15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 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 of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:15-16 KJV)
Thomas Scott
Verses 15-17: The general counsel and exhortation which the apostle meant to enforce on all the persons above described, was this, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” The world, as God created it, is very good, and a proper object of a measure of love; but as sin hath marred it, our affections ought to be wholly alienated from it. The men of the world, as distinguished from believers, are enemies of God and subjects of satan: we are therefore required to renounce their friendship, to avoid intimate society with them, and to abhor their ungodly principles and practices; while we pity their miseries, love their persons, and try to do them good. The things of the world may be desired, possessed, and valued for those uses and purposes which are intended by God when he created them, and in subordination to his favour, authority, and glory; but for those purposes to which sin hath perverted them and sinners idolize them, we must not desire, seek, or value them, in any measure or manner: and if any man thus “love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;” his idol has never been dethroned, his heart remains unchanged, he is not reconciled to God through Jesus Chris, and hath no true filial love of him in his heart. Lu 14:25-33 For “all that is in the world,” as thus idolized and abused by men who seek their happiness from it, and not from God, may be summed up under three heads.
First, Such things are suited to excite and gratify “the lust of the flesh;” or the irregular, inordinate, and polluting hankerings and cravings of the carnal heart, and the animal appetites, after gross sensual gratifications; as if man’s happiness consisted in them.
Secondly, Those things which are suited to excite and gratify “the lust of the eyes;” or the desires of the carnal heart after the possessions, embellishments, decorations, and enjoyments which the eyes is apt to look at with coveting and inordinate desire of obtaining; such as treasures of gold and silver, or precious stones, jewels, houses, lands, gardens, stately mansions, elegant furniture and equipages, costly garments; and, in short, all that wealth can purchase which gratifies the beholder’s eye or his other sense, but is not directly to be considered as gross animal indulgence.
Thirdly, “The pride of life,” or those titles and dignities, that authority and honour, that reputation and splendor, which form the summit of earthly exaltation, and the highest prize in the poor lottery of this present life to which the pride and ambition of man’s apostate nature can aspire; and the greatest gratification of that mental concupiscence, which is congenial to the old temptation, “Ye shall be as gods.” For a poor vain-glorious worm to be advanced to such dominion over his fellows, or to possess such honour among them, as to be tempted to forget his own mortality, as well as his Creator and Judge; and to be so surrounded with vassals, attendants, and flatterers, or so emblazoned with high-sounding titles, and encumbered with magnificence, as to have nothing on earth which he can behold above him, and thus to disregard Him that is “higher than the highest:” This is the perfection of “the pride of life;” and all pre-eminence and distinction above others partakes of the same nature, whether power, splendor, or renown, on any account, be the immediate source of it.
All these things (to which every earthly object that any man is tempted to put in competition with the will, favour, and glory of God, must be referred) are “not of the Father:” this idolatrous desire of created things did not attach to them or to man as God made them; they do not consist with his prescribed use of them; they are not bestowed for these purposes; nor do they, who are his children and influenced by his grace, desire, seek, or use them in this manner. But “they are of the world,” as “lying under the wicked one;” these desires after created things, and this use of them, are the effects of man’s apostasy and subjection to satan; they are thus made the baits by which men are seduced into sin, and kept in rebellion against God, and the incentives to all their vile passions. They suit the taste, and form the supreme good of worldly men, and are their only portion; and for the sake of them the whole earth is filled with violence, fraud, crimes, and misery.
But “the world passeth away, and the lust of it:” all its pleasures, treasures, honours, and splendor, will soon vanish for ever 1Pe 1:24-25; and they who have lusted for them, and idolized them, will be eternally disappointed and miserable. But the man “who doeth the will of God,” as revealed to sinners by the gospel, will abide for ever in the possession and enjoyment of that substantial good which he hath been enabled to make choice of. Mt 7:21-23; Lu 11:27-28—It is evident that the apostle did not speak of the lawful, moderate, subordinate, and holy use, possession, or desire of God’s good creatures for the ends to which he hath appointed them; but of the unlawful, inordinate, unholy, and idolatrous hankering after them, and valuation of them, to which all men are addicted so long as they remain in an unregenerate state.—Many vain efforts have been made by limitations, distinctions, and exceptions, to evade the force of this passage; and some have written on it, as if they meant to prove how far we might safely be carnally minded “and lovers of the world:” but, in the apostles evident meaning, we are no more allowed to love the world at all, than we are to worship Dagon; for we cannot “serve God and Mammon;” or love the Lord and “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” A man may carry on any business, fill any station, or possess any wealth, as the servant and steward of God according to his commandments, for his glory, and for the good of mankind; and he may desire food and raiment. And things suitable to his rank in life, and use them with thankfulness, temperance, and humility: but he cannot love or desire them to gratify his sensuality, pride, avarice, or ambition, or seek his happiness in them, without being an idolater. Every regenerate man is delivered from the dominion and allowed indulgence of the love of the world, and strives and prays against the remains of it as it works in his heart, or breaks forth into his life, he desires to love God perfectly, and seek all his happiness from him alone; and to love all other things in him for his sake and as his bounty; and to use them in submission to his precepts and providence. In proportion as men get this victory over the world, the reality of their grace is evidenced, and they are prepared for labouring and suffering in the cause of Christ; but unless it is begun in the heart, a man “has no root in himself,” and he will either fall away in time of temptation, or remain a mere unfruitful professor of Christianity. 1Jo 5:4-5; Mt 13:18-23—In him, &c. 1Jo 2:15; 1Jo 3:17; Joh 4:14—Pride of, &c. 1Jo 2:16; Ro 1:30; 2Ti 3:2; Jas 4:16