(1 John 2:15-17)
5. Two Loves (1 John 2:15-17)
How is it possible for us to love God if we love the world? God indeed makes us capable of being inhabited by love. But there are two loves: the love of the world and the love of God. If we are full of love of the world, there is no way the love of God can enter us. So we must allow our love of the world to give ground and let the love of God inhabit us; we must allow the better one a place in us. You used to love the world, but don't love it any longer! When you've drawn earthly love out of your heart, you'll draw in divine love. Divine love is already beginning to dwell in you, and no evil can come from divine love. Listen now to John's words—what he wants to do is purify us. He finds the human heart like a field, but in what condition is the field? If he finds a forest there, he clears it; if he finds it cleared, he plants it. His desire is to plant a tree there, and the tree is love. What is the forest he wants to clear? It is love of the world. Listen to the words of this one who clears the forest: Do not love the world—this is the next verse of his letter—or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
You've heard that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Dear friends, don't say in your hearts that this is wrong. It is God who says it. The Holy Spirit has spoken through the apostle John. There is nothing more true: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father in not in him. Do you want to possess the love of the Father, and through this be a coheir with his Son? Then don't love the world. Shut out love of the world, so that you can be filled by the love of God. You're full now—pour out what you have in you, so that you can be filled with what you don't have!
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We can be sure that our sisters and brothers have been reborn of water and the Spirit. A few years ago I too was reborn of water and the Spirit. It's good for us not to love the world; otherwise, the sacraments lead to our condemnation instead of being the means of our salvation. The way of salvation is to possess love's root; it's to possess the "power of religion," not just its appearance." The appearance is good and holy, but what is it worth if it has no root? A branch that's cut off, isn't it thrown into the fire? Possess the appearance, but an appearance that is attached to its root. How can you be so rooted as not to be rooted up? It's by holding firm to love, being, in Paul's words, "rooted and grounded in love." How is love going to take root in ground so dense with love of the world? You have to clear the forest! It's a mighty seed you are to sow; don't leave anything in the field to choke it out. These are clearing words: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (John mentions three things), which are not of the Father but of the world. And the world passes away, and its lusts; but one who does the will of God abides forever, for God himself abides forever.
Why shouldn't I love what God has made? Which do you prefer: to love the things of time and to pass away with time, or not to love the world and to live forever with God? The river of temporal things draws us along; but our lord Jesus Christ was like a tree by the river's edge. He became flesh, he died, he arose, he ascended into heaven. He willed to plant himself, so to speak, by the river of temporal things. Are you being rushed along toward treacherous rapids? Hold on to the tree! Is love of the world whirling you on? Hold fast to Christ! For your sake he became subject to time; he became temporal to make you eternal. When he too became temporal, it was in such a way that he remained eternal. He took something from time, but he didn't take away from eternity. You were born temporal and
TWOLOVES /
became subject to time through sin; he became subject to time through mercy in order to pardon your sins.
What a difference there is between two people in prison when one is a criminal and the other his visitor! Sometimes a person goes to visit a friend, and both are seen to be in prison, but their conditions are very distinct and different! One is held fast by his situation, the other brought there by his human sympathies. So were we held in our mortal state by guilt; Christ came down in mercy, he came to the captive as a redeemer, not an oppressor. The Lord poured out his own blood for us, he redeemed us, he altered our hope. We still bear death in our bodies and take our future immortality on trust; while we are being tossed about on the sea, we have already fixed our anchor of hope on land.
So let us not love the world or the things in the world. The things in the world are the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life: three things.
Don't anyone say, "'the things in the world. . . why, God made them! He made heaven and earth, the sea, the sun and moon, the stars. He made everything in the heavens. He made everything the sea contains, all the things on earth, those that creep, animals, trees, those that fly. These are things in the world and God made them. Why shouldn't I love what God has made?"
May you have God's Spirit to show you that all these things are good, but it is a mistake for you to love the creatures and abandon their Creator. They seem beautiful to you, but how much more beautiful is the One who formed them! Dear friends, be aware of this. Don't let Satan steal up on you, saying the things typical of him, such as, Enjoy everything God has made! Why has he made them if not for you to enjoy?" People get intoxicated by this and are ruined and forget their Creator. When they use the things he has made avidly and immoderately, they are snubbing him. Paul says of people like this that "théy worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." God doesn't forbid you to love these things, but he doesn't want you to value them as the source of your happiness. Rather, he wants you to approve and praise them in order for you to love him who is their Creator.
It's as if a bridegroom were to give a ring to his bride, and she came to value the ring more than the one who gave it. By all means let her love the bridegroom's gift, but if she were to say, "The ring's enough for me, I don't want to see his face," what sort of woman would this be? Who wouldn't consider her an adulteress in her heart? The reason a bridegroom gives a pledge is to be loved in his pledge. Well then, God gave you all these things, so love him who made them! There's something more that he wants to give you: he wants to give you himself, who made these things. Even though they are made by God, if you love them and you disregard him and love the world, won't your love be counted adulterous?
All those who love the world John calls world. These are the only three things they have, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. They only want to eat, to drink, to have sex with each other, to give themselves to pleasures of this kind. Does this mean that there is no proper place for these things? Or when we are told not to love them, does this mean we shouldn't eat or drink or produce children? This isn't what is meant. But there should be moderation in your use of them, on account of the Creator, so that you are not encumbered by your love of them.
You are put to the test in this regard only when two things are proposed to you, and you have to choose one or the other. Do you desire righteousness or gain? What if you haven't anything to live on, neither food nor drink, and you can get them only by sin? Isn't it better for you to love what lasts than to commit sin? Financial gain you can see; you don't see the loss of your faith. This, John says, is the lust of the flesh, the inordinate desire for things that pertain only to the body, such as food and sexual pleasures and so on.
And the lust of the eyes: this is what John calls inquisitiveness, a foolish or dangerous desire to know things. There are so many kinds! This is what is at work in shows and spectacles, in diabolical rites, in magic, in sorceries: inquisitiveness. Sometimes it even tempts God's servants in such a way that they want to do something that will seem miraculous; they want to test whether God hears them. This is inquisitiveness, it is lust of the eyes, it is not of the Father. If God gives you the power, go ahead and perform a miracle; that's why he gives you that power. But it is wrong to say that people who don't perform miracles won't be part of God's kingdom. What did the Lord tell his apostles when they were rejoicing that demons were subject to them? '"'Do not rejoice in this . . . but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." He would have you and the apostles rejoice in the same thing. It is a terrible thing for you if your name is not written in heaven. Is it a terrible thing for you if you don't raise the dead? Or if you don't walk on the sea? Or if you don't cast out demons? If you've received the power of doing these things, use it humbly, not proudly, for the Lord has said that certain false prophets will perform signs and wonders. Therefore keep away from the pride of life. The pride of life is simply pride. We like to boast of our honors; we think we're great because of our riches or some power we have.
You won't find anything by which human cupidity is tempted except these three things: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. By these three the Lord was tempted by the devil. He was tempted by the lust of the flesh when the devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread"; this happened when he was hungry after his fast. How did he repel the tempter and at the same time teach us his soldiers how we are to fight? Listen to what he told him: 'Man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God."
He was also tempted by the lust of the eyes. It was to perform a miracle that the devil urged him, "Throw yourself down; for it is written: He has given his angels charge over you, that they bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone." He resisted his tempter, for to perform a miracle would have seemed
22 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS either to be yielding or to be acting out of curiosity. In fact, he did perform miracles; but he did them when he chose, as God and as one healing the sick. If he'd performed a miracle at that time, people would have thought he only wanted to do something strange and wonderful. See what he replied to keep them from thinking this (and when you are so tempted, say it in your turn): "Get behind me Satan; for it is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God." In other words, "If I do this, I shall be tempting God." The Lord said what he wants you to say. When the enemy says to you, "What kind of person, what kind of Christian are you? Have you ever done even one miracle? Or by your prayers have you raised the dead? Or have you healed the sick?" Answer and say, "It is written: 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' I won't tempt him—as if I'll belong to him if I do a miracle and I won't belong to him if I don't! Should I forget his words: *Rejoice that your names are written in heaven?' "
In what way was the Lord tempted by the pride of life? It happened when the devil carried him up to a high place and said to him, *AII these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me." By the grandeur of an earthly kingdom he intended to tempt the king of all worlds! But the Lord who made heaven and earth spurned the devil. Was this so remarkable, that Satan was overcome by the Lord? To teach you what you are to answer him, he replied, "It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
If you keep to these words, you won't long for the world; and if you don't long for the world, you won't be subject to the lust of the flesh ox the lust of the eyes or the pride of life. You will have a place ready to receive love when it comes, so that you can love God. Where there is love of the world, there is no love of God. Hold fast to the love of God. Then, as God is eternal, you too may abide forever. Each person is as his love is. Is it earth that you love? You'll be earth. Is it God? What shall I say? Will you be God? I wouldn't say it on my own, but letus listen to Scripture: 'I have said, You are gods and children of
TWO LOVES) 423 the Most High." If this is what you want, to be "gods and children of the Most High," don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father isn't in that one, because everything in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These are not of the
Father but of the world, of the people who love the world. And the world passes away, and its lusts, but one who does the will of God abides forever, as God himself abides forever.