1 John 2:15
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
King James Version (KJV)
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After encouraging believers in their spiritual maturity, John turns to a rival affection -- the pull of a world system whose desires compete with wholehearted love for God.
What Does 1 John 2:15 Mean?
John commands believers not to love "the world" -- not the planet or people, but the system of values, desires, and pursuits organized against God. He warns that loving this world and loving the Father are mutually exclusive: where one fills the heart, the other cannot. The word "world" (kosmos) in John's letters often means the present order of things that runs on self, status, and craving rather than on God's will. To "love" this order is to give it the devotion and trust that belong to God alone. This is not a call to despise the good things God made or the people he sends us to love; it is a call to refuse the world's grip on our affections. John makes the stakes plain: divided loyalty is impossible at the deepest level. The heart that prizes the world above God shows that "the love of the Father is not in him." The next verses spell out exactly what "the things in the world" are, so this verse functions as a heading for a searching self-examination of where our love truly rests.
In the Original Language
The Greek kosmos here means the organized human order opposed to God, and agapao ("love") names the deep, committed love that should be reserved for the Father.
Cross References
“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
- James 4:4
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
- Matthew 6:24
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
- Romans 12:2
Application
Examine where your deepest affections rest, and refuse to let possessions, status, or appetites take the place that belongs to God.