Do not love the world nor the things in
the world. If anyone love the world the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is
passing away, and its lust; but the one who does the will of God abides
forever, 1 John 2:15-17.
I
think this passage ranks among those Biblical passages that are often
misappropriated, misunderstood, or ignored. There are those who know this
passage well and who use it in their preaching and conversation without
understanding it – their image of obedience to this passage is not always the
Biblical understanding. Then there are those who explain away the passage so
that it does not apply to them. I think a sign of spiritual life and growth is
a life-long engagement with this passage, an engagement characterized by
tension. This passage is particularly difficult to respond to (at least it
should be difficult) in a society that has so much of everything; this is not
to say that those who live in poverty are immune from the toxic temptations
that John portrays because sin, like water, finds its own level –
one can drown in a bathtub as well as in an ocean. I confess to being no
farther along with this passage today than I was over forty years ago – unless
progress can be measured by tension and an awareness of how utterly I fall
short of obedience to its warnings.
Consider
the parallel between 1 John 2:15 – 17 and Genesis 3:6; When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took
from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate, Genesis
3:6.
1 John Genesis
the lust of the flesh the tree was good
for food
the lust of the eyes it was a delight to
the eyes
the pride of life the tree was
desirable to make
one wise
Those
who ignore or explain away 1 John 2:15 – 17 ignore or explain away the portal
by which sin entered humanity; that which was then our downfall continues to be
our downfall, and the serpent’s words continue to be, “Has God really
said?...You will not die!...You will be like God.” We witness the crescendo of
our folly and of God’s grace in John’s book of Revelation – those who insist on
living by the words of the serpent will die, those who repent of their sin, who
trust in Jesus Christ, who learn to live by Him (the Tree of Life) will abide
forever.
A
third passage helpful to our interaction with John’s text is James 1:12 – 15: Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial;
for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord
has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am
being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does
not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed
by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when
sin is accomplished it brings forth death.
The
Apostle Paul equates covetousness and greed with idolatry (Ephesians 5:5;
Colossians 3:5) – the lust and pride of which John, James, and Paul speak is
not sexual, though it can have sexual elements – these things are matters of
the heart, they go to the root of who we are and who we worship and where we
will spend eternity – to trivialize the Bible on these matters, whether by
gross legalism, by “name it and claim it” libertarianism, by mainstream and
respectable materialism, or by outright
rejection of the Biblical text is an act as foolish as Eve’s – indeed it is
more foolish, for we have only to look around us to see the carnage such
choices unleash, this is knowledge Eve did not have.
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