What does the Bible mean by ‘the world’? In my previous post I compared a convenience store with its shelves lined with candy to our world and its temptations toward evil.
I quoted an important Scripture that raises many questions: “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19).
So, according to the Bible, what is “the world”?
Who is the evil one? Does Satan really exist? If so, in what sense does Satan have power over the whole world?
What should your attitude be toward the world?
Let’s begin with the first question.
What is the world?
The Bible uses the word world in several different senses.
First, world can refer to the physical earth. The world is what God created in Genesis 1, and he pronounced it good. Since God is perfectly good, and he made the world, then the world is good.
Second, the Bible uses the word world to refer to humanity in general without having good or evil in view.
We see this in the well-known Scripture John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Third, the Bible uses the word world to refer to what is anti-God in humanity and human culture. What do humans create and do that is anti-God? What systems do humans create that reject God’s commandments?
This is the sense in James 4:4: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Examples
Here are three examples corresponding to the three senses of the word world described above.
- You go to a forest preserve and feel refreshed by the beauty of nature. On the way home, you stop at your favorite restaurant and order your favorite meal.
- You attend a high school basketball game along with several members of your family to watch your sibling, who plays guard for the home team. Afterward you enjoy a family meal.
- You join with some new friends to go to a club where there is abundant opportunity to engage in lust, sexual relations with someone who is not your spouse, profanity, drunkenness, drugs, and even violence.
Based on these distinctions, it is the third sense of the word world that is used in 1 John 5:19: “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” It is the people, organizations, cities, states, nations, and cultures that reject and oppose God and his commandments who lie in the power of the evil one.
The next post
In my next post we will examine these questions:
Who is the evil one?
Does Satan really exist?
If so, in what sense does Satan have power over the whole world?