The “world”, in the biblical sense, is not the physical earth. It generally refers to people and society whose thoughts, values, and practices demonstrate that they do not know God or submit to Him. It can also refer to the thoughts, values and practices of the people of the world. It encompasses materialism, pride, sensuality, and self-centeredness.

God sent Jesus to save the world. John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  God does not love the ways of the world, but he loves those in the world and has provided a way that they might be saved.

The wicked one influences the world and its ways.  1 John 5:19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” Jesus testified that the works of the world are evil.  John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” We should be different from the world.  1 John 4:4-6 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

As Christians, we are in the world but we should not be of the world.  Jesus said the following to His disciples. John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”  Like the early disciples, we have been chosen out of the world; we should not be of the world.  Jesus prayed to the Father about His disciples.  John 17:14-18 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.  As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” We live in the world, but we should not live as the world. True Christians are different from the world.

Since we are in the world, we see the things of the world.  These things may tempt us to follow the ways of the world and be like everyone else.  It appears that Demas yielded to this temptation.  2 Timothy 4:9-10 “Be diligent to come to me quickly; for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica — Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia.” We have the following from the parable of the sower.  Matthew 13:22 “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” The cares of the world may cause us to be unfruitful to God.

We are encouraged to not conform to the ways of the world. Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Instead of being conformed to the world, we are to overcome the world. 1 John 5:4-5 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.  Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” I understand that overcoming the world implies that we reject the world’s way of doing things and instead, in faith, we follow the example of Jesus.

John encourages us to not love the world and its ways.  1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” Notice that the ways of the world include the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  We must not love the world or the things in the world.

The world and its ways can have an influence upon us.  We live in the world.  Everyone else follows the ways of the world. It may be difficult to be different from the world.  James admonishes us in James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” We are admonished to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Why should we want to do so?  Because the ways of the world are opposed to God and His ways. James 4:3-4 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” We may be tempted to be a friend of the world and enjoy its ways.  Instead, we should be diligent to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.  The world’s ways are not God’s ways.

We live in the world but we should not be of the world.  I encourage you to not be conformed to the world but to keep yourself unspotted from the world.  Instead, I encourage you to be a light to the world to show them God’s ways.  Philippians 2:14-15 “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”