If I had to choose one word as a theme for this section of scripture it would be “FOCUS.” Where is our focus as Christians? Here the apostle John gives a clear and simple choice to all who would read or hear this Holy Word:
John presents only two alternatives in verse 15: A person either loves the world or loves the Father. In this case, the world does not refer merely to creation or to the world’s population for whom Christ died (John 3:16). Instead, this use of the world represents those who stand against John and the teachings of Christ.
Mark Strauss, ed., Hebrews Thru Revelation, vol. 12, Layman’s Bible Commentary (Barbour Publishing, 2008), 123.
Ron Rhodes, 1001 Unforgettable Quotes about God, Faith, & the Bible (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2011).
Anything that cools my love for Christ is the world.
—John Wesley (1703-1791), founder of the Methodist church
Bible Truth Behind the Quote:
“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” (1 John 2:16).
CONTEXT/STUDY:
Book Overview: 1 JOHN
CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY:
1 John 2:1–29 Obeying the Light
Darkness and Light 2:1–11
Reassurance 2:12–17
Reassurance 2:12–17
Setting Up the Section
This section contains three claims to intimate knowledge of God (2:4, 6, 9). As with the three “if we say” clauses in Chapter 1 (1:6, 8, 10), these claims indirectly reflect the claims of the false teachers. The focus of the subject matter shifts from awareness and acknowledgment of sin to obedience of God’s commandments. The concept of fellowship, introduced in the prologue (1:4), is replaced by an emphasis on knowing and loving God along with one’s fellow believers.
Mark Strauss, ed., Hebrews Thru Revelation, vol. 12, Layman’s Bible Commentary (Barbour Publishing, 2008), 121.
CHAP. 2
IN this chapter the apostle comforts the saints under a sense of sin; urges them to an observance of the commandments of God, in imitation of Christ, particularly to the new commandment of brotherly love, and gives his reasons for it; dehorts them from the love of the world, and the things of it; cautions thorn against false teachers and antichrists, and exhorts them to abide in Christ, and persevere in the faith of him. He first declares that the end of his writing was to prevent their sinning; but supposing any should fall into sin through infirmity, he comforts them with the consideration of the advocacy of Christ, and of his being the propitiation for the sins both of Jews and Gentiles, ver. 1, 2 and whereas some persons might boast of their knowledge of Christ, and neglect his commands, he observes, that the keeping of them is the best evidence of true knowledge, and of the sincerity of their love to God, and of their being in Christ; and that such who shew no regard to them are liars, and the truth is not in them; and such that profess to be in Christ and abide in him, ought to walk as they have him for an example, ver. 3, 4, 5, 6 and instances in a particular commandment, to love one another, which on different accounts is called an old and a new commandment, and which has been verified both in Christ and his people; for which a reason is given in the latter, the darkness being past, and the true light shining, ver. 7, 8 upon which some propositions are founded, as that he that professes to be in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness to this very moment; and that he that loves his brother is evidently in the light, nor will be easily give or take offence; and that he that hates his brother is not only in darkness, but walks in it, being blinded by it, and so knows not whither he is going, ver. 9, 10, 11 and this commandment of love the apostle writes to the saints, as distinguished into the several classes of fathers, young men, and children; and urges it on them from the consideration of the blessings of grace peculiar to them; as ancient knowledge to fathers, strength and victory to young men, knowledge of the father, and remission of sins, to children, ver. 12, 13, 14 and then he dissuades from the love of worldly things, seeing the love of them is not consistent with the love of God; and seeing the things that are in it are vain and sinful, and are not of God, but of the world; and since the world and its lust pass away, when he that does the will of God abides for ever, ver. 15, 16, 17 he next observes unto them, that there were many antichrists in the world; which was an evidence of its being the last time; and these he describes as schismatics and apostates from the Christian churches, ver. 18, 19 but as for the saints he writes to, they were of another character, they were truly Christians, having an anointing from the holy One, by which they knew all things; nor did the apostle write to them as ignorant, but as knowing persons, and able to distinguish between truth and error, ver. 20, 21 and then he goes on with his description of antichristian liars, shewing that they were such who denied Jesus to be the Messiah, and the relation that is between the Father and the Son, ver. 22, 23 and closes the chapter with an exhortation to perseverance in the doctrine of Christ; since it was what they had heard from the beginning, and since by so doing they would continue in the Father and in the Son, and besides had the promise of eternal life, ver. 24, 25 and indeed this was the main thing in view in writing to them concerning seducers, to preserve them from them, though indeed this was in a great measure needless, since the anointing they had received abode in them; and taught them all things, and according as they regarded its teaching they would abide in Christ, ver. 26, 27 to which he exhorts them from the consideration of that boldness and confidence it would give them at his appearance, who they must know is righteous, and so that every one that doth righteousness is born of him, ver. 28, 29.
John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 3, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809), 620–621.
VERSE 15:
Love not the world—that lieth in the wicked one (1 Jn 5:19), whom ye young men have overcome. Having once for all, through faith, overcome the world (1 Jn 4:4; 5:4), carry forward the conquest by not loving it. “The world” here means “man, and man’s world” [ALFORD], in his and its state as fallen from God. “God loved [with the love of compassion] the world,” and we should feel the same kind of love for the fallen world; but we are not to love the world with congeniality and sympathy in its alienation from God; we cannot have this latter kind of love for the God-estranged world, and yet have also “the love of the Father in” us.
neither—Greek, “nor yet.” A man might deny in general that he loved the world, while keenly following some one of THE THINGS IN IT: its riches, honors, or pleasures; this clause prevents him escaping from conviction.
any man—therefore the warning, though primarily addressed to the young, applies to all.
love of—that is, towards “the Father.” The two, God and the (sinful) world, are so opposed, that both cannot be congenially loved at once.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 529.
Ver. 15. Love not the world, &c.] The habitable earth, the world in which men live; this is not to be loved by saints, as if it was their habitation, where they are always to be, and so loth to remove from it, seeing they are but sojourners, and pilgrims, and strangers here; this is not their rest, nor dwelling-place, their continuing city, or proper country, that is heaven. Nor should they love the men of the world, who are as they came into it, are of it, and mind the things of it, and lie in wickedness, and are wicked men; for though these are to be loved, as men, as fellow-creatures, and their good, both spiritual and temporal, is to be sought, and good is to be done to them, as much as lies in our power, both with respect to soul and body; yet their company is not to be chosen, and preferred to the saints, but to be shunned and avoided, as disagreeable and dangerous; their evil conversation, and wicked communications, are not to be loved, but abhorred, and their works of darkness are to be reproved; nor are their ways to be imitated, and their customs followed, or their manners to be conformed unto: neither the things that are in the world; good men that are in the world, though they are not of the world, are to be loved; and the kingdom of Christ, though it is not of the world, yet it is in the world, and is to be regarded and promoted to the uttermost; and there are the natural and civil things of the world, called this world’s goods, which may be loved within due bounds, and used in a proper manner, though they are not to be loved inordinately and abused. This is the character of worldly men; so the Jews call such, אהבי העולם הוה, such that love this world. Near relations and friends in the world, and the blessings of life, may be loved and enjoyed in their way, but not above God and Christ, or so as to take up satisfaction and contentment in them, to make idols of them, and put trust and confidence in them, and prefer them to spiritual and heavenly things, and be so taken with them, as to be unconcerned for, and careless about the other; but the evil things of the world, or at least the evil use of them, and affection for them, are here intended, as appears from the following verse. Now it is chiefly with respect to the fathers, and young men, that this exhortation is given; and the repetition of what is said to them before is made, to introduce this; which is exceeding suitable to their age and characters. Old men are apt to be covetous, and love the world and worldly things, just when they are going out of it, and about to leave them; and young men are apt to be carried away with lust, vanity, ambition, and pride: and therefore, from each of these, the apostle dissuades, from the following arguments, if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him; that is, the love of God, as the Alexandrian copy and the Ethiopic version read; who is the father of Christ, and of all the elect in him; and who is indeed, by creation, the father of all men, the father of spirits, of the souls of men, and of angels, and the father of mercies and of lights, and by the love of him is meant, either the love with which he loves his people, and which being shed abroad in the heart, attracts the soul to himself, and causes it to love him above the world, and all things in it; and such an one esteems of it, and an interest in it, more than life, and all the enjoyments of it, and is by it loosened to the world, and sets light by it, and can part with all good things in it, and suffer all evil things cheerfully, under the constraints and influence of this love; so that it is a clear case, that when the affections of men are set upon the world, and they are glued to the things of it, their hearts are not warmed with a sense of the love of God, or that is not sensibly in them, or shed abroad in their hearts: or else by the love of God is meant love to God, which is inconsistent with the love of the world, or with such an inordinate love of mammon, as to serve it; for a man may as soon serve two masters, as serve God and mammon, which he can never do truly, faithfully, and affectionately; and which also is not consistent with friendship with the men of the world, or a conversation and fellowship with them in things that are evil, whether superstition or profaneness; see Matt. 6:24; Jam. 4:4.
John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, vol. 3, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809), 628–629.
DEVOTIONAL
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