I WOULD GUESS that if I were to gather together a random group of American Christians and ask them to recite from memory the first Bible verse that comes to mind, it would be John 3:16 — “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). It’s often the center of how people present the good news to others, and rightly so; it’s central to John’s gospel.

But let’s not forget what John means by “the world.” He isn’t simply referring to the earth or even everyone on it. For John, as we’ve seen before, “world” signifies human life in opposition to God. The good news, therefore, needs to hold John 3:16 together with verse 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” God, in other words, loved the world even though it deserved condemnation. And in love, God acted in grace to save this rebellious world.

When we get to chapter 4 of 1 John, he will tell us that God is not only light but love itself. God loved the world because God is love. In turn, those who know and have fellowship with God are also expected to love one another. But what should be our stance toward the world? God demonstrated his sacrificial and gracious love for the world in Jesus; shouldn’t we as followers of Jesus do the same?

No, John, says, in the very first command of his letter. We are most definitely not to love the world. Here’s what he says:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. (1 John 2:15)

John uses the word “love” here three times, twice as a verb, and once as a noun. And every time, it’s agape, just as it is in John 3:16. Again, God graciously shows agape to the world. We are commanded by Jesus to show agape to one another. But John explicitly tells his readers not to love the world. Why?

Let’s start with this: it’s often misleading to treat words as if they only had one meaning. Over the last several months, for example, I have been studying Spanish, and often get confused as I learn new vocabulary words. It’s one thing to learn that gato means cat; every time I see the word gato, I know how to understand it. But it’s another to see the same word used different ways in different contexts. When I first encountered the verb conocer, it meant to know someone, and I filed that fact away in my brain. But then I was surprised when I started running into sentences in which it meant to meet someone. The meanings are related but distinct, and the right reading depends on context.

The same is true of any language, whether Spanish, English — or New Testament Greek. Words have more than one meaning and have to be read in context. My point is that it’s shortsighted to think of agape as only meaning “sacrificial love” in the manner of John 3:16. When John says that we shouldn’t love the world, therefore, he isn’t telling us not to show Christian love to people.

But what is he saying? Let’s read the verse again, this time in the context of the next two verses:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

In context, John is talking broadly about desire. What do we want in life? What motivates us? What do we pursue? To “love the world” is to want the same things everyone else wants, whether they are believers or not, to share the same desires and goals. If the “world” signifies human life in opposition to God, then it makes sense that John would say that people who love the world don’t love the Father, for people who pursue worldly desires are running in the opposite direction from God.

We’ll explore what he means by “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” shortly. Meanwhile, remember that John is speaking in largely black and white terms in his letter: light versus darkness, truth versus lies, love versus hate. Jesus does something similar in the Sermon on the Mount, when he speaks of the “treasures” we pursue in life. We should pursue heavenly treasures, not earthly ones, for “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). It’s a question of loyalty and devotion, and Jesus puts the matter in stark terms:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Matt 6:24)

The starkness of the contrast is a much-needed wake-up call. It’s too easy to be lulled into worldly ways of thinking, into pursuing the same desires without a moment’s thought as to what we’re doing. But John is not saying that anyone who has a worldly impulse is not a believer. That would contradict what he’s emphasized earlier: we will sin, but in Christ, we are forgiven.

So don’t love the world. Remember that loving God sometimes means turning away from desires that we might otherwise take for granted. But even when we do desire things in a way that we shouldn’t, we can rest assured that God won’t turn away from us.