Love
not the... Two things not to love:
1.
Greek: kosmos,
the order, behavior, fashion, and government of this world system
(Mat. 4:8; 13:22; Eph. 2:1-3; Jas. 4:4; 2Pet. 1:4; 2:20)
2.
The things that make up the world system of evil and rebellion
against God.
Is
a command implying that action now in progress must cease: Stop
loving the world! There is, of course, one sense in which Christians
should love the world, since God Himself did and does (John 3:16).
But in the sense of pledging personal loyalty and devotion of one’s
whole being and means, Christians are to love God first and foremost
(Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30).
The
world
(τὸν
κόσμον)
As
in John 1:3, the creation was designated in
its
several
details
by πάντα,
all
things,
so here, creation is regarded in
its
totality,
as an ordered whole. See on Acts 7:24; see on Jas. 3:6. Four words
are used in the New Testament for world:
(1)
γῇ
,
land,
ground,
territory,
the
earth,
as distinguished from the heavens. The sense is purely physical.
(2)
οἰκουμένη,
which is a participle, meaning inhabited,
with γῆ
,earth,
understood, and signifies the earth as the
abode
of
men;
the whole inhabited
world. See on Mat. 24:14; see on Luke 2:1. Also in a physical sense,
though used once of the world to come (Heb. 2:5).
(3)
αἰών,
essentially time,
as the condition under which all created things exist, and the
measure of their existence: a period
of
existence;
a
lifetime;
a
generation;
hence, a long
space
of time; an age,
era,
epoch,
period
of
a
dispensation.
On this primary, physical sense there arises a secondary sense, viz.,
all
that
exists
in
the
world
under
the
conditions
of
time.
From this again develops a more distinctly ethical sense, the
course
and
current
of
this
world's
affairs
compare the expression, the
times,
and this course as corrupted by sin; hence the
evil
world.
So Gal. 1:4; 2Cor. 4:4.
(4)
κόσμος,
which follows a similar line of development from the physical to the
ethical sense; meaning (a) ornament,
arrangement,
order
(1Pet. 3:3); (b) the
sum-total
of
the
material
universe
considered
as
a
system
(Mat. 13:35; John 17:5; Acts 17:24; Phlp. 2:15). Compare Plato. He
who is incapable of communion is also incapable of friendship. And
philosophers tell us, Callicles,
that communion and friendship and orderliness and temperance and
justice bind together heaven and earth and gods and men, and that
this universe is therefore called Cosmos, or order, not disorder or
misrule (Gorgias, 508). (c) That
universe
as
the
abode
of
man
(John 16:21; 1Jhn. 3:17). (d) The
sum-total
of
humanity
in
the
world;
the
human
race
(John 1:29; 4:42). (e) In the ethical sense, the
sum-total
of
human
life
in
the
ordered
world,
considered
apart
from,
alienated
from,
and
hostile
to
God,
and
of
the
earthly
things
which
seduce
from
God
(John 7:7; 15:18; 17:9, 17:14; 1Cor. 1:20, 1:21; 2Cor. 7:10; Jas.
4:4).
This
word is characteristic of John, and pre-eminently in this last,
ethical sense, in which it is rarely used by the Synoptists, while
John nowhere uses αἰών
of
the moral order. In this latter sense the word is wholly strange to
heathen literature, since the heathen world had no perception of the
opposition between God and sinful man; between the divine order and
the moral disorder introduced and maintained by sin.
Christians are in the world, but not of the world. Our home is in heaven. We need to keep our thoughts and desires set on things above. World in this example here, is speaking of the sin of the world. It is speaking of worldliness and fleshly lives.
If any man... This is the reason men must not love the world system or the things in it. Love of God and love of these things are not compatible. Loving the world, in this sense, would be trying to please the desires of our flesh. To love the world, would make us a flesh man. Christians should be spirit men. The world and the things of the world are carnal.
This does not mean that we cannot enjoy the families God has given us, or the blessings we have received from Him. It does mean that we should not be caught up in worldly living. God must be first in our lives. We should not be hanging on to the world but should eagerly await our home in heaven with Him.
The
love of the Father
(ἡ
ἀγάπη τοῦ πατρὸς)
The
phrase occurs only here in the New Testament. It means love towards
the Father, yet as generated by the father's love to man. Compare
1Jhn. 3:1.
Is
the love of God perfected
(ἡ
ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ τετελείωται)
Rev.,
rendering the perfect tense more closely, hath
the
love
of
God
been
perfected.
The change in the form of this antithetic clause is striking. He who
claims to know God, yet lives in disobedience, is a liar. We should
expect as an offset to this: He that keepeth His commandments are
of
the
truth;
or the
truth
is
in
him.
Instead we have, in him has the love of God been perfected. In other
words, the obedient child of God is characterized, not by any
representative trait or quality of his own personality, but merely as
the subject of the work of divine love: as the sphere in which that
love accomplishes its perfect work.
The
phrase ἡ
ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ the
love of God, may mean either the
love
which
God
shows,
or the
love
of
which
God
is
the
object,
or the
love
which
is
characteristic
of
God
whether manifested by Himself or by His obedient child through His
Spirit. John's usage is not decisive like Paul's, according to which
the
love
of
God
habitually means the love which proceeds from and is manifested by
God. The exact phrase, the love of God or the love of the Father is found in 1Jhn. 3:16; 4:9, in the undoubted sense of the
love
of
God
to
men.
The same sense is intended in 1Jhn. 3:1, 3:9, 3:16, though
differently expressed. The sense is doubtful in 1Jhn. 2:5; 3:17;
4:12. Men's
love
to
God
is clearly meant in 1Jhn. 2:15; 5:3. The phrase occurs only twice in
the Gospels (Luke 6:42; John 5:42), and in both cases the sense is
doubtful. Some, as Ebrard, combine the two, and explain the love
of
God
as the
mutual
relation
of
love
between
God
and
men.
It
is not possible to settle the point decisively, but I incline to the
view that the fundamental idea of the love of God as expounded by
John is the
love
which
God
has
made
known
and
which
answers
to
His
nature.
In favor of this is the general usage of ἀγάπη
love,
in the New Testament, with the subjective genitive. The object is
more commonly expressed by εἰς
towards,
or to.
See 1Thes. 3:12; Col. 1:4; 1Pet. 4:8. Still stronger is John's
treatment of the subject in chap. 4. Here we have, 1Jhn. 4:9, the
manifestation
of the love of God in us ἐν
ἡμῖν
by our life in Christ and our love to God we are a manifestation of
God's love. Directly following this is a definition of the essential
nature of love. In this
is love, i.e., herein consists of love:
not
that
we
have
loved
God,
but that
He
loved
us
(1Jhn. 4:10). Our mutual love is a proof that God dwells in us. God
dwelling in us, His love is perfected in us (1Jhn. 4:12). The latter
clause, it would seem, must be explained according to 1Jhn. 4:10.
Then (1Jhn. 4:16), We have known and believed the love that God hath
in
us
see on John 16:22, on the phrase have
love.
God is love; that is His nature, and He imparts this nature to be the
sphere
in which His children dwell. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God. Finally, our love is engendered by His love to us. We love Him
because He first loved us (1Jhn. 4:19).
In
harmony with this is John 15:9. As the Father loved me, I also loved
you. Continue ye in
my
love.
My
love
must be explained by me
loved
you.
This is the same idea of divine love as the sphere
or element
of renewed being and this idea is placed, as in the passage we are
considering, in direct connection with the keeping of the divine
commandments. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.
This
interpretation does not exclude man's love to God. On the contrary,
it includes it. The love which God has, is revealed as
the
love
of
God
in the love of His children towards Him, no less than in His
manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus
complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. It's perfect ideal
requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare,
abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and
filled out for us by the appreciable exertion of divine love upon an
object, and by the response of the object. The love of God is
perfected
or completed
by the perfect establishment of the relation of love between God and
man. When man loves perfectly, his love is the love of God shed
abroad in his heart. His love owes both its origin and its nature to
the love of God.
The
word verily
ἀληθῶς
is never used by John as a mere formula of affirmation, but has the
meaning of a qualitative adverb, expressing not merely the actual
existence
of a thing, but its existence in a manner most absolutely
corresponding to ἀλήθεια
truth.
Compare John 1:48; 8:31. Hath
been
perfected.
John is presenting the ideal
of life in God. This is the love of God that we keep His
commandments. Therefore whosoever keepeth God's word,
His message in its entirety, realizes the perfect relation of love.
Although John often repeats the importance of love and that God is love (4:7-8), he also reveals that God hates a certain type of love: love of the world (John 15:18-20). In this text, John expresses a particular form of the fourth test i.e. the test of love.