world “is earthly, sensual, and demonic.” Paul wrote, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness” in 1 Corinthians 3:19, and in Romans 12:1 the believer is admonished, “Not to be conformed to the ways of this world.” The Apostle John says in our text, “Love not this world!”
If you are a Christian, then this world is not your friend. You are at war with the ways of this world even as the world is at war with you. Jesus said to his disciples in John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John says to the believer in 1 John 4:6, “We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” This present evil world is preoccupied with pursuing pleasure, profit, and position. It worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25), and it shakes its fist at God and says, “I will live my life the way I want to live my life. Nobody is going to tell me how to live!” Abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage, fornication, feminism, evolution, are just some of the evil ways of this world. Christian, love not the ways of this world!
Tuesday Encouragement: March 31, 2026
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
