"Do not be loving the world nor the [things] in the world. if anyone may be loving the world, the love of the Father in him is not."
-My people have committed two evils, says the Lord. They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Water, to hew for themselves broken cisterns which can hold no water (Jeremiah 2.13). A cistern was like a big storage tank hewn out of solid rock for collecting rainwater, commonly used in drier climates like those found in the land of the Bible, but it would only work if there were no leaks. A broken leaky cistern would be useless, a colossal waste of time. And is this not also the case for when we try to fill our own yawning soul-holes with the things of the world? It is exactly here where we go astray in our hearts - loving the world. The baubles, the trinkets - in our hearts we run after the things which lead us away from the heavenly feast, and we set our hearts on things which will never satisfy. On things and stuff, on pastimes and leisure times and vacation times, on entertainment and adventure and romance and all the countless other things which the world has to offer, we fill up our tank with these things and it all leaks right out. Much of it can be quite wonderful and good in its own right, but inevitably we bump up against the old cotton candy syndrome - a big tantalizing mound of fluffy confection which dissolves into nothingness, and leaves you with that nagging empty feeling. Is that all there is? There is no lasting satisfaction - in fact we typically tend to require ever increasing amounts of whatever it is we’re using to try and fill the infinite abyss in our hearts. The law of diminishing returns invariably sets in. It’s a fools paradise, leading us down the primrose path away from the Fountain of living waters, from the Source, the only true source of satisfaction, the only One Who can fill the hole in our hearts. You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You (Saint Augustine).
-So John gives us another litmus test here. The person who may be so doing, loving the world, setting their heart and hope on the things of the world, pursuing and devoting themselves to that which is perishable - this one does not know the Father very well, and may very well not know him at all. John says the love OF the Father is not IN them. Commentators are a bit divided on what this means. It could mean that this person does not love the Father, as in love FOR the Father is not in them. A vertical disconnect. And that is clear from the fact that they are putting other things in His place, giving the things of the world first place in their hearts. It could also be a horizontal disconnect, in that - while they are prioritizing loving the things of the world - they are falling short of loving their brother. They do not have the love of the Father FOR their brothers. These two options, however, strike this author as somewhat redundant. To state that they do not love one thing because they love the other thing is to merely state the obvious. But it could also mean that the love FROM the Father is not in them, in that they show by their lack of love for the Lord and others that they have not truly embraced His love for them. Cuz that's the proverbial spark, is it not? We love because He first loved us, right (1John 4.19)? Christ’s love compels us (2Corinthians 5.14-15). To live for Him, to love Him, to love others with His love. The one who does not love the Lord, who is not growing in their love for Him, who instead continues to set their heart on the pleasures and things of this world, shows that they have not truly come to know the love of the Father. This conclusion is entirely consistent with the whole tenor of John’s epistle, as he repeatedly is giving us clear indicators as to whether or not a person actually knows the Lord. He gives us one here. Look at my love list. Maybe it’s my bucket list. Maybe it’s my top-10-things-I-enjoy list. It could simply be my to-do list, or my checkbook (or the modern digital facsimile thereof). Look at the things to which I am giving my time and my talent and my treasure - and my heart. Day in and day out, and over the course of my life. The world, the things of the world - they should decrease. He must increase - love for Him, for His people, for His Word, etc. The things of earth should and do grow strangely dim in the light of God’s amazing eternal love and breathtaking goodness, if you ever stop to take a look. Have you taken a look? Do you know Him?
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