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

by Mike Ratliff

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2 ESV)

One of the markers of genuineness in a Christian is separation from the World. This isn’t a physical removal from planet Earth or a disintegration of the body of a Christian. A genuine Christian’s character should be in a continual upgrade unto Christlikeness. That means that as he or she cooperates with God in their sanctification, working out their salvation with fear and trembling, their character will take on more and more of Christ’s character instead of being patterned after the world and its ways. They will love what He loves and hate what he hates. God is love, but He hates a certain type of love.

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19 ESV)

15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 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)

If professing believers love the very thing that hates the truth of God’s sovereignty, His genuine character–not the one they have made up, and all genuine Christians who proclaim these truths then they prove either that they are very immature Christians or the love of the Father is not in them. The word love used here, in the Greek, means “affection and devotion.” John is telling us that genuine Christians will not habitually have affection and devotion for the world or the things in the world.

I know many professing Christians who believe that death is a tremendous tragedy. They love their life here more than anything else. They pursue entertainment in everything they do seeking to be fulfilled in sports, or movies, or recognition for working hard in church. On the other hand, John tells us in the passage from 1 John that if we habitually love the world like that then we are in the process of revealing that we are disingenuous Christians.

Why does God hate love for the world and the things in the world? God, not the world, must have first place in His children’s hearts. (Matthew 10:37; Philipians 3:20) We must remember that what God is against here is not planet Earth, but the invisible, spiritual system of evil dominated by Satan. This world system keeps people in bondage, blinds their hearts, and opposes God and all that belong to Him.

These evil forces bring to bear the three motivations for people to sin. These are seen in v16. It says, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” The ESV uses the word “desires” in this passage, The KJV and NKJV use the word “lust.” While they essentially have the same meaning, the word “lust” carries with it a connotation of desiring that which is wrong to have. The first lust or desire is “of the flesh.” Immature Christians are suckers for this. They have not learned that we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Christ as a way of life. Instead they battle with their sin nature’s number one target for self-gratification – the flesh. This lust is best understood as that which creates a “passion” for whatever it is that is wrong to have. The second lust is “of the eyes.” This speaks of a desire to possess something or someone that is not theirs. This is akin to covetousness. It seems that our path to Christian maturity starts with dealing with these two lusts. We must conquer our passions and desires to posses the things of this world. If we don’t then we are revealing our love for these things and that means we don’t have the love of the Father in us. This is frightening! Have you examined yourself in this area? The third motivation to sin is pride in possessions (ESV) or pride of life (KJV, NKJV). This speaks of having power. The rich are powerful are they not? Don’t power brokers in this world also possess the things in this world that most of wish we had?

If we are in love with the world and things in the world as John speaks of in this passage then we will also be dominated by these three motivations to sin. On the other hand, if we are being sanctified, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, all three of these things will come under attack. God will not allow His children to be idol worshippers. Their idols must come down. They must be cast into the fire.

As we grow in grace, these battles will continue, but victories will grow more and more frequent. Some of us will battle this, and lose most of the time, to the end. However, I deeply desire victory over my besetting sins of seeking passion, possessions, and power. How can we do this. I probably sound like a recording that repeats over and over again, but here it is: We must cooperate with God in our sanctification. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We must seek purity. We must love God more than life itself. We must put our love for Him above all things and everyone else. We must love Him with our entire being. Why?

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3 ESV)

Beloved, we must take this to heart. This purity speaks of being cleansed from the contamination of this world. If we are pure here it is because we are not conformed to this world, but have become transformed by the renewing of our minds. In so doing, we have drawn near to God, He has drawn near to us, and we have learned to discern His will and we obey Him in all we do, by His grace.

Soli Deo Gloria!