Ben Stuart dives into 1 John 2:15-17, expanding on God’s plan for us versus the world’s. This passage helps us identify the lies we are often told by culture and how to replace them with truth.
Key Takeaway
The enemy's lies start with deception, lead to distortion of affections, and then bring about destruction. The world is out to get you, but Jesus came to save you.
Your choices reveal what you care about. Your actions show us where your affections lie. John is going to have us contemplate our motives. He is constantly talking about love, but in this passage, he is going to give just one command, and he is careful to tell us what not to love. His one command is not to love the world. He means this so firmly that later, he would say that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Nothing that is of the world is from the Father. There are two different streams with opposing sources: the World and God.
All that is in the world are the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. He’s not talking about nature, relationships, or institutions; he means lust, passion, and pride. The problem with the “world” in this passage isn’t the physical world; it’s how we engage with it. John warns us to avoid desires that rise from and terminate on self. My flesh, my eyes, my life. Self-centered, self-indulgent, and self-promoting desires. The “world” is godless selfish desire.
John isn’t anti-fun or anti-joy. He’s well aware of what God’s plan for the world was. In Genesis 2:8-9, God fashioned trees to be pleasant to look at and good for food. God values a beautiful aesthetic and rich flavor. He tells Adam and Eve to eat! He gives them purposeful jobs. He tells them to have lots of babies and have fun doing it. God gives them value, meaning, enjoyment, fun, and relationships: He is good. There’s a godly way to enjoy life that blesses others and honors Him. The tragedy is that Eve believed the lie in Genesis 3 that God was holding out on her and didn’t care about her. The enemy tells her that to enjoy life truly, she needs to take all God has made and cut God out. The serpent offered Eve something he did not make and convinced her that she decided what was good and evil. She saw that the fruit was pleasant to look at, suitable for food, and desirable to make her wise. She and Adam ate it, and as soon as they did, a tsunami of pain took over. It started with deception, led to distortion, and set in place destruction; that’s how it always works. So, John warns that our desires should not be divorced from God; when they do, they’re distorted to a selfish end, and that will lead to destructive decisions.
Why doesn’t John just call it our desires instead of the world? Because the whole world is in on it. It’s a corrupted system. We must hate it, but we must also recognize that it’s in us.
What characterizes the system?
Lust and pride. Desires of the flesh are when you use things or people in a godless way for your pleasure. It’s self-centered—for example, sex. If you only care about your desire, you’ll use someone else’s body without thought to their life, heart, or mind, either through pornography or a person you just pick up for your whims. You use money to buy what you want to make yourself feel or look good. You want to alleviate your discomfort without concern for easing anyone else's suffering. With power, you want to be in charge. With technology, you tear others down.
The desire of the eyes is coveting what others have. When you walk into a room, you want to be noticed. You want adoration, power, and respect for others.
Pride of life isn’t about yearning; those were the first two; pride is about what you have—your gifts, mind, body, status, and spirituality. You’re not enjoying what God has given you; you’re enjoying that they make you superior to others. Pride begins to manifest as contempt for your neighbor. You tend to know what you love when it feels threatened. You defend what you love. We’re addicted to us.
John isn’t saying that you don't know God if you’ve ever had these desires. He’s just saying not to love them. Loathe the lie. Why? If you live this way, it doesn’t come from God, who made this world and knows how it works best. The world is passing away with its desires. You’re building your life on the lie that you have to rebel against God to live fully. It starts with deception, distorts your affection, and ultimately destroys you. Make war against what makes war against your soul.
God is not holding out on you. He wants the best for you. Doing His will and believing in Him will allow you to abide forever. How do you dislodge a beautiful thing from the human heart? You replace it with a more beautiful thing. Linger in the presence of your Father and His Word. The more time you spend with God, the less alluring the lies of the enemy will be.
Discussion Questions
- What do your choices and actions reveal about you?
- John talks about love constantly, but he gives a firm negative command in 1 John 2:15. What is it, and what are the implications for us?
- What are the two different streams that Ben talked about in this talk? Do they have anything in common?
- What is the world made up of, according to 1 John 2:16?
- How did God want us to engage the world when He created it? What did He purposely put in place that proves He cares about beauty, enjoyment, and relationships?
- What was the deception that Adam and Eve listened to? How did this distort their affections? What destruction did it lead to?
- What characterizes the corrupted system we are living in? See 1 John 2:16.
- We have to hate the corrupted system that steals life from us, but we also have to recognize it's in us. How is the system still present in you?
- Is John saying that if you have these desires, then you don't know God? What is John trying to drive home about the world in 1 John 2:17?
- What is the will of God? How do you replace your desires so that you can abide forever?
Scripture References
