Do Not Love the World
The “world” is an ambivalent term in the Scriptures, and it is used in the Johannine writings in two main senses, which are opposed. The term is sometimes used in a neutral or even good sense, as in the famous passage: “God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son…” (Jn. 3:16). Here the world, which was created and deemed “very good” by God (Gen. 1:31), is the object of his love and solicitude, for He sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save it (Jn. 3:17). The goodness and beauty of creation is one of the themes of the Psalms and Old Testament wisdom literature.
Thus the writers of the New Testament were already armed against those of the Gnostics who would consider creation as such, that is, the world as matter, to be evil simply because it was material. To them it was inferior to all that was spiritual and hence it could not be a true way to God. Therefore they could not accept the incarnation of the Son of God and had to come up with various theories to get around it or even deny it outright. St John dealt specifically with this issue and insisted on the actual incarnation of the Son in real, material human flesh. So the Apostle had no a priori bias against the world as material creation, and he was well aware that God loved the work of his hands. We ought to keep that in mind when we read his denunciations of the “world.”
St John generally uses the pejorative sense of “world” in his First Epistle. This sense is that of the world insofar as it is hostile to God or somehow turned away from Him. It is the world precisely as fallen and unrepentant, as seeking independence by
The “world” is an ambivalent term in the Scriptures, and it is used in the Johannine writings in two main senses, which are opposed. The term is sometimes used in a neutral or even good sense, as in the famous passage: “God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son…” (Jn. 3:16). Here the world, which was created and deemed “very good” by God (Gen. 1:31), is the object of his love and solicitude, for He sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save it (Jn. 3:17). The goodness and beauty of creation is one of the themes of the Psalms and Old Testament wisdom literature.
Thus the writers of the New Testament were already armed against those of the Gnostics who would consider creation as such, that is, the world as matter, to be evil simply because it was material. To them it was inferior to all that was spiritual and hence it could not be a true way to God. Therefore they could not accept the incarnation of the Son of God and had to come up with various theories to get around it or even deny it outright. St John dealt specifically with this issue and insisted on the actual incarnation of the Son in real, material human flesh. So the Apostle had no a priori bias against the world as material creation, and he was well aware that God loved the work of his hands. We ought to keep that in mind when we read his denunciations of the “world.”
St John generally uses the pejorative sense of “world” in his First Epistle. This sense is that of the world insofar as it is hostile to God or somehow turned away from Him. It is the world precisely as fallen and unrepentant, as seeking independence by
