Q. How should we understand the Biblical scripture ‘John 2:15 Don’t love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you don’t love the Father’?

 A. This reference doesn’t mean that we should not love the world but that we should love the world more than we do now. If we, following the literal interpretation, should forsake our loved ones in order to love the Father, this contrasts strikingly with another Biblical scripture ‘Mark 12:31 Love your neighbour as you love yourself’.

To rephrase this scripture, it says ‘Don’t be attached to the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you are attached to the world, you will not recognise that it is the Father’. For example, when you see your spouse, if you cling to the idea that he or she is just your husband or your wife as a person, you cannot recognise that he or she is part of the Father. In other words, when you can see the world whilst being detached from the stereotypical perspective, you can realise that he or she is more than your spouse as a person, that is, part of the Father. Then, even if your spouse sometimes behaves short of your expectation, you are not disappointed or upset because his or her misbehaviour is not misbehaviour. If you see and hear the world in this way, when you see a flower or a tree, you can see more than a flower or a tree and come to love it more than you do now. In short, John 2:15 means that we should not see the world just as a world to exploit but see the world as the Father and treat it as such.

©Boo Ahm

All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway

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