What does it mean that the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15)?

The young men were strong. They were in the vigour of life. They had heard the word of God and kept it. No feeling of weakness discouraged them. The enemy in the open field had been put to flight by them. They had overcome the wicked one; he was not able to withstand them. But if he could not meet them in the open field in hand to hand conflict, he had another way of accomplishing their ruin; and the apostle directs their attention to a point, which if left unguarded, might be used by the subtle foe to turn the battle against them, and to heap upon them confusion and overwhelming disaster. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” Here was where the young men might fail. In fair fight they were invincible, but the enemy had cunning stratagems, and the world is a subtle snare. It has its attractions for the flesh, and powerful attractions they are, and many strong men have fallen victims to their deadly influences. But the antidote for this is the love of the Father. The Father has a world of His own, a pure world of light and life and righteousness and holy love. The fathers, as we have been seeing, knew something of this world, in knowing Him in whom it is all established and for the moment concealed. It is all of the Father, and in it there is not an element of this world; for all that is in this world is lust and pride, and nothing of these things is of the Father. Therefore he says, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The Son hast; declared the Father’s name to us, that the love wherewith the Father loved the Son might be in us; and if the Father’s love is in us, it is not only that we know it as our portion, but it has taken effect in us, so that it has become the life of our souls, and the consequence is that what the Father delights in is a delight to us, and what is obnoxious to Him is obnoxious to us; and as the world has hated Him and is obnoxious to Him, it cannot be pursued and loved by one in whom the Father’s love is.

Then again the world is passing away and the lust thereof; there is nothing durable. The world is lawless, and its pleasures and riches cannot be durable, for lawlessness cannot be allowed to continue. In the Father’s world the pleasures are for evermore, and the riches are durable, and the reason they are durable is because they are connected with righteousness. In this world the riches are the mammon of unrighteousness; but if you get riches and righteousness connected, you will find they are durable. And therefore the doer of the will of God is put in contrast with the lawless world. The world passes away, but the doer of the will of God abides for eternity. We are told that the darkness is passing away, and the world is passing away; how foolish, therefore, it is for anyone to set his heart upon the things of the world! The old order which has been ruined and corrupted by sin, and which is steeped in darkness, must pass away, and everyone who clings to it must pass away with it; but he who stands firm in separation from it, and in opposition to all its forces, controlled by the will of God, endures forever.

We may say therefore that 'the world' is that which is obtained by means of 'the things in the world' - the moral principles rooted in the sinful human heart. The issue is not whether we have pleasure, power or possessions but whether we love it (them) and whether we are governed by these means of getting it (them). If so, the love of the Father is not in us. We may well have been the recipients of God's love in His unspeakable gift, but it is not in us in a practical and experimental way-enjoyed in communion with Him.

Then the apostle goes further, in addressing the young men, and he says now, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15). There are two things, you will observe, in regard to the young men. They are the Word, and the world. I am quite sure of this, if the Word does not engage my attention, the world will. The great point is this, that God has a world into which He wants to bring His children. The Father's world is that scene of which Christ Himself, Personally, is the centre. This word of warning is very instructive, for there is many a young man who has at first overcome the wicked one, and then, after a while, he himself has been overcome by the world. If I am not watchful the world will overcome me, and the consequences thereof are sad indeed. He says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." That does not mean that a man is not converted, but that, if you love the world, you do not get the love of the Father. The love of the Father is not in this scene. It is in another world altogether. It is the world of which Christ is the moral centre.

The apostle is emphatic that the love of the world and the love of the Father are incompatible. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Only here, I think, do we read of the love of the Father, that is, of our love of the Father. We read of the love the Father has bestowed upon us, and also of our love of God and of Christ. But in this passage our love of the Father is set in contrast with our love for the world. They are mutually exclusive.

The love of the Father is the height of Christian privilege. In the Son the Father is seen and known. In Christ the love of the Father's heart for us is revealed, and in Him our love of the Father is consolidated. This revelation of the Father is concealed from the world. "O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee," the Lord said at the close of His ministry. But to His own He had manifested the Father's name, having chosen them out of the world. For any of His own, therefore, to love the world was to quench the love of the Father in them. They would be loving what hated the Beloved of the Father.

(V. 15). The young men may come into conflict with the devil and into contact with the world. As the flesh is still in us, the world is a very real danger. We are sent into the world as witnesses for Christ, but we are not of the world. We are therefore warned not to love the world, nor the things in the world. Further, we are reminded that, “If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We may, alas, be tempted by it, or in an unguarded moment be overcome by it, but the testing question is, Do we love it? A solemn word for all who profess to be of the family of God and yet appear to be more at home in the company of the world than amongst the people of God.

(V. 16). The Apostle leaves us in no doubt as to the character of the world of which he speaks. He does not refer to the physical world of nature, but to that great system built up by fallen man, which is marked by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

It has been noticed that these three principles came in with the fall of man. The devil tempted Eve with the question, “Yea, has God said?” Had the word of God been abiding in her heart, she could have used it to overcome the devil. Alas! it did not govern her thoughts, so, when quoting it (or misquoting it), she was not only powerless to overcome, but she fell into the snare of world principles. She “saw that the tree was good for food”, and thus was carried away by the lust of the flesh. Moreover, she saw that “it was pleasant to the eyes”, and was thus attracted by the lust of the eyes. Lastly, she saw that it was “a tree to be desired to make one wise”, and the pride of life that craves for knowledge was awakened. Being carried away by the principles of the world, Adam disobeyed God and was driven from the garden. The world, then, is a vast system organised by fallen man in order to indulge the different lusts of the flesh, to gratify the eye, and to minister to the various forms of pride.

Let us closely observe that even when the young man has learned to withstand, and to gain such decisive victory over the enemy, he still requires the solemn admonition of verses 15 to 17. One strong enough to overcome Satan may - alas! - find himself overcome by the attractions of the world. Indeed, he may feel that his own strength is such that he may indulge in measure in worldly practice without being badly influenced by it.

Sad delusion! For the very indulgence only shows the painful decay of his strength: he is already influenced. The world is a system not to be loved, for it is set up in both independence of God and in opposition to His authority. In any absolute sense, only an unbeliever loves the world: the love of the Father is not in such an one. The new nature loves what is of God: how can there be at the same time a love for what rejects God's authority?

The Father's love is the great preservative from the world, its influences and entanglements. When that love satisfies the longings of the heart there is no room left for the world. All that is around us is not of the Father, but is of the world; and so long as the love of the world is within the heart, the power of the Father's love is displaced. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John 2:16.)

And mark this: It is impossible that both should hold the heart at one and the same time. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The converse is equally true. If any man have his heart filled with the love of the Father it is impossible that he should love the world. For him the great mirage has no allurements. He not only knows its true character, but he finds himself possessed of positive good and blessing which supplants its vain show altogether.

The young men are faced by a danger which, if it prevails, will hinder them advancing still further into this blessed knowledge. That danger is the world, and the love of it: not merely of the world as an abstract conception, but of the concrete, material things that are in the world. We use a great many of these things, and occasionally at least we enjoy them, but we are not to love them. That which we love dominates us, and we are not to be dominated by the world but by the Father. The love of the world and the love of the Father are mutually exclusive. We cannot be possessed by both. It must be one or the other. Which possesses us?

If the love of the Father possesses us, we shall see the world in its true light. We shall possess a spiritual faculty which acts after the fashion of the much prized X-rays. We shall get down beneath the surface of things to the skeleton framework on which all is built. That skeleton is revealed to us in verse 16 as, "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;" all of which spring not from the Father but are wholly of the world.

The lust of the flesh is the desire of having — the desire to possess oneself of those things that minister to the flesh. The lust of the eyes is the desire of seeing, whether with the eyes of the head or with those of the mind, all the things that minister to one's pleasures. It would cover man's restless intellectual cravings as well as his continual hunt for spectacular pleasures. The pride of life is the desire of being — the yearning to be somebody, or something that ministers to pride of heart. This is the most deep-seated evil of the three, and often the least-suspected.

Then he warns them: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." These things belong to it. All the glory of this world is not of the Father at all. And the more we look into John, and indeed all through the New Testament scripture, we may see these two great systems brought out plainly. He does not say you do not love Christ. But there is one great system that belongs to the Father, and another that belongs to the world. Every thing belongs to God as a Creator; but morally all is departed from Him. It was the devil that made this world, looked at as a moral world. God made paradise; and man sinned and got out of it, and then made up this world. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and builded a city, and called it after the name of his son. Then God sent His Son, and they would not have Him, and thus it was a judged world. God has put it fully to the test - without law, under law, and then by His Son; and then He says, It is all judged. But then He has a way of His own, the Father has, and you cannot have both. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. You may be tempted by it, and have to overcome it; but if you love it, the love of the Father is not in you; because He has got a system of His own, and you are going to the other system. It is so all through. In the Gospel we get divine life in the Person of Christ, and in the Epistle this divine life in the persons of Christians. In John 8 you will see the same truth. "Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world." There is no middle path with God. If they are of this world, they are from beneath; and if they are not of this world, they are from above. He says, I am not of this world; I am from above: because He came from the Father. You are of the world, and therefore from beneath, because it is Satan's world. So here - if the love of the world is in you, the love of the Father cannot be. There is another divine system, where the love of the Father is displayed, and if you belong to that, you have to overcome the world. It is not of the Father; it does not belong to that system.