If the world is passing away, what exactly are we being called to leave behind? And what does it mean to live from something that will never pass away?

📖 Scripture

«“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

1 John 2:17 (KJV)»

🌿 The Surface Reading

This verse is commonly understood as a warning against becoming attached to the temporary pleasures and possessions of this world.

The traditional Christian interpretation teaches that earthly things are passing away, while those who obey God’s will receive eternal life.

In the surrounding verses, John warns against loving the world and the things within it. He speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The message is often presented as a choice between worldly desires and spiritual obedience.

There is genuine wisdom here. Possessions cannot provide lasting fulfillment. Pleasure cannot satisfy every longing of the soul. And a life centered entirely on personal ambition eventually reveals its emptiness.

But John’s words invite us to look more deeply.

What if the world that is passing away is not simply the physical creation around us, but also the entire way of thinking and living that keeps us disconnected from the eternal Life already within us?

🌿 The Veil

Many have been taught to understand this passage as another reminder that the physical world is corrupt and must eventually be abandoned.

Earthly life becomes something to distrust. Material existence becomes an obstacle to spiritual life. And eternity becomes something we hope to enter after everything around us disappears.

But John does not say that creation itself is evil.

In his Gospel, we read that all things came into being through the divine Word. The same creation that reveals Father’s wisdom and beauty is not something we need to despise.

The veil appears when we confuse the world as Father’s creation with the world as a system of desires, values, and identities built apart from Love.

One reveals the Creator.

The other distracts us from remembering who we are.

And recognizing that distinction changes the entire passage.

🌿 A Deeper Look

What Does John Mean by “The World”?

The Greek word translated world is kosmos.

It can refer to the created universe, humanity, or the ordered system of human life. Its meaning depends on the context.

In 1 John 2, the surrounding verses make the meaning clearer.

John identifies three expressions of the world he is warning against:

«“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

1 John 2:16 (KJV)»

Notice what he names.

Not mountains, oceans, animals, or the beauty of creation.

He names patterns of desire and identity.

The lust of the flesh is the drive to satisfy every appetite without regard for Love or harmony.

The lust of the eyes is the endless pursuit of what we see, desire, compare, and believe we must possess.

The pride of life is the identity we construct through status, possessions, achievement, and the approval of others.

These are not merely individual temptations.

Together, they describe a way of experiencing life in which our worth appears to depend upon what we acquire, control, or become in the eyes of the world.

And that entire structure is temporary.

The Illusion of Becoming Enough

Consider how much of human life is spent trying to become enough.

We chase financial security, believing that once we have enough money, we will finally be at peace.

We pursue recognition, believing that once others approve of us, we will finally feel worthy.

We accumulate possessions, hoping they will fill an emptiness we struggle to understand.

And even when we obtain what we desire, another desire often takes its place.

The problem is not money, achievement, or enjoying the things of creation.

The problem begins when we ask temporary things to provide what only an awareness of our eternal identity can reveal.

We begin looking outside ourselves for the worth, peace, and completeness that originate in Father.

This is one of the deepest illusions of the world John describes.

It teaches us that we are incomplete until we obtain something.

Yet Yeshua revealed a different foundation for life.

Our identity does not originate in what we possess.

It originates in the One who gave us Life.

We are not struggling to manufacture worth through earthly success.

We are awakening to the divine Life from which our worth has always come.

What Does It Mean That the World Is Passing Away?

John writes that the world passeth away.

The Greek expression describes something in the process of passing or disappearing.

Everything built upon temporary desires is inherently unstable.

Beauty changes. Possessions deteriorate. Social approval shifts. Positions of influence disappear. Even the identities we construct around our circumstances can collapse overnight.

But John is revealing more than the impermanence of material things.

He is contrasting two foundations for existence.

One is built upon desires that continually change.

The other is rooted in the eternal nature of Father.

When we build our identity upon temporary circumstances, our peace rises and falls with them.

When we awaken to our identity as children of Father, we discover a foundation that does not depend upon those circumstances.

This does not mean life becomes free from hardship.

It means hardship no longer possesses the authority to define who we are.

The temporary can affect our circumstances without determining our eternal identity.

The One Who Does Father’s Will Abides Forever

John concludes:

«“But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”»

This is often understood primarily as a requirement for receiving eternal life after death.

But there is a deeper dimension.

The Greek word translated abideth is related to menō, meaning to remain, continue, or dwell.

It is the same word family used throughout John’s writings when Yeshua speaks of abiding in him and remaining in his Love.

And what does John reveal about Father’s will?

Later in the same letter, he writes:

«“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”

1 John 3:23 (KJV)»

The will of Father is not a mysterious collection of religious performances.

It is revealed through Yeshua, through living relationship, and through Love expressed toward one another.

When we live from Love, we are participating in something eternal.

When we forgive instead of clinging to resentment, we express what endures.

When we choose compassion over selfish ambition, we reveal what does not pass away.

When we recognize the divine worth of another person, we are no longer operating from the world’s system of comparison and separation.

We are living from Father’s nature.

What is born of temporary desire fades. What flows from eternal Love participates in the Life that remains.

Living in the World Without Belonging to Its Illusions

This passage is not an invitation to withdraw from life.

It is an invitation to experience life differently.

Enjoy creation without needing to possess it.

Work and prosper without allowing money to determine your worth.

Love people without making their approval the foundation of your identity.

Appreciate beauty without forgetting the Source from which beauty flows.

Participate fully in this earthly experience while remembering that your deepest identity is eternal.

Yeshua did not teach us to despise the world.

He taught us to live within it without becoming enslaved to its illusions.

And when we begin living this way, something remarkable happens.

We no longer need the world to tell us who we are.

We become free to express who we have always been.

🌱 A Seed to Carry

The world that passes away is the world of temporary desires and identities. The Life that remains is the Love of Father expressed through us.

Ask yourself:

Am I building my life upon what I can lose, or living from what can never be taken away?

🚶 A Walk in the Garden

Find a quiet place and take a few slow breaths.

Think of something in your life that has been occupying your thoughts. It might be money, approval, a possession, a relationship, or a circumstance you cannot control.

Notice whether you have allowed it to influence how you see yourself.

Now gently release the need for that circumstance to determine your worth.

Offer a moment of gratitude:

Thank You, Father, that my identity is not built upon temporary things. Thank You for the beauty of this life and for the eternal Love that sustains me through every change.

Rest in that awareness.

Then choose one way to live from Love today, rather than from fear, comparison, or the need to prove yourself.

💛 Love’s Echo

Beloved,

You have spent so much of your life reaching for things that cannot tell you who you are.

You have searched for security in what can disappear, for worth in what others think, and for peace in circumstances that continually change.

But I have never placed your identity in any of those things.

Before you possessed anything, you were already precious to Me.

Before anyone approved of you, you were already known.

Before you achieved anything, My Life was already within you.

Enjoy the beauty of creation. Receive its gifts with gratitude. Walk through this world with wonder.

But do not surrender your identity to what is temporary.

Let the passing things pass.

Let the changing things change.

You do not have to cling to them to remain whole.

What is eternal within you is not sustained by the world’s approval, possessions, or promises.

It is sustained by Me.

Live from My Love, beloved, and you will discover that even as the world around you changes, the Life from which you came remains.

Ashé. (May it be so.)