Christians are called to love God and their brethren, but they must not love the world, i.e. the circle of interests divorced from God and in opposition to His will. Its gratifications, such as sensual excesses, unlawful desires awakened by means of the eyes, self-assertive and atheistical display, belong to a doomed and dying order. World is the key-word to this section. Unlike 1 John 2:2 (cf. also 1 John 4:14), where it describes the sum total of humanity, it means here the un-Christian and anti-Christian forces and interests of the time, society viewed as apart from God and controlled merely by selfishness. Hence in John's terminology it is the antithesis of the Church which it hates (1 John 3:13), the home of Antichrist and false prophets (1 John 4:1 ff.), and the domain of Satan (1 John 5:19). The sharp contrast in the first century between the Christian brotherhood and society outside it gave special point to this conception.
1 John 2:17 a. John believed that the existing order of things was on the point of being brought to an end (1 John 2:18). On this ground, love of it was foolish, even as, because of its moral quality, love of it was incompatible with a true love for God (cf. James 4:4).