Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. (1 John 2:15)

(I was sharing some thoughts with my wife and also with a friend at church; they both thought this worth sharing with others; thus, this post-RL)

The above verse is pretty well-known to Christians, and is frequently used when preaching to teenagers, and I’m not going to repeat all of that here.

Instead, I have noticed that some people misunderstand was is being commanded here; they teach and practice that “Love not” = “despise” or “hate” – and thus they fall into error.

When someone loves something, that “something” is the focus of their attention; it is important to them and changes their behavior.

However – the SAME is true when someone hates something.  One doesn’t want to be like it; the hated object captures our attention and we modify our behavior so that we won’t be like it — and this is wrong.  After all, if you hate something, it can manipulate you just as easily as if you love it – it does has to do the opposite of what it wants you do do.

As Christians, our focus should be on Jesus Christ; He should be the focus of our attention.

What then should be our attitude toward the world? It should mean nothing to us; we neither love it or hate it.  It just doesn’t matter to us.  If the world, for a time, happens to have a fashion that is Biblical, that’s fine – the fact that the world embraces it shouldn’t matter at all to us.  And when the world has something that is contrary to the Scriptures, it still doesn’t matter; our attention is on our Savior and His word.