The World: Love It or Hate It?

Tullian Tchividjian

Have you ever wondered why the Bible seems to be guilty of double-talk when speaking of "the world"? John 3:16tells us that God the Father loves the world so much that he sent God the Son to fix it. But we're told in 1 John 2:15-17 not to love the world, and James tells us that "a friend of the world" is "an enemy of God" (James 4:4). We have Paul telling us in 2 Corinthians 6:17 to be separate from the world and to "go out from" unbelievers, while Jesus, in Mark 16:15 commands his disciples to "go into all the world."

What's going on? Is the world good or bad? Are we to love it or hate it? Enter it or exit it?

The answer: it all depends on which sense of the wordworld you mean.

As scholars point out, the word world has three basic meanings in the Bible. It can refer to (1) the created order, (2) the human community, and (3) the sinful ways of humanity, or cultural godlessness. It's this third meaning, for instance, that Paul identifies when he tells us, "Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12:2). He's not telling us to avoid the created order or other human beings. It's actually worldliness that Paul is warning against.

Furthermore, when it comes to the world, it's necessary to differentiate between "structure" and "direction." It's the difference between what there is and how we use what there is. The world as structure refers to the people (such as my next-door neighbor), places (such as Miami), and things (such as art or music) of the created order. "Direction" refers to the ethical use or misuse of God's created goods. As the Bible teaches, God created all things good (structure). But our sin has broken and corrupted every good thing God created, "directing" it away from him. Everything in the created order (every person, place, and thing) has been twisted out of shape by our sin.