What does God say about the "World"

[Truth_Seeker123]

We can’t take part in worldly things and make it to Heaven. Satan is the prince of this world and if you love this world, you hate God. If you are apart of this world, you will not be persecuted for Christ’s sake. The world loves it’s own. Worldly pleasures…

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Revelation 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Psalms 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

John 15:8 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

 

[RoryMcKenzie56]

No argument here. Along with “the flesh” and “the devil”, it leads the most souls into their own folly and destruction. Did you expect that Catholics would defend the world? We try to be detached from it. We even have traditions that you might condemn which we think are derived from Apostolic principles which are directed toward a radical distancing from the world. But all of us are called to be wary of the lures the world offers.

 

[soren1]

We can’t take part in worldly things and make it to Heaven. Satan is the prince of this world and if you love this world, you hate God. If you are apart of this world, you will not be persecuted for Christ’s sake. The world loves it’s own. Worldly pleasures…

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Revelation 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Psalms 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

John 15:8 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

You have given such a long list of texts, it is impossible to respond to them all. So I will limit myself just to the Gospel of John. There are several words in Greek commonly transalted as “world” in English Bibles. The most common are cosmos, aion, and bios. Each of these words has its own shades of meaning, often quite different from what one would expect from the just the English “world.”

The word that John uses for “world” is cosmos. Unlike the its English cognate, the primary meaning of this word in Greek is the human social order. In can also mean the universe, but John is not using it that way, as is apparent from the Prologue (Jn 1:1-18). The Prologue is all about the Word coming into the *cosmos *by “dwelling among us.” When it says “He came into his own, but his own received him not.” The word for “his own” (idioi) is a plural. It means, “those individual men who were his own.” That is what the Word coming into the cosmos means for John: Christ enters into the universal polity.

The “world,” therefore, that “received him not,” are the unconverted and unregenerate souls that preferred darkness to light, and yet, it is still into their world that Jesus came. It is from that world that he took some and gave them power to become sons of God. If Jesus enters into the world, then the world is sanctified by him and partakes in his divine sonship to the extent that it does not reject his gift. That is why there is no contradiction is being “in the world but not of the world.” We are in the world that Christ came into, but not in the world that rejected Christ.

 

[Truth_Seeker123]

No argument here. Along with “the flesh” and “the devil”, it leads the most souls into their own folly and destruction. Did you expect that Catholics would defend the world? We try to be detached from it. We even have traditions that you might condemn which we think are derived from Apostolic principles which are directed toward a radical distancing from the world. But all of us are called to be wary of the lures the world offers.

Why would I expect a catholics to defend the world?

 

[Wesley7]

By what it says, (Sacred Scripture) the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. You could use a globe and collect maps. For example, on the cover of the book Basic Works of Aristotle you can view the world through a glass sphere. There are the major continents and oceans. I’m sure Creationists or Evolutionists keep track of the geological dating considering the history of the world. (Planet Earth)

 

[John7]

We can’t take part in worldly things and make it to Heaven. **Satan is the prince of this world **and if you love this world, you hate God. If you are apart of this world, you will not be persecuted for Christ’s sake. The world loves it’s own. Worldly pleasures…

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Revelation 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Psalms 73:12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

John 15:8 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

What I don’t ‘get’ (yet) is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”

If God loves (or just loved?) the world, why shouldn’t I? I know not to love the world from verses like 1 John 2:15 above, but shouldn’t I love the world like God does??

 

[Truth_Seeker123]

What I don’t ‘get’ (yet) is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”

If God loves (or just loved?) the world, why shouldn’t I? I know not to love the world from verses like 1 John 2:15 above, but shouldn’t I love the world like God does??

You should love the world to want to help those who are lost, but not take part in worldly pleasures.

 

[LutheranDK]

We can’t take part in worldly things and make it to Heaven. Satan is the prince of this world and if you love this world, you hate God. If you are apart of this world, you will not be persecuted for Christ’s sake. The world loves it’s own. Worldly pleasures…

What constitutes, in your mind, “love of this world”, and what are “worldly things”?

It is worldly to drive a car? To ride a bike? To watch a sports game on a Saturday afternoon? Etc?

 

[Reuben_J]

You have given such a long list of texts, it is impossible to respond to them all. So I will limit myself just to the Gospel of John. There are several words in Greek commonly transalted as “world” in English Bibles. The most common are cosmos, aion, and bios. Each of these words has its own shades of meaning, often quite different from what one would expect from the just the English “world.”

The word that John uses for “world” is cosmos. Unlike the its English cognate, the primary meaning of this word in Greek is the human social order. In can also mean the universe, but John is not using it that way, as is apparent from the Prologue (Jn 1:1-18). The Prologue is all about the Word coming into the *cosmos *by “dwelling among us.” When it says “He came into his own, but his own received him not.” The word for “his own” (idioi) is a plural. It means, “those individual men who were his own.” That is what the Word coming into the cosmos means for John: Christ enters into the universal polity.

The “world,” therefore, that “received him not,” are the unconverted and unregenerate souls that preferred darkness to light, and yet, it is still into their world that Jesus came. It is from that world that he took some and gave them power to become sons of God. If Jesus enters into the world, then the world is sanctified by him and partakes in his divine sonship to the extent that it does not reject his gift. That is why there is no contradiction is being “in the world but not of the world.” We are in the world that Christ came into, but not in the world that rejected Christ.

Great explanation, great post.