The World

1 John 2:15-17

When you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. (1 John 2:15)

ONLY JOHN RECORDS JESUS’ well-known statement about God’s great love for the world that compelled him to send his only Son so that we might have everlasting life (John 3:16). Years after Jesus spoke those comforting words, this same John warned us not to love the world. If we do, he wrote, the love of the Father is not in us. On the one hand, God loves the world; on the other, loving the world is a sign that we don’t love God. How can this be?

For one thing, God is in no danger of turning his love for the world into an idol. We are. There is a substantial difference between God’s sacrificial love for the world and the pull of the world’s ways on the affections of our hearts. But it should be clear that “world” means different things in the varying contexts of Scripture. God certainly loves his creation and longs to redeem it. But the world’s systems—its deeply imbedded corruptions; its enticements to sin; its power structures that oppress the poor and exclude the pure-hearted; its self-serving economic, political, and cultural networks—stand in opposition to God’s nature and the ultimate direction of history. We’re called to the kind of sacrificial love God has for the people of the world, but we are called away from the pride and corrupt desires that fill this fallen realm that is passing away.

Go into the world with the same kind of love God has for his creation and all who are made in his image. Aligning your heart with the words of John 3:16 will make you like your Father. And beware of the competition in your own heart. Choose carefully which love to indulge. A self-serving attachment to the world’s ways will pull you away from the love of the Father and his love for the world. Instead, let the Father send you with the same love that sent his Son to give his life.

{Father, help me love the world as you love the world. Send me as you sent your Son. Redeem every inch of my life from its false loves, and use me as an instrument of redemption. Amen.