Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 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." — 1 John 2:15 (ASV)

Having assured the believers of their position before God—i.e., their sins are forgiven, they know the Father, and they have overcome the evil one—John moves to application. He warns them not to love the world and gives two reasons: Love for the world precludes love for the Father, and the investment of love in the world is without meaning because the world is passing away (v.17). The love of the world versus the love of the Father provides yet another “test” of walking in the light.

“World” (GK 3180) occurs six times in vv.15–17. It obviously means something quite different here than in Jn 3:16. There the Father’s love of the world is apparently based on his having willed the world into existence. It is his creation; he created it to be good, beautiful, and worthy of giving glory to him. Likewise those who live in the world are his creatures, whom he loves; even in their desperate state of living in darkness and the shadow of death, he remains constant in desiring to rescue them from eternal death. Here, however, the world is presented as the evil system under the grip of the devil (cf. 1Jn5:19; 14:30).

Love also means something different in this passage. Here it is not the selfless love for one’s brother (cf. 2:10) but the love that entices by an evil desire or a forbidden appetite (12:43). It is the world’s ability to seduce believers, to draw them away from love of the Father, that concerns John.