“Do Not Love the World”
1 John 2:15-17

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fourth Sunday of Easter—April 25, 2021

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  Our text is today’s Epistle Reading, in which the Apostle John tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

A few years ago Smithsonian magazine had an article about what anthropologists call “cargo cult.”  During World War II, the things of our modern culture came for the first time to many remote islands in the Pacific.  In some places, the soldiers who brought these things were, and still are, worshipped as gods, and the things they brought are revered as idols. Sixty years later on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu—that’s the island where the television series “Survivor” was filmed—the natives still pray to a god they call John Frum.  He is apparently an amalgamation of the American sailors stationed there during World War II.

Smithsonian quoted a village elder: “John promised he’ll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America if we pray to him.  Radios, TVs, trucks, boats, watches, iceboxes, medicine, Coca-Cola and many other wonderful things.”  The article describes their worship: “Each Friday afternoon, hundreds of believers stream . . . from villages all over Tanna. . . singing hymns [to] John Frum . . . ‘We’re waiting . . . for you, John.  When are you coming with all the cargo you promised us?’” [“In John They Trust,” Smithsonian, February, 2006]

A similar practice in India is the actual worship of cars as gods.  When automobiles were first introduced they seemed miraculous and so became the object of worship.  Some actually transform their garages into temples, and drive their cars in to worship them.

To us, such a “cargo cult” seems very primitive.  But, imagine what our own society must look like from God’s perspective.  We may be more sophisticated, but don’t you think that our own preoccupation with THINGS, acquiring and possessing things, must appear to GOD about the same, like a primitive “cargo cult”? 

That is exactly what the Apostle John is warning against in our text: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” The key to understanding this text is the word “love.”  “Do not LOVE the world or the things in the world.” 

In the Greek language there are several different, distinct words, which in English are all translated “love.”  “Erao” is passionate love; “phileo” and “stergo” are brotherly love, friendship and fondness.  However, the word used in our text is “agape,” a very special word, reserved for a very special love.

“Agape” is the highest form of love, and the deepest love.  We tend to “love the lovable,” to show our love to those who earn it in some way.  But “agape” is an underserved love, a love not earned by or based on the attributes of the person or thing being loved, but an undeserved love, flowing from the heart of the person giving love.  “Agape” is a love which is bestowed on you not because of who you are or what you have done, but because of who the one loving you is, because showing such love is in that person’s very nature.

The greatest example of “agape” is God himself, as John puts it simply at the beginning of this Epistle, “For God IS love.”  Even though our sins deserve not love but God’s wrath, anger and punishment, he showers upon us his “agape,” “For God IS love,” because underserved love, “agape,” is his very nature.

Many familiar Bible verses testify to the greatness of God’s “agape”:

“God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

“This is how God showed his love for us: He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we may live through him. . .  he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 

“He loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed about his disciples, including you and me: “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. . .  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”  So, as Jesus’ disciples we remain IN the world, but are not OF the world.  What does that mean?

Because we remain IN the world, we must possess, and use, and acquire—and it is not wrong for us to also enjoy—the things in the world. That is why John does NOT say in our text: “Do not POSSESS . . . the things in the world”; “Do not USE . . . the things in the world”; “Do not ACQUIRE . . . the things in the world”; or even “Do not ENJOY . . . the things in the world.” 

However, though we remain IN the world, we are not OF the world.  That is what John means when he says, “Do not LOVE the world or the things in the world.” Specifically, do not show “agape” to the world or the things in the world. 

In Romans, Paul sums up the essence of idolatry: “They worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”  Because we remain IN the world, we possess, use, acquire, even enjoy the created things in this world.  But, because we are not OF the world, we keep those things in their proper place and perspective, and worship and serve not created things, but the Creator.

“Do not LOVE the world or the things in the world.” Do not, like a primitive “cargo cult,” give your “agape,” your deepest, highest love and devotion, to things.  Paul puts it this way in 1st Corinthians: “Use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

Instead of giving your “agape,” your deepest, highest love to things, in response to God’s “agape” toward you, show “agape” toward others in your life.  As John says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes from God”;  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”;  “We love because he first loved us.”  “My command is this,” Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you”; show “agape” to one another, as I have shown “agape” toward you.  Paul puts it this way in Ephesians, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”  Live a life of “agape,” but not toward things. 

Rather, like Jesus himself, who loved us and gave himself up for us, live a life of “agape” toward your fellow man.   Live a life of “agape,” starting with your own family: your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and other relatives.  Live a life of “agape” toward fellow Christians and members of your church.   Live a life of “agape” toward those with whom you work, do business, go to school.   Live a life of “agape” toward everyone, in all your daily life and interactions.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God abides forever.”