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 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 

 

Listen the author of this letter is the apostle John, John is the apostle of intimacy. He is very concerned with our fellowship, with our LORD. John wrote to Christians, whom he addressed in 1 John as “little children” In this letter John is speaking of an obedience walk with God in righteousness, a submission to the truth, and working together in love as being a key element of intimacy with God, without being caught up in this world system. 

 

Beloved you CANNOT mix unleaded and diesel fuel and still think you’re going somewhere. The moment you introduce diesel and unleaded into the same “ unleaded-only”  engine, you have canceled the unleaded by the fact of introducing the diesel. Listen just because it looks like gas doesn’t mean it will help you. What we do as Christians is we come to church to get unleaded, then on Monday, we go to the world and get diesel and wonder why we’re only chugging along. 

 

John says do not love the world. Listen the Greek word for world is kosmos. I believe that it is worth the time to look at a New Testament Greek Lexicon of the word kosmos. This will show how wide the range of the meaning that kosmos has in Scripture. The word kosmos falls into three main groups.

The first meaning of the term “kosmos”   is used first with the sense of the material universe, this earth. For example Acts 17:24 the God that made the world and all things therein, Matt. 13:35 and the foundation of the world, John 1:10 he was in the world and the world was made by him; Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world. 

Now the second meaning of the term “kosmos”  is the inhabitants of the world. For example in John 1:10  “the world knew him not; John 3:16 God so loved the world, John, John 17:21 that the world may believe. 

 

Now the third meaning of the term  “kosmos”  we find is used in Scripture means: worldly affairs, goods, endowments, riches, and pleasures, which are all hollow and fleeting, stir our desire and seduce us from God so that they are disruptions to the cause of Christ.

 

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” What kosmos is John talking about in 1 John 2:15?  Listen he does not mean the world of creation, that is, the system and order found in the physical creation. In spring the flowers bloom and the trees put out leaves. In the fall the leaves begin to turn all kinds of beautiful colors, like yellow and gold, and red. I live in Chattanooga, Tn I see this every fall.  Then the leaves turn into beautiful colors and then fall off, and winter soon comes. This is not the world we are warned against loving. This is the world God created for our enjoyment.

 

John is not talking about the physical earth where beautiful roses and tall trees grow. The wonderful mountains and the falls and the running streams are not what we are to hate. Rather, they are something we can admire and relish and enjoy.

 

John is also not talking about the second meaning of the word, kosmos, humanity, or mankind. We are told that “God so loved the world.” What world? The world of people, of human beings. “… God so loved the world, the ele

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