Do Not Love the World

As we come to these verses let us remember the context which we studied in the last few verses. Having made mention of 3 categories of Christian experience; little children, fathers and young men, and having described the young men as those who have overcome the evil one, John now addresses every Christian old or young, experienced or inexperienced, with this exhortation. “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” The reason for this is that the world and the love of it, are something that can overtake any aged or experienced Christian just as much as it can overtake a young babe in Christ who has not been discipled or told yet, that the world is a great temptation for the Christian who wants to be holy. It is a very subtle enemy in every Christian’s life. Now I think we need to ask ourselves 1st – What is the meaning of this word world? 2nd – We need to ask what it is that we do not have, if we love the world? 3rd – We need to ask what does worldliness look like in a Christian’s life? And then when we come to partake of the Supper, we will attempt to apply all that we are learning.