I John 2:15

Love not the world - Though these several classes were so well acquainted with Divine things, and had all tasted the powers of the world to come: yet so apt are men to be drawn aside by sensible things, that the Holy Spirit saw it necessary to caution these against the love of the world, the inordinate desire of earthly things. Covetousness is the predominant vice of old age: Ye fathers, love not the world. The things which are in the world, its profits, pleasures, and honors, have the strongest allurements for youth; therefore, ye young men, little children, and babes, love not the things of this world. Let those hearts abide faithful to God who have taken him for their portion. The love of the Father is not in him - The love of God and the love of earthly things are incompatible. If you give place to the love of the world, the love of God cannot dwell in you; and if you have not his love, you can have no peace, no holiness, no heaven.

Love not the world--that lieth in the wicked one (Jo1 5:19), whom ye young men have overcome. Having once for all, through faith, overcome the world (Jo1 4:4; Jo1 5:4), carry forward the conquest by not loving it. "The world" here means "man, and man's world" [ALFORD], in his and its state as fallen from God. "God loved [with the love of compassion] the world," and we should feel the same kind of love for the fallen world; but we are not to love the world with congeniality and sympathy in its alienation from God; we cannot have this latter kind of love for the God-estranged world, and yet have also "the love of the Father in" us. neither--Greek, "nor yet." A man might deny in general that he loved the world, while keenly following some one of THE THINGS IN IT: its riches, honors, or pleasures; this clause prevents him escaping from conviction. any man--therefore the warning, though primarily addressed to the young, applies to all. love of--that is, towards "the Father." The two, God and the (sinful) world, are so opposed, that both cannot be congenially loved at once.

Love not the world,.... The habitable earth, the world in which men live; this is not to be loved by saints, as if it was their habitation, where they are always to be, and so loath to remove from it, seeing they are but sojourners, and pilgrims, and strangers here; this is not their rest, nor dwellingplace, their continuing city, or proper country, that is heaven. Nor should they love the men of the world, who are as they came into it, are of it, and mind the things of it, and lie in wickedness, and are wicked men; for though these are to be loved, as men, as fellow creatures, and their good, both spiritual and temporal, is to be sought, and good is to be done to them, as much as lies in our power, both with respect to soul and body; yet their company is not to be chosen, and preferred to the saints, but to be shunned and avoided, as disagreeable and dangerous; their evil conversation, and wicked communications, are not to be loved, but abhorred, and their works of darkness are to be reproved; nor are their ways to be imitated, and their customs followed, or their manners to be conformed unto: neither the things that are in the world; good men that are in the world, though they are not of the world, are to be loved; and the kingdom of Christ, though it is not of the world, yet it is in the world, and is to be regarded and promoted to the uttermost; and there are the natural and civil things of the world, called this world's goods, which may be loved within due bounds, and used in a proper manner, though they are not to be loved inordinately and abused. This is the character of worldly men; so the Jews call such, , "such that love world" (g). Near relations and friends in the world, and the blessings of life, may be loved and enjoyed in their way, but not above God and…

Here the apostle encourages against sins of infirmity (Jo1 2:1, Jo1 2:2), shows the true knowledge and love of God (Jo1 2:3-6), renews the precept of fraternal love (Jo1 2:7-11), addresses the several ages of Christians (Jo1 2:12-14), warns against worldly love (Jo1 2:15-17), against seducers (Jo1 2:18, Jo1 2:19), shows the security of true Christians (Jo1 2:20-27), and advises to abide in Christ (Jo1 2:28, Jo1 2:29).

2:15-17 The world is a morally evil system that is under the influence of Satan and is opposed to God and to Christ’s Kingdom on this earth (2:16; 3:1; 4:4; 5:19; John 12:31; 15:18; Eph 6:11-12; Jas 4:4). The world appeals to people’s fleshly desires and thereby diverts them from God. Those who are from this world need God to redeem them from it.