Should We Love the World?

Steve Corley

Given in Roanoke and Kingsport on Sabbath, October 21, 2023

Given in Knoxville on Sabbath, December 16, 2023

I have explained in previous sermons that failure to understand the range of meanings of the Greek words “nomos” (law) and “gennao” (which can refer to any stage of the process from conception through birth) has led traditional Christianity to establish the false doctrines that most or all of the Law is “done away” and that Christians are already “born again.”  Likewise, as I discussed in another sermon, misunderstanding (and mistranslation) of the different meanings of the Greek word “miseo” has led to contradictions in many English translations of the New Testament, contradictions which are not there in the original Greek – with some verses in these translations telling us to hate the same people whom other verses tell us to love and honor.  In this sermon I would like to address another very similar issue which comes up from English translations of the New Testament – should we love the “world” or shouldn’t we, and what can we learn from what the Bible actually is telling us about this issue?  We can title the sermon “Should We Love the World?”

Let’s turn to a very familiar Scripture – John 3:16.  Here we are told that God [the Father] loved the “world” so much that He sent His Son that we (the people) might have the opportunity for eternal life – which required the death of His Son.  But let’s turn to another Scripture which was written down by the same apostle – 1 John 2:15.  Here we are told that if anyone loves the “world,” the love of the Father is not in him.  So does this mean that God loves the “world” but we should not?  Aren’t we supposed to be developing the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5) – a member of the God Family who loved the “world” enough that He was willing to come here as a human being and die for our sins?  Furthermore, the same Greek word for “world” (κόσμος, “kosmos,” Strong’s #2889) is used in John 3:16 and 1 John 2:15.  So does this mean that God loves the same “kosmos” that we must not love?  In addition, the Greek word for “love” in both John 3:16 and 1 John 2:15 is the same – ἀγαπάω (“agapao,” Strong’s #25), which signifies an attitude of charity or outgoing concern.  Does this mean that God has an attitude of outgoing concern for the “world,” but we should not?  What about Galatians 6:10 – which tells us that we should do good to all as we have opportunity, first to the household of faith but then also to the people of the world?  What is going on here?

The sermon will explain that the seeming contradiction is solved by the fact that the Greek word “kosmos” has a range of meanings (as also has our word “world” itself) and that failing to understand this fact can make the Bible appear to contain contradictions.  Likewise, failure to understand the different meanings of the Greek word “kosmos” can lead to similar problems.  The basic meaning of “kosmos,” according to Strong’s dictionary, is “orderly arrangement.”  Our word “cosmos” for the universe derives from the “arrangement” of the heavenly bodies.  By extension of “orderly arrangement,” the Greek word “kosmos” can even refer to “decoration” and that is how we get our word “cosmetic.”  But the word “kosmos” as used in the New Testament is generally applied to the earth rather than to the outside universe.  The word can refer to either the world as God created or “arranged” it (human beings, plants and animals and the physical earth) or, on the other hand, to the system which Satan (as world ruler in this present age) and human beings under him have set up or “arranged” on the earth.  Likewise our term “world” can encompass both meanings.  And this distinction explains the seeming contradiction between John 3:16 and 1 John 2:15.  We are to love the people (and the physical earth) but hate Satan’s system.

When God [re]created the physical earth – before Satan influenced Eve and then Adam – God said that all He had created was “very good” (Gen. 1:31).  By contrast, the Gnostics were the ones who thought the physical universe – and especially the human body – was at best subpar, or at worst evil.  But God said His physical creation was very good.  We are to love the “world” which God created – the people of this world as well as the physical earth. God loves the physical earth He created and its people.  And we are indeed to follow God’s example and love the people of the world (as we read in Gal. 6:10).  We are to do good to all people as we have opportunity.  We are also to love and take care of the physical earth – we all appreciate the beauty of what God created.  God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it (Gen. 2:15) – and we should have the same attitude toward the planet which God has given us.  And this part of the world where we live is indeed very beautiful with its mountains and hills, forests and rivers.  When I was growing up here I never fully appreciated the beauty we have in this area until I moved to flat country (where I lived for almost 40 years). 

[Of course some people, with their own human ideas about how they should “love the planet” and protect “the ecology,” advocate keeping everything possible in the “wild” state – trying to put roadblocks in the way of all development, opposing any clearing of forests for agriculture.  God intended man to be an agricultural being – though to practice agriculture in ways which worked together with nature and protected the soil.  But the most extreme of the “rewilding” people have even considered the possibility of human extinction to be positive – they consider human beings a cancer on what would be otherwise a “wild and healthy planet.”  To take such a point of view, however, is very clearly to do Satan’s work for him.  Satan is the one who wants to eliminate humanity and Christ will have to cut Satan’s time as ruler short to prevent him from doing so (Matt. 24:22).]

But we are not to love the “world” system which Satan has set up on this earth.  God hates Satan’s system so much that He wiped out mankind (except for eight people) because under Satan’s rule the earth had become filled with violence and the thoughts of human beings were only evil continually (Gen. 6:5, 11-12).  Satan had turned people evil and set them against each other and against God.  Even though Satan is not divided against himself (Matt. 12:26), his strategy, as the enemy of humanity, was to divide mankind against itself to such an extent that it was involved in constant violent war.  Likewise God expelled the Canaanites from the land because they, under Satan’s influence, had defiled the land with their vile pagan practices (Lev. 18:25, Deut. 12:1-4, 31).  The nations of Israel and Judah themselves were also much later expelled for the same reason (2 Kings 17:5-23).  Similarly, God will have to send Jesus Christ back to earth to put an end to Satan’s rule before Satan’s agreed-upon time as world ruler is completed – this time to prevent humanity (spurred on by Satan) from destroying itself (Matt. 24:22).  Even though we have to live in this world, we are not to become so engrossed in it that we start to “love” it – remember the seed which were sown among thorns in the parable (Matt. 13:22).  To be a friend (φίλος, “philos,” Strong’s #5384) of this world’s system is to be an enemy of God (James 4:4).

Sometimes the word translated “world” in the KJV is αἰών, “aion” (Strong’s #165), meaning “age.”  In the NKJV “aion” is more often translated “age,” as when Satan is referred to as the “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4).  However in the NKJV “aion” is still sometimes translated “world” as in John 14:30 where Jesus said “the ruler of this world [Satan] is coming.”  “This world” is often used synonymously with “this age” since Satan is the world ruler only during this age – the time which God has allotted to him.  In Bible translations where we see Satan referred to as “the god of this world,” “the prince of this world” or “the ruler of this world” – in these verses the Greek world translated “world” is “aion” – age.  Satan is the god, the prince, the ruler of this particular age – not the inherent ruler of the earth.  When this age is over Christ will kick Satan out of power and all of these descriptors applied to Satan will become obsolete.

Satan is indeed the ruler of this age – and of this “world” during this age.  Satan himself is portrayed as the “king” of one particular nation at that time – the city-state of Tyre – in the familiar passage of Ezekiel 28:11-19.  Verses 13 and 14 make it very clear that no human is being described – and verse 14 identifies the being in question as an angel, an “anointed cherub.”  The human ruler of Tyre is called the “prince” of Tyre in verse 2, in contrast to Satan who is called the “king” of Tyre in verse 12.  God primarily lets Satan run things on earth during his allotted time in this age, although God intervenes from time to time whenever such fits His purpose.  (Mr. Petty mentioned this at the Feast in Gatlinburg.)  Such intervention can include setting up and removing the rulers of nations (cf. Daniel 2:21). 

An example of another type of intervention is shown in Daniel 10:10-14 (see also verses 20-21) when God sent an angel to deliver a prophecy to Daniel.  However, a demon, identified as the “prince of the kingdom of Persia,” was able to stop the angel for 21 days until God sent a more powerful angel – the archangel Michael – to overcome the demon.  The “prince of the kingdom of Persia” in question was evidently not a human since a human on his own would not have been able to stop the supernatural power of an angel.  But we see from these verses in Daniel how Satan is allowed to exert power over nations through a shadow government – demons whom he puts over particular nations who manipulate the human leaders through their influence over their minds (just as Satan himself was identified as the true king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:12).  These demons are using the human national leaders as pawns, albeit willing pawns.

When Paul sadly said that his former companion in the ministry Demas had deserted him, he described Demas as “having loved this present world” (2 Tim. 4:10).  And the word translated “world” in this verse is again “aion” – age.  Demas had deserted the truth and had fallen in “love” with Satan’s system through which he rules the world in the present age – he had gone over to becoming a “friend” of that system as we read earlier in James 4:4.  We do not know what subsequently happened to Demas.  Legend says that Demas subsequently became a priest of idols in Thessalonica (although the Bible does not say this).

Whenever we are tempted to become too engrossed in this world’s system we should remember that the form (or system) of this world (“kosmos”) is passing away (1 Cor. 7:31).  It is true that we see no sign now that Satan’s system is passing away.  Indeed, Satan will appear to have achieved his greatest victories just before Christ returns (cf. Matt. 24:22).  But when God assures us that this world’s system is passing away, we need to remember that God calls those things which do not [yet] exist as though they did (Rom. 4:17).  He is the One who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10).  In the Millennium we will indeed be able to love the world in all the meanings of the word – the earth, the people (Rom. 9:25-26) and the system.  Christ will replace Satan’s world system with God’s utopian system.

But for now this is still Satan’s world as far as the rulership and basic system is concerned. Just as Christ overcame the world (John 16:33), so must we overcome Satan’s system (1 John 5:4-5, cf. 1 John 2:13-14).  Apparently a key reason why God has left Satan in power during this age is so we can be trained and learn to overcome him – in order that Christ may use us as kings and priests in His Kingdom (Rev. 5:9-10).  If we can learn to obey God now in the face of all Satan’s temptations, then God will have confidence in us that we will certainly obey Him when He rules and Satan is gone.  God will then have confidence that after we are changed and given immortal spirit bodies, we will forever be unable to sin (1 John 3:9) – we will always be loyal to Him and will never rebel against Him.  Then Jer. 12:5 will be able to be applied to us in reverse.  If we have shown that we can “contend with horses” in resisting Satan in this age, God will have total confidence that we can “run with the footmen” serving Christ as kings and priests when He rules.

We have seen that the seeming contradiction between “God so loved the world” in John 3:16 and “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” in 1 John 2:15 is not a contradiction at all.  Our word “world” – just like the original Greek word “kosmos” – has different meanings in the two verses.  Just as God does, we are to love and take care of the physical earth.  We are to love and do good to the people of the world, as we have opportunity.  But we are not to love the way the world operates and is governed – we are not to love the system which Satan has set up and which God says is passing away.  May we all be there to serve as kings and priests under Christ in the world-ruling system which He will set up, which will make Satan’s system obsolete for eternity!  Then we will truly be able to “love the world” – the physical earth, its people and also the system.