1 John 2:15

Love not the world The asyndeton is remarkable. S. John has just stated his premises, his readers" happiness as Christians. He now abruptly states the practical conclusion, without any introductory -therefore". As was said above on 1 John 2:2, we must distinguish between the various meanings of the Apostle's favourite word, -world." In John 3:16 he tells us that -God loved the world", and here he tells us that wemust notdo so. "S. John is never afraid of an apparent contradiction when it saves his readers from a real contradiction … The opposition which is on the surface of his language may be the best way of leading us to the harmony which lies below it" (Maurice). The world which the Father loves is the whole human race. The world which we are not to love is all that is alienated from Him, all that prevents men from loving Him in return. The world which God loves is His creature and His child: the world which we are not to love is His rival. The best safeguard against the selfish love of what is sinful in the world is to remember God's unselfish love of the world. -The world" here is that from which S. James says the truly religious man keeps himself -unspotted", friendship with which is -enmity with God" (James 1:27; James 4:4). It is not enough to say that -the world" here means -earthly things, so far as they tempt to sin", or -sinful lusts", or -worldly and impious men". It means all of these together: all that acts as a rival to God; all that is alienated from God and opposed to Him, especially sinful men with their sinful lusts. -The world" and -the darkness" are almost synonymous; to love the one is to love the other (John 3:19): to be in the darkness is to be of the world.

neither the things that are in the world Or, nor yet the things, &c., i.e. -Love not the world; no, nor anything in that sphere." Comp. -Not to consort with … no, nor eat with" (1 Corinthians 5:11). -The things in the world", as is plain from 1 John 2:16, are not material objects, which can be desired and possessed quite innocently, although they may also be occasions of sin. Rather, they are those elements in the world which are necessarily evil, its lusts and ambitions and jealousies, which stamp it as the kingdom of -the ruler of this world" (John 12:31) and not the kingdom of God.

If any man love the world Once more, as in 1 John 2:1, the statement is made quite general by the hypothetical form: everyone who does so is in this case. The Lord had proclaimed the same principle; -No man canserve two masters … Ye cannotserve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). So also S. James; -Whosoever would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God" (1 John 4:4). Comp. Galatians 1:10. Thus we arrive at another pair of those opposites of which S. John is so fond. We have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate; we now have love of the Father and love of the world. The world which is coextensive with darkness must exclude the God who is light. By writing -the love of the Father" rather than -the love of God" (which some authorities read here) the Apostle points to the duty of Christians as childrenof God. -The love of the Father" (a phrase which occurs nowhere else) means man's love to Him, not His to man: see on 1 John 2:5. A fragment of Philo declares that -it is impossible for love to the world to coexist with love to God".