Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him.
Love not the world: "Love" is agapao, the same kind of love one is to have for God and his brethren. This love of preciousness is not to be lost on the world. One’s sense of values enters the picture as John, in essence, urges, "Do not place an excessive value on the world and worldly things." The kind of love John encourages is a love of the will that requires a purposeful choice on the part of the one loving. John exhorts his beloved brethren to make a wise choice in the things they highly prize. "Love" is present imperative in the Greek, thus suggesting a continuous course of action. To love the world is to pursue a daily course of worldliness in life. "World" is kosmos, which means an ordered system. It is used to refer to the universe (John 1:10), the earth (John 21:25), the human race (John 3:16), life on this earth (1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:17), or simply an ordered system separate from God. "World" is used in the latter sense here. The world-system that is not to be loved by the Christian is a system that is anti-God and anti-godliness. The world here is not to be understood to refer to the material earth and all of its wonder nor to the people of the world but to a secular system of pursuits, practices, pleasures, and places where God is not welcome nor reverenced. In fact, Satan is the leader of this world (John 12:31). Barclay says that kosmos here means "a world apart from God." (66). So, the "world" is an evil system at enmity with God.