A generation ago a popular crooner advised, "What the world needs is love, sweet love." It's true that love for one another would cure many of the world's ills, but love is not necessarily good. The character of love is determined by its object. We must love God (Matthew 22:34-38), Christ (John 14:23), truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12), the word of God (Psalm 119:97), our brethren (John 13:34-35; 1 John 2:10), the elders (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13), preachers of the gospel (3 John 5-8), and all people (Luke 10:25-37), even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). But we must not love falsehood (Psalm 119:104) or the world. The apostle commands:

Do not love the world or the things of 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)

What Is "the World"?

What is "the world" we must not love? The term "world" means "primarily order, arrangement, ornament, adornment" (Vine.4:233).

The New Testament uses the word to denote the physical creation of God, both the universe as a whole, as an orderly arrangement, and the earth on which we live (Acts 17:24; Romans 1:20; Mark 16:15). It is not sinful to love within proper bounds the world God created. In fact, it is good that we contemplate the beauty and order we see in the material creation as evidence of the existence of God and His love for us (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 104; Acts 14:16-17).

The term "world" is used by metonymy₁ of people who inhabit the earth (John 3:16). God loves all people (Ibid), and so must we (Luke 10:25-37).

Some have the mistaken idea that being separate from the world means being different from people of the world. John's command is, "Do not love the world." If this means the people of the world, then the apostle forbids us to love all people. What shall we do with Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 10:25-37? Some seem to really think the statement from the old King James Version of 1 Peter 2:9, "ye are ... a peculiar people," is true in the modern sense of "peculiar" - "strange or odd" (Oxford). Of course, it means we are "His own special people" (NKJV) or "a people for his own possession" (ESV). It is true that the majority of people live worldly lives and that we are therefore constrained to live differently from them. But in matters of liberty, we should strive to fit in with the people where we live, so we can influence them to come to Christ (1 Corinthians 8:8-9; 9:19-23; 10:31-33).

In our text John uses the word "world" to designate sin and the things which allure us to sin (1 John 2:16; cf. Galatians 6:14; Ephesians 2:2; James 1:27; 2 Peter 1:4; 2:20), the realm of evil (John 14:30; Ephesians 6:12), in that these things have to do with this present world (John 8:23), and the overwhelming majority of people follow this course (John 15:18-19).

Cannot Love Both God and the World

This world is completely at enmity with God, and it is impossible to both love God and love the world of evil (1 John 2:15; James 4:4). God appeals to our spirits made in His image, to our reason and love, whereas the world appeals to us through the flesh, our lower nature with its animal desires, and the two pull in opposite directions (Romans 8:5-8; Galatians 5:16-17). "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).

What Is in the World?

The apostle identifies three components that together make up the world - "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."

The term "lust" simply means "desire, longing" (Arndt & Gingrich. 293). It can be used in a neutral (Mark 4:19), a good (Luke 22:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:17), or, as in the vast majority of cases, a bad sense (e.g., 1 Peter 2:11). It is the object of the desire that determines if it is good evil, or indifferent. We must not "lust after evil things" (1 Corinthians 10:6).

The term "flesh" is also used in various ways. It literally means "the material that covers the bones of a human or animal body" (Arndt & Gingrich. 750; cf. Ephesians 2:11). It can then denote the body (2 Corinthians 7:10), a human (Galatians 2:16), human nature (Hebrews 2:14), human life on earth (Galatians 2:20), "the external or outward side of life" (Arndt & Gingrich, 751; 1 Corinthians 1:26), or our lower nature which is aroused to sin (Romans 8:5-8,12-13) and includes sins of the mind as well as the body (Galatians 5:16-21).

The "lust of the flesh" therefore encompasses those sinful desires that come from within our fleshly nature. "God made man upright" (Ecclesiastes 7:29). Thus, no normal, natural desire is wrong in itself. It is wrong if fulfilled in a way that violates divine law, for "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). For example, "Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4).

In the phrase "the lust of the eyes," "eyes" is employed by synecdoche₂ for all the senses. The "lust of the flesh" includes all temptations to sin that have their origin in our senses.

"Pride" is "pretension, arrogance" (Arndt & Gingrich. 34). The "pride of life" is, therefore, "arrogancy of living" (Plummer. 24). It is the desire to be important, to be lifted up, and to think more of ourselves than we ought (cf. Romans 12:3).

These three avenues are the sum total of all the ways Satan can appeal to us to sin.

How Does the World Allure?

James analyzes for us the process by which lust leads to sin.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (James 1:14-15)

Eve is the example of sin coming through all three sources: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh - KS), that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes - KS), and a tree desirable to make one wise (pride of life - KS), she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (Genesis 3:6)

Jesus is the example of how to overcome Satan's enticement through these same three avenues. After a forty day fast, Jesus "was hungry" (Matthew 4:1-2). Satan enticed Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread" (verse 3). The appeal was to the lust of the flesh, hunger. Jesus was indeed hungry, and He certainly could have turned stones to bread, but He replied, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (verse 4). Jesus relied upon the word of God to overcome the temptation. Then Satan enticed Jesus to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple, an appeal to the pride of life, but Jesus resisted again by an appeal to Scripture (Matthew 4:5-7). Finally Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of men and offered them to him, enticing Him through the lust of the eyes, but Jesus withstood the temptation again by relying upon Scripture (Matthew 4:8-10). Jesus Christ was tempted as a man in all the avenues through which we are, yet He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). He thus left us the great example of how to overcome temptation and avoid sin.

Why Not Love the World?

The world, sin with its allurements, along with all things material, is even now in the process of passing away (1 John 2:17). The "pleasures of sin" are indeed "passing" (Hebrews 11:25). They bring decay both here and for eternity (Galatians 6:7-8). That which abides is spiritual, and the one who does the will of God "abides forever" (1 John 2:17; Galatians 6:7-8).

Conclusion

We cannot love both God and the world. They are diametrically opposed to each other. We can choose God and life or the world and decay. Which shall it be?

Endnotes

1. "Metonymy is a figure by which one name or noun is used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation" (Bullinger, 539).
2. "Synecdoche of the Part is when a part is put for the whole" (Bullinger, 640).

Works Cited

Arndt, W.F. & F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
Bible,
...English Standard Version
...King James Version
...New King James Version
Bullinger, E.W., Figures of Speech Used in the Bible
Plummer, A., "The First Epistle General of John," The Pulpit Commentary. 22.
Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
WordPerfect Dictionary, Oxford University Press.