John is passionately urging his listeners to not use their new found grace as a license to sin. In verse 15 he restates his challenge in different words, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Love of this world is the root cause of sin. John continues in verse 16 with the three categories of sin, "For everything in the world
1. the cravings of sinful man
2. the lust of his eyes
3. and the boasting of what he has and does
—comes not from the Father but from the world."
Scholars have long categorized these sins as:
1. The lust of the flesh
2. The lust of the eyes
3. The pride of life
John is urging us not to be people of this temporary world...caught up in the desires that the world tempts us with....but to be children who do the will of God...to follow Jesus, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
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