Loving The World

Loving The World

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Being in the world, seeing the world, and experiencing the world are all different from loving the world, just as having sin and feeling sin are both different from loving sin. Abraham certainly had property, but he didn’t love it. He recognized that God made him a steward over these possessions, and he managed them accordingly. David was a mighty king but didn’t demand his own way. Rather, he governed according to God’s will. For he said of himself, “I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were” (Psalm 39:12). In other words, he considered himself to be a traveler, merely a guest on this earth. David didn’t rule his kingdom according to his own will, but according to God’s will and for God’s honor. So he didn’t love the world. But when someone oppresses and troubles the poor and uses other people’s possessions as their own, then we see someone loving the world. This is unjust. Christ doesn’t take us out of the world. Rather, he leaves us in the world after baptism so that others will be strengthened and encouraged by our example. So anyone who flees the world lives in a godless way.

Christ says that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin” (John 16:8). The world is filled with people who have turned away from God and know nothing about God. They have turned instead to what God has created and have used his creation for their own honor.