I John 2:15-17

I John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

This is a very powerful passage that speaks on another distinguishing characteristic of true Christians. One of the signs that you are not saved is being in love with this world, its pleasures, the things that it offers, and the material things of life. We can see this in verse 15: “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John is very clear about what the “love of the world” entails: “the lust of the flesh”, “the lust of the eyes”, and “the pride of life”. None of these things come from God.

This makes for three distinguishing characteristics of Christians: they obey Jesus out of a great love for Him, they have a sincere love for fellow believers, and they have no love for the world and the things that it offers. Their love is focused on Jesus and His Church, not on material goods and pleasures. Jesus has their heart. Next to Him, the delights of this world just aren’t important.

Of course, not everyone is happy with this idea. Some people say that you can be a Christian and be materialistic, and there’s nothing wrong or sinful with that. They claim that you can spend your entire life trying to amass all the material things that people crave and still be a child of God. Or, to put it another way, they claim that there is no inherent conflict between living a self-centered, materialistic life and living for God.

The problem with this view is that John does not mince words: he clearly states that if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He strictly tells us not to love the world or the things that are in it. Our desires should be fixed on the Lord Jesus. Our time should be spent building His kingdom, not ours. Our heart should be fixed on Heaven and our joy should come from serving Him, not from getting the world’s latest toys and gadgets.

All of this world, and the things that are in it, are passing away. As we saw in II Peter, one day this world is going to be destroyed by fire. God wants us to be in the world but not of the world. We are to be different. We must not let the desires of our flesh rule over us; instead we must die to them and live to God. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth”. The Bible tells us many times to flee fleshly lusts. Run from these things. Don’t embrace them; die to them.

This is not an easy thing to do. It is not easy to become uninterested in the things that the world has to offer, and to instead find our joy in Jesus. It is not easy to walk away from pride, and money, and the pursuit of riches, and instead seek a deeper walk with the Lord. It is not easy to die to our own dreams and seek the Lord’s dreams instead. Nor is it easy to seek to glorify God instead of ourselves. We want to be known; we want to be big and important; we want to have friends and be somebodies; we want to be successful and respected. But this is nothing more than the pride of life, which Christians are commanded to run away from.

God does not want us to spend our lives glorifying ourselves; He wants us to spend all of eternity glorifying and enjoying Him – the one who alone is worthy of all glory and honor and praise. He may choose to glorify us and lift us up, but if we are to be glorified then let God do it, and not ourselves.