Do Not Love the World or the Things of the World, 1 Jn. 2:15-17

“Do not love the world or the things of the world” (1 Jn. 2: 15). The first line of this passage from John’s First Letter may seem odd, strange, or even a bit mad to our contemporary ears, but is it? We need to look at this passage more closely because within it there is a divine wisdom that has practical and transcendent implications for our lives.

John is not telling us to hate the world, for he also tells us in his Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:16-17). If the world is created by God, the source and goal of all that is good, true, and beautiful, then, what is John saying in today’s passage? Should we hate the created goodness and beauty of the world? No! Well then, what is this passage trying to tell us?

To get closer to an answer to that question, we might have to ask ourselves some other valuable questions here. Might the intent of this passage have something to do with where our focus is? Is our focus on God and the things of God, or do we focus most of our time, talent, and energy on the world and the things of the world? Or, to put it another way, do we love God with all of our minds, all of our heart, and all of our strength, or do we love the world and the things of the world more and lose sight of God? John tells us, “For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticements for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever” (vs. 16-17).

To help understand the meaning of this passage, let us look at a few words from two great poets, William Wordsworth from the English literary tradition, and Dante Alighieri from the Italian Renaissance. Wordsworth seems to express the central idea of John’s message from the passage above when he writes the following lines in his poem, “The World is Too Much With Us”:

He is criticizing the modern world’s industrial, technological, and consumerist society, and all of its enticements and expressing how these things have changed our perceptions about ourselves, God, and the world. He points to how these material things have changed our perceptions about the world and our place in it. It seems clear that, in too many cases, these things have diminished what used to be a commonly held belief in our own transcendent, God-given humanity. All of this attention to the things of the world, all of our ‘getting and spending’ has caused us to lose touch with our natural connections to Nature and to each other. The result is not our happiness, but the constant tension that arises from the mad quest for the presumed ‘comforts’ that getting and spending will bring us.

Dante writes in the ‘Paradiso’, the third part of his “Divine Comedy” writes the following:

In other words, when we love God above the world and the things of the world, our wills are quieted by our humble awe of Him and His love for us, and we no longer desire or thirst for the finite things of this world. Our love for God frees us from the disquieting desires of the ego. But when we give our love, no, our passions, over to the world and the things of the world making them our primary focus, we defy or deny God’s love for us and we lose all sense of harmony with his will. In other words, we lose our way and open ourselves to be disquieted, dissatisfied, and depressed.

When we love God before all else, everything in our life finds its truest meaning and purpose. When we begin to love God with all of our being, we will also begin to see as God sees. We will begin to care for one another more truly and to care for the earth more dearly. In loving God and in doing His will, we become more fully human, we become more of the persons we were created to be. We will finally be able to see the true beauty, value, meaning, and purpose of God’s Creation, and ourselves. This would help bring about the world that God desires for us.