2:16 “For everything in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the showy lifestyle–is not from the Father but is from the world,”
Now we come properly to the second reason to not love the world and its things: it is not from God. What is most interesting about this reason is John’s enumeration of “everything in the world,” namely, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life” (NASV).
“Lust” is the word which Pershbacher translates “earnest desire, violent desire…lust.” and the third descriptor, which I have translated “the showy lifestyle,” is an interesting phrase rendered different ways in various translations: caries the meanings of “ostentation, haughtiness, boasting, pride, and presumptuous speech. The word translated by Pershbacher as “life, means of living, maintenance, sustenance, goods…”
It is differentiated from the more common word for life as the present concrete is different from the essential principle of love (Westcott 65).
So we have here:
1. “the desire of the flesh” – the things which the body craves, like food, drink, physical touch, etc.,
2. “the desire of the eyes” – mental cravings, coveting, wishing you had more money, lust after the opposite sex, and, Westcott ads (62) “pursuit of art as an end, and
3. “the boastful pride of life”- Westcott (62) calls it the “vainglory of life… we desire wrongly and we glory wrongly in what we have… an empty, ostentatious assertion of advantages… lay[ing] claim to blessings which are not truly [ours] for the sake of renown.” Cotton adds (177) that this is “seeking our own carnal excellency, conceit, boasting, high attitude…”
We are to “”flee youthful lusts” (II Tim. 2:22) and “make no provision for lusts” (Rom. 13:14). “If you are weaned from your profit or pleasure in meat or drink or pasttime, and, if you are weaned from credit in regard to others, you shall bereave satan of the weapons he fights you with,” remarks Cotton (182). Jesus withstood the tempter on all three points in the wilderness Himself (Westcott 62). He was tempted to eat bread during a fast, lust after owning the nations, and show off at the temple by jumping off the roof, but He loved God rather than the world, and did not succumb.
Do any of these things characterize MY life? Do I let my bodily appetites control me? Does my mind become consumed with wanting certain worldly things? Do I like to show off my possessions or skills for other people to admire? Oh Father, please sanctify me more and more to be consumed with loving YOU instead of the world!
2:17 “And the world and its desires are being phased out, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.”
Now we come to the third reason not to love the world: it is “passing away.” I recall a Greek myth where the gods tormented a person by making them fall in love with something they could not keep. So it is with the one who loves the world; they’ve got 70 years or so, and when that’s over, that’s it! The word translated “passing away” in most versions signifies transition and it is not an active verb, to that’s why I translated it “being phased out.”
It is the same verb used in v.8. The darkness had better be phasing out in us so that we don’t love a world which is being phased out! In this verse, we see that “doing the will of God” is the opposite to loving and desire the world and its things (Cotton 207). “But the one who does the will of God remains forever.” The word for “abides/remains,” carries more of a sense of “sticking with” than merely “lives,” as the NIV translates it.
This is, in fact, another justification for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints (Cotton 209). This doesn’t mean you never stray, but that you will always get back on track. “This forms the ground for directing all who would find comfort,” Cotton tells us (209), for following the world will only lead to disappointment, but doing the will of God is something that will be everlastingly good. Let us therefore not love the world and all its things, but rather, love God and His people!
By Nate Wilson.
