Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- NLT Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Believers must not love the world or its values, for love of the world crowds out love for the Father. The heart cannot serve both.
Overview
The 'world' here means the sinful system organized against God, not creation or people as such. To love it is incompatible with the Father's love dwelling in us. John calls for undivided devotion, warning that worldly affections and love for God are mutually exclusive. This guards the heart's true allegiance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jas 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
- Rom 12:2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
- Matt 6:24No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
- Col 3:1–2Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
- Luke 16:13No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
- 1 Jn 5:4–5because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.
- John 15:19If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
- 1 Jn 3:17If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?
- 1 Tim 6:10For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
- Gal 1:10Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
- 1 Jn 4:5They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them.
- Eph 2:2in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
- 1 Jn 5:10Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 2:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.