1 John 2:15 15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
God has given every human an innate ability and longing to love. The problem is that our fallen nature loves the wrong things. Love can be easily distorted. It is often associated with emotions, which can be influenced by hormones or physical responses. People think that if they feel good about something or someone, that this feeling must be love. To some degree, love is connected to a sense of well-being. The world offers us many good feelings. This is especially true when it comes to satisfying our natural instincts and drives (food, sexuality, survival, comfort, etc.). The problem is that feelings come and go. The feelings of goodness come when certain of our drives are satisfied (what Paul the Apostle called the “flesh”). But we cannot continually satisfy these feelings. Sometimes our bodies cannot handle it or a situation changes. Good feelings from the flesh come and go.
John pinpoints the core danger facing humans: loving the world or the created things in the world. The world (kosmon) in John’s writings broadly represents all created things, but it can also have a negative connotation of how creation, especially humanity, has distorted God’s plan and pursued selfish and sinful ways. The things of the world are not necessarily bad because they are God’s gift to humanity to enjoy. The problem is loving these things so that they become idols that detract us from loving God and loving other people as God has loved us. If our focus is on the world and its empty promises, we are missing out on God’s love. Our misdirected emotions and the empty promises of satisfaction from the world draw our focus away from God. We only truly come to know what love is when we love God and experience God’s love in our lives.