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 and the desires of the eyes and pride of life (or pride in possessions) — 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. — 1 John 2:15
At first this sure sounds ominous. If we read it a certain way, we must take some drastic action.
- Don’t allow yourself to love anything in the world. No certain food, no pleasure, no sex, no entertainment, no work, no sport, no relationships, friendships, nothing can be desired.
- All of the above is evil and proves that you don’t love God.
- Pride of life? Think of yourself as lowly, a worm.
- Look at the world and hate all of it.
Along with this, give away everything you have that you like, or just give away everything. Don’t take care of yourself. But do take care of others. Don’t eat. But do feed others. Work, but don’t pay your mortgage. But pay your neighbors’ mortgages until you have no more money, and then you can rest easy, unless you realized that you could work a few more hours a day to pay your other neighbor’s mortgage.
Did you find yourself enjoying something or someone in the world? Shame on you. Get rid of it.
Some Biblical and Logical Problems with This Interpretation
It cannot be that this is what John and the Holy Spirit meant. The Bible (and logic) refutes this interpretation.
[btw – this is what critics of faith have against us. They say, “look, you don’t do what the Bible teaches, you must be hypocrites.]
The Logical Problem
The logical problem first: I could not live if every time I am thirsty I give water to someone else (my neighbor). If you agree that that is true, then you will open the door to a logical premise. The individual must first care for himself before he can care for others.
“If a man will not work, he will not eat” (2 Thes 3:10). Paul says this because he knows that proper stewardship begins with a stewardship of self. As humans we are to take care of whatever God has given us to take care of. It would be morally wrong, sinful, disobedient to God to fail to do this.
I must drink when I am thirsty. Jesus did. I must eat when I am hungry. Jesus did.
But I must not love food and drink more than God.
But No Helping that Hurts
I must work to pay for my food and shelter, my family’s food and shelter, and then I can think about helping others with theirs.
But I cannot give to others in a way that robs them of the privilege of being human and becoming self-reliant, which is a high trait of godliness. When I give, I must give properly.
And I cannot coerce anyone else to give. It may be efficient (doubtful), but it is immoral.
To love the Father and not love the thing he has created, seems to be antithetical to loving him. I must assume that John’s meaning is that the love of things and the love of God need to be in their proper place. Do I love something more than God—meaning, could I not live without it? Then I have broken the commandment and proved myself to not have the love of the Father in me.
But if in fact I know that I love God more than his good creation, and can live without any of it, then I am probably on righteous grounds.
Am I to hate anything that God has created? No, unless by hate the world (the way Jesus says it) you mean compared to God.
Am I to consider myself a worm? Only in comparison with God. Am I tempted to think of myself higher than God, or higher than someone who has excelled beyond me? Then I should happily consider myself a worm.
But if I see that God is high above me as my creator and the source of all good, then I should see myself properly as the crown jewel of his creation. I should joyfully strive to be the greatest version of that that I am capable of becoming, always content with who I am intrinsically as an image-bearer and adopted son of God in Christ, but lovingly and joyfully reach upward to be better, learn more, fly higher for love of God, for the glory of God, for the joy of being a man.
I will love mankind more this way. I will worship God more when I see man in his glory. I will acknowledge greatness with humble joy, and seek to emulate it.
Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you (Mt 6:33).
The Biblical Problem
These things were clothing, food, and drink. Jesus was saying not to worry, YOU were going to get clothing, food, and drink.
He doesn’t say to hate clothing, food, and drink.
Paul says to Timothy:
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs (1 Tim 6:6-10).
And then:
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.
Always be prepared to be stripped naked. You may die naked.
Don’t let that change one thing about you fundamentally.
He even admits that food and clothing are good to have. Loving money in this sense is the evil of seeking money for money’s sake. But it would be nonsense to tell someone to be indifferent about the fact that we need money if we are to have food and clothing. Again, you may lose it all. If losing your money would diminish your personhood, then you have built yourself wrongly on possessions.
Then rich Christians are acknowledged (17). Their temptation would be haughtiness because of their wealth. Again, since wealth is uncertain, they are in danger. They could not be “stripped” of their wealth and remain confident, free, joyful.
They are in a good position to do good works, seeing their money as a trust from God to do good.
And then Timothy is charge to guard the “deposit entrusted” to him. This is money language. But it is more likely that money itself, currency, is from the language of God. Meaning, Paul isn’t borrowing from accounting to tell Timothy to guard his “wealth” (his calling, his knowledge, his faith, his opportunities), But accounting borrows from the language of stewardship. Money falls into that as a neutral representation of wealth and the power to gain what is needed either for one’s own needs, or to help others.
Helping others can come in the form of charity, but it can also come in the form of business and production.
One More Fact of Logic
Giving is only meaningful if the gift truly belongs to the giver. This alone is proof that God allows us to bring our possessions under our identity (in a certain sense). The great sin of most people is that they bring their identity under their possessions. And what makes it an even greater sin is the “pride” that has them do that for the sake of comparing themselves to others in order to develop self-esteem from comparison. This is a great evil, and it always ends in pain.
The “world” then is the kingdom of darkness that runs on envy and the bad kind of pride that relies on recognition and validation from others. In the world is domination, and coercion, and bondage, and manipulation, and lying in all its forms.
“Do not love the world or the things of the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life (possessions).”
The desires of the flesh are extras that are needed to fulfill cravings. The pride of life is the life of comparisons.
formyownsake683721215.wordpress.com 