John’s First Epistle

1 Jno. 2:15-17

The World

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 of life^[a]—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 Jno. 2:12-14

“The world” in this passage is not the physical universe (sky, trees, rocks, mountains, etc.). In this passage, the world is everything around is that is hostile to God, and that seeks to captivate and enslave us. John says, in essence, don’t be deceived and seduces to fall in love with the world.

He describes what he is talking about: The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. When I want something I shouldn’t have, and seek to exalt myself above God and others (the pride of life); when I invest in the present world for my enjoyment and boasting, the loss I suffer is my relationship with God.

Lutzer was right when he said: “Worldliness is excluding God from our lives and, therefore, consciously or unconsciously accepting the values of a man-centered society.”

And, “Worldliness is not only doing what is forbidden but also wishing it were possible to do it. One of its distinctives is mental slavery to illegitimate pleasure.” (How In This World To Be Holy, by Edwin Lutzer, 1985).