Overcoming the world

The sequence from 1 John 2:14-15 seems abrupt: John moves from addressing children, fathers, and young men to the warning not to love the world. But there is a link between the “overcoming” in 2:14 to the “world” in 2:15. Every other time the verb “overcome” is used in John, it is closely linked with the Christian’s relationship with the “world.”

4:4: “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

5:4-5: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world – our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”