“What is really, really important?”

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This week’s discussion continued exploring how John’s “totally weird break” (in the words of one participant) in verses 12-14 of chapter 2 fit into or even connect his encouragements and exhortations before and after that section.

Before and After

We began with questions of comparison and contrast.

• • What differences are there before and after that middle section?
  • Why did John insert the ‘writing/have written’ part between those different styles?
  • Does his ‘poetic interlude’ (another description offered in our discussion) somehow connect those sections?”

We noted several differences going further back almost to the beginning of the letter.

• • The non-specific, hypothetical circumstances (“the one who says… the one who loves, the one who hates…, vv. 9-11) become a clear imperative command: Do not love the world (v. 15a).
  • Before, John has been describing what they were or were not doing: walking in light or darkness (1:5-6; 2:9-11), confessing or denying sin (1:8-10). After, he gives unambiguous instructions about what they need to do and particular dangers to avoid (later in 2:18, ff).
  • Immediately before the middle section, John writes about loving a brother (vv. 10-11). After, he changes from a positive focus on loving a brother to the negative command about not loving the world (vv. 15-17).  His concern for community expands to warnings about the world.

What is John’s intention? What purpose does he have in such a radical, “totally weird,” “poetic interlude”?

Hard News

Someone pointed out that John is building up to deliver a difficult message.  He is about to use a “sudden turn of phrase.”[1]

Do not love the world nor the things in the world.
(1 John 2:15a)

After many hypothetical descriptions of spiritual conditions (“one who … “), this is the first time John has used an imperative in this letter,[2] and he follows it immediately with the serious implication.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
(1 John 2:15b)

We briefly considered the phrase “love of the Father,” an expression found nowhere else in Scripture.[3]  There was emphatic agreement that the verse does not mean “the Father does not love that person,” but rather “that person does not genuinely love the Father.”

John’s writings (particularly the Gospel and letters) “contain a relatively low frequency of imperatives…. Given their relative paucity, it makes sense to pay careful attention to those few that occur.”[4]  John’s original readers were facing fractures in their fellowship (2:19) and other immediate issues. They would likely have paid “careful attention.”

John has been constantly contrasting genuine belief with shallow self-deception.  Now he is moving from general principles to specific commands.  His readers (then and now) could certainly wonder which group they are in. One person in our group put the question clearly if bluntly:  “Am I damned?”  Hard news indeed!

Spiritual Status Check

That dramatic shift in tone seems to explain John’s “poetic interlude” both in form and in content.  The rhythmic and repetitive form embeds the passage in a hearer’s memory.

This highly structured rhetoric is effective for making the passage memorable and, therefore, marks it as a (the?) high point of the letter. The needs of remembering material in a largely oral culture necessitate such schemes, which may seem trivial or be missed altogether in our own visual, text-based culture.[5]

The content that John puts into that memorable form provides encouraging reminders of the recipients’ ongoing spiritual formation.

[In] 2:12-14 he has at some length detailed the spiritual status and profile of his readers in whose lives the divine light shines (2:8) and who are therefore not groping blindly… (2:11).[6]

John wants to stimulate honest assessments of the spiritual state of his “little children.”  Self-evaluation should not imagine spiritual life that isn’t there, either from self-deception (1:8) or deluded blindness (2:11).  Neither should that evaluation overlook or minimize the realities of genuine regeneration: forgiveness (2:12), relationship with the Father (2:13c) and the Son (2:13a, 14a), and practical, observable progress over temptation (2:13b, 14b).

Consider the circumstance of their community.  We will see later in the letter the internal strife and division they are facing from an apparent variety of teachers telling them different versions of the Christian message.  Some members already seem to have followed the false teachers out of the fellowship.  Who should they listen to?  They have come to Christ through the teaching of John and his followers (1 John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard…”).  Have they believed the right message? As someone in our group said, “They may have wondered, but John is certain.”  John wants to reassure them of the truth of the gospel that they understand.

John’s repeated explanation of “because” (six times in those three verses) builds a foundation for his audience to receive his strong words and to respond with the confidence appropriate to their spiritual condition.

John writes “because” certain facts are true of his readers, and his discussion and exhortation can therefore proceed on this basis.[7]

Do Not Love the World

Now that John has prepared his audience for his strong words, he issues the first of the ten imperative commands in his letter.[8]  That command is short and sharp.

Do not love the world
(1 John 2:15a)

Someone asked why he adds “nor the things of the world.”  It seems that John wants to make sure that his command is not taken so generally that it has no real application.  He first defines the absolutely mutually exclusive distinction between love for the world and love for the Father (v. 15b).  Then he expands on his meaning of “the things of the world” in verse 16 as:

• • The lust of the flesh
  • The lust of the eyes
  • The boastful pride of life

John immediately follows this list with the explanation that these “things of the world” are “not from the father” but “from the world” (2:16d).  Some comments about that statement may help understand what John meant by the three items on the list.

The comment that these things are “from” the world and not from the Father indicates more than just a general description.  John is indicating the very source of these false objects of love.  Essentially all English translations express this contrast as “from” or “of” the Father/world.  John uses the word ἐκ (ek, “the means or source of an activity”[9]).  Or, for a more detailed explanation,

‘from within’…  something with which there had been an intimate connection…. From this original spatial idea there naturally developed the primary non-spatial/metaphorical notion of origin, which in turn prompted the use of ἐκ to express source, agency, basis, cause, and means.[10]

John is not pointing to casual influences but to the “intimate connection” that is the source of love of the world and the things in the world.

The Lust of the Flesh

The phrase “lust of the flesh” immediately suggests sexual sin, but the words deserve further study.  The word translated “lust” (ἐπιθυμία, epithumia) can be more generally translated “desire.”[11]  That desire is not limited to sexual desire but can include coveting (Romans 7:7-8), or “evil desire” in general (Colossians 3:5).  Epithumia can also represent healthy, positive desires, such as Paul’s longing to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23) or with the saints in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:17), or even the desire of Christ Himself to share a last earthly Passover with His disciples (Luke 22:15).

Then there is the even more heavily loaded word “flesh” (σάρξ, sarx).  Once again, this is a word with a broad range of meanings, from the neutral description of physical body (Matthew 24:22) to a contrast with the human spirit (Matthew 26:41) or the expression of our sinful nature (Romans 7:25).  Flesh is even the medium of the Incarnation, by which God became man (John 1:14; “The Word became flesh.”)

With a combination of two words, each with such wide-ranging meanings, narrowing the context to a particular author and a particular document is helpful.

Other than this passage (1 John 2:16-17), John only uses epithumia (lust/desire/longing) in two other contexts.[12]  Both of these (John 8:44, Revelation 18:14) are decidedly negative.  On the other hand, he uses sarx (flesh) eighteen times.[13]

• • Many of John’s references to “flesh” are neutral, signifying something like “merely human.” For example,
    “You judge according to human standards; I judge no one” in John 8:15.
  • Even more of John’s uses of the word for “flesh” are strongly positive, affirming the incarnation of Jesus as the Christ. For example,
    “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” in John 1:14. He also quotes Jesus as repeatedly describing His own “flesh” in John 6:51-56.
  • Two of John’s uses of “flesh” are in his letters, again affirming the importance of the bodily incarnation (1 John 4:2, 2 John 7).
  • Only three times (out of a total of eighteen) does “flesh” or sarx communicate negatively. All three of those refer to the flesh of the enemies of God under the last judgment (Revelation 17:16, 19:18, 21).

John’s connotation of “flesh” cannot be assumed the same as that of the Apostle Paul.  (All of the uses of “flesh” in John’s writing are listed in the article “σάρξ-in-Johns-Writing”[14] along with a suggestion whether each use is positive, neutral, or negative.)  “Flesh” in John’s various writings can mean simply “human.”

In other words, it is the impulse of human behavior that arises from the natural, even God-given, physical needs. The term “flesh” (σάρξ) is used in almost exclusively negative ways in the apostle Paul’s writings, but that understanding should not automatically be brought into John’s thought. In John’s writings, “flesh” is that which is merely human as opposed to divine (John 3:6; 6:63; 8: 15). It was John who said that the Word became flesh (John I:14), and so in John the concept of “flesh” does not denote innate sinfulness as it does, for instance, in Paul. The desires of the flesh may be natural, but our fallen nature drives people to satisfy them in ways that are not of God, leading to things like gluttony, alcoholism, and sexual immorality.[15]

Our group recognized this distinction even without the help of commentaries (the benefit of careful inductive study).  Someone suggested that John is warning against “unconditional love” of the world, especially since he uses the same word, ἀγαπάω (agapaō, the verb form of ἀγάπη, agape) for love of the world as love of the Father and love of a brother (v. 10).  Another person pointed out that John’s challenge is, “What do you love most?”  It cannot be both.  Or in the words of Jesus,

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
(Matthew 6:24)

John begins his warning about the love of the world with the general principle, “What is really, really important to you?”

The Lust of the Eyes

Next John moves into a more specific area of temptation.  Remember the previous description that “lust” (ἐπιθυμία, epithumia) can be more generally translated “desire.”  This second category might be[16]

• • “our desire to have everything we see” (CEV)
  • “what people see and want” (GNT)
  • “the desire for possessions” (ISV)
  • “the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you” (TLB)

Or, another suggestion was from a source perhaps quite familiar with the love of the world,

If you got a hunger for what you see, you’ll take it eventually.[17]

The eyes can take in much more than “the flesh” in general.  Jesus called the eye “the lamp of the body” (Matthew 6:22) having “the capacity to mislead.” [18]

The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
(Matthew 6:22-23)

(In looking up this reference, I noticed that this statement is just before Jesus’s words about not serving two masters mentioned above.  John’s thought process follows that of his Lord!)

One person reminded us of David’s downfall came when “he saw a woman bathing” (2 Samuel 11:2).  Our eyes can bring temptations to our awareness. John brings special attention to how our eyes have “the tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things without enquiring into their real values.”[19]  Our eyes can stimulate desires, perhaps distorting desires into lust.

The Boastful Pride of Life

John’s third description of “things in the world” takes a different turn.  He doesn’t follow the pattern of the first two defined as aspects of lust, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.”

We discussed aspects that might describe the boastful pride of life, and our attention focused on envy.  John’s word for life here is βίος (bios, think “biology”), “life in its external aspect,”[20] so envy is likely in John’s thinking.  Not the envy of others but rather the desire (lust?) for others to envy me, saying, “Look at me! Look at my lifestyle!  Look at what I have!”

We also considered how Christians can fall into the same “boastful pride” camouflaged as fasting, teaching, evangelizing, serving, etc., that can still subtlety communicate, “Look at me!”  Boastful pride of life can take many forms.  Someone commented that its essence is the display or flaunting of otherwise legitimate and good things.

The Greek word translated “pride” (ἀλαζονεία [alazoneia]) is in the semantic domain of pride, arrogance, and boastfulness, and is often used in contexts that express overconfidence in one’s own resources and wealth (2 Macc 9:8; 15:6; 4 Macc 8:19; Wisd 5:8; 17:7).[21]

The only other time the word is found in the New Testament is in the warning that James gives about overconfidence in future plans.  There he says that all such planning must be done in dependence on the Lord’s willing providence.  Otherwise,

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
(James 4:16, emphasis added)

Ultimately, whether in the form of material possessions or status or spiritual formation, “boastful pride” is about self-sufficiency, “pretension and arrogance,” [22] or “confidence in one’s cleverness, luck, strength, skill, etc.” [23]

In sum, the lust of the flesh centers on temptations that originate within the body, with our inner appetites (sexual or otherwise), and the lust of the eyes on temptations originating externally, with things we perceive and then desire to possess.  The pride of life combines the two, appealing to the internal desire to be like God and seeking fulfillment of this through external shows of power.[24]

Passing Away

Those three provocative phrases about lust and boasting clarify what “love of the world” looks like.  Now he offers two powerful reasons why believers should consider what they love the most, what is “really, really important” to them.  What do they hold as the “first thing” in life?

The Source

Every one of those “things in the world” share a fundamental flaw.  Each seemingly attractive feature “is not from the Father, but is from the world” (v. 16d).  As discussed earlier in this essay, John is contrasting the origin, the source of “the things in the world.”  Everything the world has to offer is secondary, created by God, Who alone is the true, original source.  Even the genuinely virtuous things that the world offers (truth, goodness, beauty) are only shadows of God’s reality.  They are “second things” that we can legitimately love, but not ultimately, not a “first thing.”  And those good things are subject to corruption and misapplication into sinful, destructive distortions.  Or we can mistake those valid channels of God’s joy and blessing for the Source.  If (or when) those blessings begin to fade or disappear, we pour our energy and attention into recovering the failing channel instead of looking “further up and further in” to the Source.  Love of the world can mean seeking those second things instead of the First Thing, the joy and blessing of God Himself.

The Finale

John’s second reason for clarifying the limitations of second things (“things in the world”) is their final outcome.

The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:17)

None of the things in the world lasts!  Jesus made His priorities (and ours) clear:  Love God and love people.  Those are the things we can love unconditionally; those are the things we can consider “really, really important.”

Observe that the Apostle does not say that world is evil.  It is God’s world, and “God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. i.31).  His meaning is: “The things in the world are transient.  Do not set you affection on them, else you will sustain a bitter disappointment.  The world is a good and beautiful gift of God, to be used with joy and gratitude; but it is not the supreme end, it is not the home of our souls.”[25]

John’s admonitions, his “hard words” for his readers to consider, are not calls to mindless obedience.  John wants his “little children” to recognize and experience life in Christ now and forever.  Discerning the things that have the Father as the one source of truth, goodness, and beauty will bring joy in this life.  Anticipating eternity will enable our endurance through this transient difficult world that is even now passing away.

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[1] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Academic, 2008), 125.

[2] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 111.

[3] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Academic, 2008), 130;
Yarbrough points out that “love of God” is found nearly a dozen times.

[4] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Academic, 2008), 126.

[5] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 102.

[6] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Academic, 2008), 125.

[7] Stephen S. Smalley, 1,2,3 John, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1984), 78.

[8] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 111)

[9] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/ek

[10] Murray J. Harris, Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan, 2011). 103, emphasis added.

[11] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/epithumia

[12] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/epithumia

[13] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/sarx

[14] https://www.goodnotsafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/σάρξ-in-Johns-Writing.pdf

[15] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 112.

[16] https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20John%202%3A16
Contemporary English Version, Good News Translation, International Standard Version, Living Bible

[17] Axl Rose, “Welcome to the Jungle,” Appetite for Destruction
https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-welcome-to-the-jungle-lyrics

[18] Robert W. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Baker Academic, 2008), 132.

[19] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 113.

[20] Stephen S. Smalley, 1,2,3 John, Word Biblical Commentary (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1984), 85.

[21] Karen H. Jobes, 1, 2, and 3 John, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2014), 113, emphasis added.

[22] W. Bauer, F.W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, and F.W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 2000), 40.

[23] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James; The Greek Text with Introduction and Comments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 147;
cited in James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976), 20.

[24] Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Brazos Press, 2018), 164.

[25] David Smith, The Epistles of John, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Volume Five (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1976), 178.