What Does it Mean to "Love Not The World"?

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

The story of Adam and Eve is a fascinating story. In it, we find all kinds of things that create the foundation for the rest of Scripture. One of the foundations that is found here that we often overlook is the foundation of sin. As Christians we have all heard that we shouldn’t love the world, that we should ‘avoid worldly things’, but what does that mean? For me, most of my life I knew that we weren’t supposed to be ‘worldly’ and at all the youth events I ever attended we were reminded to ‘love not the world!’ But I honestly didn’t always know what that meant. 

1st John 2:15-17 “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 desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

Notice what John says about the things of the world, the first thing mentioned is the desires of the flesh or as most people know it, the lust of the flesh. What does this mean? Anytime the Bible refers to the flesh in talking about humans, it is usually in the context of our sinful nature. This sinful nature, dominated by sin and rebellion, is so closely tied to the physical aspect of mankind that it is just referred to as ‘the flesh’. Desires that arise from the fact that we are earth-bound, fleshly creatures are not sins in themselves. We desire food, water, shelter, sex, and comfort. God created us with those desires. However, we are born sinful, desiring to please ourselves, regardless of God’s moral law.

Our normal human desires that God gave us become desires of the flesh when these desires rule us and take priority over God’s will. Hunger drives us to find food, this is a good thing, but when the desire for food turns to gluttony it moves beyond the natural God-given desire for food into an unhealthy desire. When our natural human desire for companionship and sex crosses the boundaries from their normal God-given place into perversions, sex outside of marriage, porn, and other sexually related sins, these desires have crossed the line into becoming desires of the flesh. It’s about making my desires a priority even if it violates God’s moral law.

Next, John mentions the desires of the eye or lust of the eye. This occurs when we see something visually that incites things like covetousness, jealously, or sexual lust. When we find ourselves seeing what someone else has and desiring it over what God wants for you when you see an image or a person and you allow the desire to overtake you and you give yourself over to the desire you have crossed that line of normal desires that every human has into falling for the lust of the eye.

It’s perfectly normal to see someone with a nice house and a nice family and think I’d like to have something like that one day, it’s totally different to desire their life. It's unhealthy to desire to be other people, when we live for God we trust that he has good plans for us and we work hard to provide for our families, but we should never let ambition turn into coveting what other people have.

Likewise, it's natural to find someone of the opposite sex attractive. There’s nothing wrong with noticing, the issue arises when we let the attraction turn into an unhealthy desire when our mind starts to wander into inappropriate thoughts, when we allow that desire to capture us it opens the possibility of you falling into more sexual sins.

Finally, John mentions the pride of life, this is simply the desire in every human being to be his or her own god. Arrogance, self-promotion, and greed all stem from the pride of life. When someone has a lot of possessions, they can lose perspective and instead of relying on God, trusting in him for security, they trust in their own possessions. 

The person who won’t submit to the authority of the Word of God because it would mean they’d have to surrender their own desires. It’s the person who lives by their own rules rather than by the moral compass of the God who created us.

This issue is a sensitive issue, mainly because there are a lot of flawed individuals trying to figure out the best way to live for God and because of this, it has led to people trying to help God out by created extra rules to help govern his people. Adam did this in the very beginning of human history, God told Adam don’t eat of that tree, and Eve tells the serpent we can’t eat or touch. 

Adam thought that if he told Eve not to touch, he was helping God out by creating boundaries that would protect Eve. This didn’t work. It never works. Notice the pattern from the beginning, Eve saw it was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, and it was desired to make one wise. These same three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. All sin comes from these three things. Creating extra rules is not going to be what protects us from these sins. Adam learned that lesson.

The Pharisees also tried this with their ‘Tradition of the Elders’. They created a set of laws that would protect the people from breaking God’s laws, the problem came when their laws became equal to God’s.

Jesus rebuked them for this in Mark 7:5-7 “And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ And he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

We don’t overcome these issues by making laws to follow. If that was the case we could have continued to live according to the Law. Man’s remedy is to create rules and boundaries, but these always turn into bigger issues because our rules and boundaries are viewed equally with God’s law. It creates hypocrites who obey rules while their hearts are far from God. So what is the remedy?

John finishes his statement on this topic by saying, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

The three lusts come when our desires override God’s desires. When we submit to ourselves and reject God. It isn’t usually intentional, but when I know I shouldn’t be doing something but my desire drives me to do it anyway knowing that it violates God’s moral law, I am rejecting God in that instant. 

The answer is to this is to do the will of God. Does this mean follow his laws? Yes and No. We do not live for God based on rules and laws. Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3 and said this starting in verse 10,

“For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the Law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

The law was a curse for us because we couldn’t live up to it. Only one person ever completely lived up to the requirements of the Law, he just so happened to be the Messiah! Christ came to fulfill the law in his own life to free us from the curse of it.

But notice what Paul says in verse 19,

“Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made,”

So the law was given because of sin, but only until the one that the promise of Abraham was made to should come, this is talking about Christ. 

Paul is contrasting the Old covenant with the promise of the New. Law vs Faith. Look at verse 23,

“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.”

So the law was given because of sin, it was our guardian, some translations say schoolmaster. It was there to guide us and to direct us to Christ. Once Christ came we no longer needed the guide. He came and justified all of us through faith.

So, the answer to the question, ‘Do we live for God based on rules?’ Is a resounding NO! Christ came to free us from the bondage of that. We will never make enough rules to be right with God. It masks the real issue which is our sinful nature. 

Research every world religion, no matter what the view on deities, or the afterlife, there is some variation of needing to work towards being a good person in order to please their god, or to earn their reward for the next life.

Christianity is fundamentally different, we aren’t good, yet God chose to redeem us through the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ. So we don’t earn anything or work to be good. He saves us on his own merit, through his grace that we receive by faith. 

Then, and only then, do we chose to live a life of gratitude and obedience to his Word. Not in order to please God or earn our eternal reward. But because of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

If you are struggling with sin, if you find yourself living according to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, the remedy isn’t more rules, it's faith in Jesus Christ. Allow him to renew your mind, to make you a new creation. Only then can you start to live according to the will of God. Only then can you live a life of gratitude and obedience. Faith and obedience are not the same thing. But true faith always leads to obedience.