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1 John 2:16-17, “…everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Short Thoughts:
If we unrepentantly share the world’s lusts, we will—ultimately —share the world’s fate.
Long Thoughts:
How do we understand these three elements of “the world” that John highlights: the lust/desires of the flesh, the lust/desires of the eyes and the pride of life (or pride in possessions)?
Well, regarding the “passions of the flesh,” these might be summarized as what one of my teachers once called the passions of the “table and the bed.” That is, the desires of the body, the appetites that can lay hold of the whole person and override reason and inhibition. This is where addiction finds its fuel, this is how the pornography industry survives, this is how advertisers move merchandise…
What of the lusts/desires of the eyes? Longings, cravings, desires, hungers, the controlling, overmastering want for more and better. The restlessness of the human soul to be satisfied. And though the language is of “lust,” the object need not be carnal in any way. Whatever we set our “eye” on as a thing we must have, a status we must attain, an achievement we must reach etc. Essentially, this covers any driving passion that is sourced in and aimed at some ultimate end other than God in Christ.
And then, finally, “pride of life” or “pride in possessions,” or even the “arrogance of conduct”…..basically this seems to denote the self-confident, self-assured mindset of the world. Pride in self and what the self has and what the self can do. Again, things sourced in and aimed at not-God.
More could be said, of course, but what I really wanted to write about here is verse 17:
…the world is passing away, along with its desires, but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
Not only is the world passing away, but its desires are passing away. This entire anti-Christ world system is melting away like an elaborate ice castle on the verge of spring. An what does it mean for the desires of the world to be passing away? All that the world lives for, all that the world builds itself upon, all that the world seeks after is going to fade away and be exposed as a phantom, as a shade, as a deception.
But contrasted to this is the one who does the will of God….And I think it is significant that “passions (desires) of the world” and “will (also can mean desire) of God” are paralleled. John is not calling Christians to stoic indifference, he is not calling them to a Buddhist like separation from their desires, to close every window in the house of their soul except the skylight to heaven, no….rather he is calling for new desires, for new passions, for new hungers and cravings, namely, those that accord with the Father and the Son. Those who do the desires of God, those whose longings are aligned with His own, whose passions image His own—they will abide forever….whereas those who desire and long for what the world longs for are doomed to pass away.
Once again, we see that the desires, the passions, the loves of the heart determine the fate of a soul. Our love, our passion, our desire, our adoration, or worship is like the lifeline of our entire being. We unite our fate with whatever we give our heart to. And so, if our desires do not reach beyond the sphere of this world system, we are bound to its doom.
But, if—by grace—our desire reaches beyond it, if our desire is quickened by the Spirit so that we—with God—desire to see the Father known and loved in the Slain and Risen Son, if our heart’s passion becomes His own heart’s passion, then we—with Him—will abide forever.
