Reasons to Love Not the World

1 John 2:
15 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.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Notice two reasons not to love the world, whatever "the world" is. Interestingly, the words "love" and "world" that John uses are the same ones Jesus used in John 3:16 when He said God so loved the world. John exhorts us, commands us -- do not love the world!

The love of the world is opposed to the love of God the Father. No man can serve two masters. No man can love two opposites. The world and its elements are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These elements arise not from our Father God, but from the nature of the world. We cannot love both. We must "choose this day" whom we will love. Worldly love should have no place in the child of God.

The world is temporal and the child of God is eternal. We should lay up our treasures -- our love -- in a place that is eternal, and we should love that which is eternal. The world is passing away, and all the desires we have in it. Let us not place our desires, our treasures, our love, in a woven basket that is temporal. Love that which we will love throughout eternity and not that which will melt with fervent heat.