He really loves his car/wife/kids/chocolate

As the title suggests, our use of the word "love" carries a wide variety of definitions.  We can love our wife, or children, our car, lasagna or The Rolling Stones.  Each use of love is different than the other, or should be (if not, we have serious issues).
With that in mind, how should we understand the text that says, "Do not love the world or the things of the world"?  The first thing to notice is the distinction of two things forbidden here.  One, the world and two, the things of the world.  If this were a mere prohibition of things sinful, then what does the distinction mean?  What is being communicated here can be classified by use of a metaphor.  Like someone training for a marathon, the eating of doughnuts and pizza is not bad in itself, but it is bad because it is contrary to the desired goal, running 26 miles in record time.  So too the Christian life.  Often, in Protestant thinking, Jesus has completed everything and we need to simply ride his coattails into bliss.  But that is not the instruction we receive from Scripture or the church.
We are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," and "discipline my body and bring it into subjection".  Simply put, the world (that is, things that are not external) and things of the world (that is, material, temporal things that distract us from eternal life) are not to be loved.  We are to use those things that are necessary for our station in life, but hold on to them very loosely.  We really need to be focused on our sanctification, loving God and loving neighbor.