Think Again About The World

God loves the world we live in. In perhaps the most well-known passage in the Bible, John tells us that:

John 3v16-17
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And if God loves the world, then we should love the world.

We get confused about this because of scriptures like:

1 John 2v15-17
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world.
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.

So does the Bible teach us to love the world, or not to love the world? The answer, of course, is both, but in different senses.

We must not love the philosophy of the world, we must not share the desires of the world, we must not buy into the attitudes of the world, as James says:

James 4v1-4
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

This is summarised by Paul:

Romans 12v2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

But we must love the people of the world! Our first scripture this week tells us that it was love for the world that caused God to send Jesus to save people, including us. Paul said:

1 Timothy 1v15
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst.

God's mission is to save the world! And we must share His mission!

We were once the people of the world. And we still would be if someone had not loved us enough to tell us the Good News about Jesus.

We - the church - are in the world but not of the world. The very word "church" means "called out". We have been called out of the world, and Paul tells us:

2 Corinthians 6v15-18
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.
As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

Like Jesus, we must avoid being polluted by the world but, also like Jesus, we must engage with the world.

Like Jesus, we must keep ourselves holy but, also like Jesus, we must be the friends of sinners.

Think again about the world.

Have you allowed yourself to be polluted by worldly attitudes and desires? Then repent - now! Be pure for your Saviour's sake.

Have you stood aloof from the world, withdrawing yourself from God's mission to save the world? Then, again, repent now! Love the world as God loves it.

Love the sinners, hate the sins. And remember that you too are a sinner, you too pollute others with your words, your actions, and your inaction. And you too need to be loved.