1 John 2:15 verse do not be a lover of this of this world or things in it. What does exactly this verse mean I’ve been a Christian for 12 years and never fully understood it. Some preachers told me they interpreted as do not love sin. I’ve been told it means do not love nothing of this world more than God. I also been told it means do not be friends with unbelievers. What do yall think the true meaning of this verse means ?
The New Testament often uses a word,
kosmos, which is translated as "world". But the word kosmos is multifaceted.
For some background, the literal meaning of
kosmos is "order" or "arrangement". The early pre-Socratic Greek philosophers were often very interested in asking the question about what is everything. Why is there all this that we see and experience? And what is it? The word they chose to use to describe the order, or arrangement of what they experienced--the world/universe/creation/nature etc--is kosmos. It spoke of the fact that there is an ordered reality of experience and sensation, and thus they also wanted to know how and in what way it was ordered. Different philosophers answered these sorts of questions in different ways.
By the time of the New Testament kosmos could mean "world" in the sense of the natural order, the realm of man and civilization, or how the world of human beings is governed (by civil or natural or divine or spiritual laws of different kinds).
As such, this word kosmos gets used in different ways. On the one hand John 3:16 says "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" and on the other hand 1 John 2:15 says "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Another concept we see in Scripture is aion, "age"; in some (usually older) translations this also gets translated as "world" (because "world" in English used to be more complex in meaning). When Paul writes that the devil is "the god of this world" he is saying the devil is the "ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου" ("the god of this age"), speaking of this present age or time, where sin and death exist, the fallen state of things.
In the same kind of way kosmos, as order and arrangement, talks about the current order or way of things; how things are right now in the world, the way things work in the world, with all the evil, sin, and death at present.
So when John 3:16 says God so loved the world, it means God's love for us, for His creation, and His will, purpose, and intent to redeem, rescue, and heal through Jesus Christ.
But when 2 John 2:15 says anyone who loves the world does not have God's love, it is talking about attachment, affection, and love of the present order of things.
On the one hand, God's creation is good, after all Scripture says God saw all that He made and that it was me'od tov (exceedingly lovely and good).
On the other hand, sin and death has come into the world and created is a pollutant corrupting and infecting everything, and the way of things as they are now is not good, it's evil.
It is that latter idea that loving the world or "friendship with the world" (James 4:4) is wrong, it is contrary to God. To cling to the present way of things, of corruption and power and earthly glory is antithetical to the way and will of God. In this we are to have no affection for the world, to have nothing in common with it, to detest it. Not the creation of God, which is good. It does not mean don't go to work, or have a family, or make friends; there are good things in the world and there are things we need to do to survive in the world. But do not have the same values that the world has, do not prioritize what the world prioritizes. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
-CryptoLutheran
