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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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1 John 2:15
Comments
Their victory over the wicked one consists in the rejection of all that he offers them, summed up as ‘the world’. His strategy was unmasked when he was forced to play his strongest card in tempting the Lord of glory, but Christ refused all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and so overcame him. The world John is speaking of is not the physical world itself – the world of wind and waves, plants and animals, or even gold and silver – it is the spiritual world of greed and envy, fame and fortune, corrupt lusts and boastful pride (verse 16). This is what the physical world becomes to man when experienced through his fallen nature, a world that lives in his heart and makes an idol of itself. This world has a ruler, the devil, and it is a spiritual kingdom at war with God, the kingdom out of which each believer was delivered when he responded to the gospel and entered into the kingdom of God, yet it never gives up trying to entice him back into its clutches. We may say that we do not love the world and yet still love what is in the world, which is just as dangerous. No one can admire and appreciate the things of the world, and yet reject the world which they come from. It is impossible to love the Father and the world at the same time, for the love of one expels the love of the other.
Application
Though we are given all things richly to enjoy, we are aware that the world tries to draw us back little by little, and therefore we must ration how much we take of even legitimate pleasures. We must make sure that we do not depend on them for security and comfort that can only come from the Lord.
Questions
Why does John tell us not to love the world, when in verse 2 he teaches that Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world? Scripture uses the word ‘world’ in different senses. In verse 2 John refers to the people living in the world, but here he refers to the world as a spiritual kingdom at war with God and hostile to faith.
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Introduction