"As a deeply concerned pastor, John includes warnings as well as encouragements in his letter. Here he warns his 'little children' not to love 'the world'. In his Gospel, John tells us that God 'so loved the world…' Jn 3:15. There 'the world' stands for fallen sinful humanity, a world that God amazingly loves and that Christians, as God's children, should also love.

Here 'the world' has a darker, more sinister meaning. It stands for an organized system that hates and openly defies God and his Son (see John 15:18-25). John actually defines what he means by 'the world' in verses 16-17. The world that Christians are not to love is the world where 'the desires of the flesh', 'the desires of the eyes', and 'pride in possessions' dominate the horizons of life and define the shape of life. This world Christians are to avoid, resist and reject (see also 2Tim 2:22). John is not advocating monastic withdrawal from the world. God's people are always to be salt and light in the world (see Matt 5:13-16). What Christians are to avoid is sharing in the sinful, God-dishonouring ambitions, desires and activities of this fallen world.

John's warning to his 'little children' is very solemn: 'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' Pastors who love their congregations will speak pointedly when the occasion demands it. One of the marks of a Christian is that he or she has come to perceive the shallow and sinful attractions of the world for what they are, attractions that are 'passing away' (v. 17). The new eyes that enable us to see in Jesus the grace of God, also enable us to see in the world the snares of the devil. It is more than possible that lying behind these verses, John has the opening verses of Genesis 3 in mind. There, God's man and woman were seduced by the very things John highlights here. Consider these three marks of a world that is even now 'passing away":—Ian Hamilton

The Chestnut Mare