What's wrong with the World
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For 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. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
What does John mean by the world?
As indicated many times through out the bible the relationship between the world and the christian is a complex one, to fair as is the relationship between God and the world. The world represents at least three things in the context of the Bible. The first is the world of the creation perfect and natural as defined by God in the passages in Genesis (Genesis 1). The second is the Fallen world that Christ gives his life for (Jn3:16). The third and clearly the world to which John is referring too here is the world of the tempter, corrupted by the works of the fallen and ultimately representing the trap of worldly / material concerns for a christian.
What's interesting about this is of course that all are equally valid world views within the Christian experience and there has since the beginning of time been a conflict between all three. I find it challenging in the modern world with environmental degradation and pollution causing such huge problems to not reflect on the fact that we have not given enough priority on the World of Genesis 1. I also believe we continue to struggle as Christian with the attention between the fallen world needing salvation and the fallen world offering temptation. There is a letter from the days of the early church arguing against Martyrdom by Christians as they were seeking to escape to the future perfect world by being killed in the modern one. The letter argues that this is an escape from their duties as Christians to spread the word and support other Christians. Sadly I can't remember the name or the location of the letter at this point.But we can see even in the very early church a conflict existed between the two most obvious christian responses to a Fallen world.
I believe almost certainly wrongly that we need to be here to speak on behalf of the world of Genesis 1, and the lost people within a broken world first. After all this is what Christ did and the ultimate injunction of the New Testament is to follow him (Hebrews 12:1-3,) I find this requirement binding and am deeply troubled by some thinking in fringe elements of both the pentecostal and evangelical movements in the US that sort to inspire a Human made Armageddon to bring about the rapture. Firstly I can see no reward in heaven for such a terrible crime against God's creation and secondly it stinks of hubris, we do not know what form the rapture will take and it would be best to not predict its form or timing.
How does the world attract and tempt us, how could this be described as a deceptive or deceitful attraction?
I suspect the one thing most people would agree on is the threat that a complete focus on material and worldly concerns offers everyone, be you a secularist, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian. All creeds here recognise the inherent threat such a focus offers in taking something away from us, in this case the focus on a deeper meaning or morality. Christians are called by God to not fall prey to the temptations of this worldly distraction and to always remember we are in the world but not of it (Romans 12:2). As a side note despite by assumptions to the contrary there is actually no verse in the New Testament that explicitly states we are in the world but not of it..
I don't think many people surrounded by the modern consumerist culture would doubt how it tempts us - it offers us an instant and easily distracting fix to our needs, just buy this, just do this and you will be happy. It also surrounds us with morally ambiguous choices that are somehow portrayed as easy or acceptable in the light of modern thought. Christians are mostly exiled to the fringes of society for some of their more radical (to use the modern language) ideas or concepts. It is so easy seek acceptance from the world or to allow the changing nature of the world to undermine and displace core christian values. I want to make the point at this moment that it is core christian values that get displaced not cultural mores representing as core values simply because they are conservative values. The abolishment of slavery is a case in point, for centuries it was an accepted cultural practice to keep slaves and support for this behaviour could be found even in the highest levels of the Church. It is however difficult to reconcile this approach with the core Christian requirement to love one another. Eventually it was William Wilberforce who put a stop to slavery in England as a result of his belief in Core Christian Values.
Core Values for a Christan are those related to the following of the two great commandments - love God and Love thy Neighbour. They represent the touchstone of our beliefs and should be adhered too. It is also clearly important to pay correct and proper attention to the writings contained in the inspired word of god (the Bible). I am sure their are others but you get the idea.
What does it mean to do the Will of God and what is the outcome of this behaviour
Simple and concise John reminds us again and again of the importance of following Gods commands and listening to his will as we travel through life. John deliberately places this at the end of his warning about the world to remind us as to the correct Christian response to the threat of the world. Follow God and be saved simple and not difficult to understand and yet as already pointed out so hard to do.
