The Biblical Definition of the Word "World"

The world's population is great. Many live in different worlds on the earth of ours, some are followers of Christ looking forward to the world to come, and some are focused on the evils of this world.

No wonder those who are not followers of Christ are confused by the word "world." Also, Christians can be confused, many Christians use it in the wrong context inferring the wrong meaning, thus coming to wrong conclusions.

Many meanings arise in the Bible (see below) when one properly uses the Biblical context to define this word. In "Christian lingo" I think many think they are using it as "Sin" or "Unbelievers of Christ". However, usually this is not the case, most use it instead of the word "culture" or surrounding "society" or maybe "people". It is almost always used in a negative tone, in an attempt to mimic the Bible.

In a sense, "society" or "culture" might have some overlap with"sin" and "unbelievers" but this is a conflation of terms. As far as I know the Bible never degrades the culture or society around believers unless it contradicts Scripture.

If we mean culture, then lets just say culture, if we mean something else, and the word "world" seems to fit, lets make sure it is the correct word for the correct purpose. If we do mean culture or society, lets understand that culture and society can contain sin or ungodliness, but does not mean sin or ungodliness. If it did, God would be in the wrong, because he loved the "world" meaning people or society!

Note: see the other articles that discuss the World: Thou Shalt Look Different, Love Not the World.

• World meaning "Earth" 
• 2 Peter 2:5  "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly"
• World meaning "Sin"
• 2 Peter 2:20 "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."
• 1 John 2:15-17 " 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. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
• World meaning all "People" or "Society"
• 1 John 2:2  "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
• John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
• World meaning "Unbelievers of Christ"
• 1 John 3:1 "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
• 1 John 3:13 "Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you."
• World meaning "Physical possessions"
• 1 John 3:17 "But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" 
• World meaning "The After Life"
• Luke 18:30 "Who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."

Who Is My Brother?

In the famous account in Luke 10, a Mosaic law lawyer asked Christ who was his neighbor. Jesus responded by telling him a parable of the "Good Samaritan". What about another question, who is my brother? Now I will not give an exemplum, but I want to discuss what the Bible teaches.

Some feel that only those in either their own Christian congregation or denomination can be called their brother and sister. It is interesting that the Bible does have something to say about this. But first their argument and my rejoinders. Some say that one does not know one outside their fellowship nor have they heard their testimony on what they believe. So they feel that they can't call someone else a brother or sister. First, the Bible nowhere teaches this is needed, at least I know of no a place. However, if this is an issue, than just ask the person in question, if he or she is a follower of Christ, that person would be happy to tell his or her testimony. Also, what great sin was committed if one calls another confessor of Christ a brother or sister in Christ even if one finds out later that it was not the case?

However, what does the Bible say? When one fulfills specific commands from scripture, one is a Christian, a brother or sister of Christ, and a brother or sister to any other follower of Christ (see this article). The Bible also talks about how we are to accept other followers of Christ as seen in Romans 15:7: "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God."

It also talks about it a number of other places, but the most clear places include Philippians 4:21, 1 Thessalonians 5:26 and Titus 3:15. The first one Philippians 4:21 says this: "Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you." This passage is clear, we are to "salute every saint in Christ Jesus." It does not say only of ones congregation, denomination or group. First Thessalonians 5:26 is just as unequivocal: "Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss." It says "Greet all the brethren." It does not say one has to test it out or prove if that person is a Christian. However, if that person is a follower of Christ you will see fruit. The last one I want to talk about is Titus 3:15, it says "All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen." If we love Paul and all those who were with him at that time and if another does the same, another true follower of Christ, we have a command that we need to greet those people as followers of Christ.

Let not your authority be based foundationally on your own opinion, the teachings of your denomination or local group fellowship. Rather let us be biblical, and let us follow Christ and the Apostle's teachings.

Thou Shalt Look Different

I have heard a Christian a time or two say, "we should look different from the world." In those times I always want to ask, "what do you mean by the words "world", "look different", and "we". In one sense I am fairly sure what is meant by this, however, to be frank, I am not totally sure. I am not even sure if the one who express this knows what he or she is trying to say.

I have two concerns with this comment, first I don't think it's biblical and second it's vague. The writers of the Bible explain that we are to be sanctified, set apart, holy, sin overcomes, modestly dressed, and we need to have the right attitude, to name a few things. They give complete instructions how we are to be followers of Christ, within any culture context, century and society. 

Also, this "sound bite" is nebulous because I can think of a million ways to look different from the "world" (which I am going to assume here as society around about). However, that gives me no definition on how God wants me to be, act, dress, etc. 

Whether or not we "look different from the word" is irrelevant, in fact this should not even be thought about. Our focus should be following Christ, doing what he did and acting like he acted. No, we don't have to wear togas . . . I think you got the point . . . If we are his followers, we will be different, we won't even have to try!

Copy Cat Technology

What do cameras, airplanes, phones, the Eiffel Tower, and submarines all have in common? You guessed it, they all are are copy cat technology artifacts, copied from the designs in nature. This biology to technology mimicry is what we call biomimicry.

Right now there are scientists and technologists who are looking at amazing structures for potential new technology designs. One is a cicada wing that shreds bacteria.

The biomimicry concept demonstrates that a mindful designer put into existence engineering and technology ideas that we are just now seeing the potential for our use. Our use of minds to find these things and put them to use demonstrates the cause of these artifacts, their origins are best explained from an intellect mind.

Reason or Faith?

As if these are antithesis of each other, many, both christian and atheist, feel reason and faith are incompatible. I would argue that they are complementary.

Many times I hear Christians say that we should have a "simple faith," "blind faith," or just "faith to believe." It seems that this is usually referenced against us using our minds. When one uses "reason" one must not be using "faith." I not only find this saddening but also know the Bible does not teach this view, it is unbiblical.

In Isaiah 1:18 it says "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Here, God asks those people to reason. In fact, in John one we read of Jesus being the "Word." The Greek work for this one is logos, it stems back to the same word that we use in English to mean reason, the word logic. Romans 12:1 Paul says " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." The last part, "reasonable service" can be translated "logical service". The Greek word is logikos, this is were we get the word "logical". In other words we do have logical expectations to fulfill as Christians.

In fact we did not even have to look at the biblical text, we only have to reflect upon it, and understand that if we did not use logic or reason we could not understand each other, we could not make books, talk, do science, and many other things.

We also could look at the antonyms for these words and see that the opposite of faith is faithless or lack of trust. The opposite of reason and logic is unreasonable and illogical.

In addition, Christianity stands out as a "sore thumb" in the world of religions, why? Because it can be demonstrated. The apostles note several places that it is true because of eyewitness testimony (1 Corinthians 15 and 1 John 1). It can be falsified, if Jesus did not raise from the dead, our hope is in vain (1 Corinthians 15).

For me, I want to have trust in God because it is reasonable. Without reason, I could not even read, understand and follow the Bible!

You will not want to miss the next posts. If you found this one helpful, you will want to keep an eye open for others. The best way is to click here, because you can get them straight to your inbox so you don’t miss out! (Click here.)

STOP: Drop Your Mind Off Before Entering Church

For some Christians, I think they view that a "simple faith" is a building block of Christianity. However, I am not even sure what that means by those who use it. Does it mean we should have no knowledge or reason, or in other words we should be "anti-intellectual"? It seems to me that this is just laziness garbed in spirituality.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it is not only unbiblical, but also antibiblical. We find passages contradict this sentiment, such as “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men” (1 Corinthians 14:20). We know that knowledge is one of the spiritual gifts from God (1 Corinthians 12:8). Jesus chastised the Jewish lawyers because they took away the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52). Paul praise Timothy for his knowledge of the scriptures since a child because it made him wise unto salvation through Christ (2 Timothy 3:15). Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:11, talks about lasting great virtues and makes this statement: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” This does not sound as if he his against knowledge.

In fact knowledge and wisdom is applauded and foolishness and ignorance is degraded in much of Proverbs (Proverbs 1, 4, 8, 12, and 15 just to name a few passages). In fact knowledge is built upon virtue and upon knowledge is built temperance (2 Peter 1:5-6). James tells us how a wise and knowledgeable person should act; with good behavior, with meekness that is not boasting (James 3:13).

We see that if one infers “simple faith” to be anti-intellectual, than there is no scriptural bases for this, in fact it goes against scripture.

The "Man's Reasoning" Fallacy

I have heard it said by those who are trying to be Christianly pious, in the best sense of the word, that we should not be using "man's reasoning." I assume this is said to sway another from a supposed anti-biblical view. Are they against "man's reasoning"? I think not.

It seems that it is said to one who holds differing views from our pious critic, even if our critic has no scriptural justification to hold that view. Second, many times that person has no good arguments, reasons or biblical precepts to hold to that view, he or she just has assumptions and assertions. Lastly, I see those who express this when they think one is not using supposed "simple faith" (one can use reason and have "simple faith" as the link indicates).

While these types of individuals like to think of themselves as obtaining reasons verbatim from the Bible, in reality they are using "man's reasoning" or in other words, their view. This view has no biblical justification, so unless they can give something other than a string of assertions, they have no case and the argument is self refuting.

You will not want to miss the next posts. If you found this one helpful, you will want to keep an eye open for others. The best way is to click here, because you can get them straight to your inbox so you don’t miss out! (Click here.)