Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 1 John 2:15 NLT
Read 1 John 2:15-29.
As followers of Christ who continue living in a human body, we will have a constant tug-of-war within us between our spiritual desires and the cravings of our flesh. However, while God’s grace redeems us in spite of our failings, this does not give us license to indulge our flesh. God forgives us when we sin, and we will fall on occasion; however, if our relationship with Christ is genuine, we will not continue to choose sin habitually over obedience to Christ.
Our desire to please God will trump the longings of our human nature.
John is talking about this tug-of-war in today’s Daily Word. Sometimes, John’s hard teachings can be difficult to swallow, and today’s is one of the most challenging ones of all!
John boldly declares that if we love the world, we do not have the love of Christ in us. Ouch!
Sometimes it is difficult to understand where to draw the line. God gives us many things in our lives to enjoy, even some material possessions and physical pleasures that are a part of this world. These are gifts from God, and He is pleased when we enjoy His blessings.
On the other hand, John is talking about the temporal pleasures of this world that will one day fade away, yet we put these things before our God. These are things that are opposed to the character of God.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 1 John 2:16 NLT
The things of the world that contradict the character of Christ distract us from our relationship with Him. The problem is worse when we set these things up as idols in our lives. We strive for physical fulfillment instead of seeking fulfillment in our relationship with God. We allow ourselves to be influenced by worldly values and pull away from living an obedient life. In other words, when we love the world more than we love God, we are choosing darkness over light. This is when the love of the world is problematic and reveals a breach in our relationship with God.
This is a continuation of the theme John has been teaching about living a proper lifestyle as followers of Christ. He goes so far as to say that when we love the world in this way, that is to put the world before God, we do not have the love of God in us.
Instead of understanding this to mean that if we turn toward the world, God will reject us, I believe it is the other way around. In other words, if we truly love God, we will not love the world or allow it to influence our lives, our character, or our choices.
In verse 18, John warns us of many antichrists who have come to deceive. These are they who appear to be followers of Christ but never really have been. They had infiltrated the church but then left. John is reassuring the believers about the ones who left. If they really belonged, they would have stayed. However, the fact that they left is proof that they never really belonged with them in the first place.
How can we know?
And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. (verse 22)
John urges the believers to remain faithful to what they had been taught from the beginning and warned them to not be led astray. He exhorts them that if the teaching they received from the beginning continues to abide within them, they will abide in the Son and in the Father. If they abandon these teachings, as the antichrists who left the church already had, they will be in the same boat. They will have proven that they never really belonged at all.
In his warning about not allowing themselves to be led astray, John gave the most beautiful reassurance of how they can be sure of the truth. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, and He teaches us what is true. Other translations call it anointing, but that anointing is the presence of the Holy Spirit. He will help us differentiate between the lies of the enemy, the confusion of those who are consumed with the influence of the world, and our fleshly desires as they contrast with the truth of the Gospel.
In other words, the Holy Spirit is more than able to keep us on the straight and narrow if we will listen to Him!
Did I mention the gift of eternal life? While John has refuted the temporal things of the world as they are opposed to the things of the Lord, he reminds us of our eternal reward. We have eternal life in Christ!
John concludes this portion of the letter with the command to remain in fellowship with Christ so that when He returns we won’t shrink away in shame. We are reminded one more time that if we are living righteously, then we are truly His because Christ is righteous.
Remember, living in a righteous way is not what makes us righteous. However, if we have a relationship with Christ who is the only one who is truly righteous, then it will show in our lives. He will live through us, and we will truly be righteous in Him.
