Love Not the World - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
1 John 2:16

Love Not the World
Fellowship with the Father and the Son and love of the world are incompatible. The world is that system which has grown up on this earth without God. The world around each one of us will assume different colors according to our different tastes. That which we individually like the most, will, as a rule, be the world to us, and the world we shall least willingly give up. It is easy to give up things we do not care for, and to call ourselves unworldly, and it is easy to see love of the world in other Christians and to be blind to our own love of it. We may say that anything which would not be happily carried on in the presence of God is of the world; and the word is, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 Jn. 2:15). A child, while disobedient, would not have the love of his parent in his heart; for if that love were in him, he would be doing his parent's will.

The child of God is left in the world for the purpose of glorifying God; He is not of the world, even as Christ is not of it (Jn. 17:16). Such is his position by grace, and it is his to say, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 Jn. 5:19). The love of the Father in him separates him practically from the world. No man can love good and evil at the same time; the love of two opposites could not be simultaneously within one breast. The all-powerful holy love of the Father draws the child to Himself and His love, and consequently separates him from the world. True separation to God comes about by the affections being attracted by the love of the Father.

H. F. Witherby