1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (LSB)
One of the markers of genuineness in a Christian is separation from the World. However, his isn’t a physical removal from planet Earth or a disintegration of the body of a Christian. Instead, a genuine Christian’s character should be in a continual upgrade unto Christlikeness….
That means that as he or she cooperates with God in their sanctification, working out their salvation with fear and trembling, their character will take on more and more of Christ’s character. They will love what He loves and hate what he hates. God is love, but He hates a certain type of love.
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. John 15:18-19 (LSB)
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves 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 boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (LSB)
If professing believers love the very thing that hates the truth of God’s sovereignty, His genuine character–not the one they have made up, and all genuine Christians who proclaim these truths then they prove either that they are very immature Christians or the love of the Father is not in them. The word love used here, in the Greek, means “affection and devotion.” John is telling us that genuine Christians will not habitually have affection and devotion for the world or the things in the world.