I think that God's idea of loving and not loving the world is so wonderful. There are a few different meanings to the word world. One meaning refers to the sinful aspects of the world, particularly to the way humans have wrongly ordered the world, especially society. So when Paul says in his letter to the Romans, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world..."(12.2) he was addressing this idea that we are not to conform to the disorder of society. We should follow God's ways, not the ways of a culture that denies the existence of Him.Another meaning of world is "the created order," that God made. He made it for us to live and thrive in. John 3:17 says that Jesus came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him." So when John said, "Do not love the world..."(1 john 2:15) it didn't contradict what he had written earlier "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son..." (john 3:16)

God rejects the sinful world that humans toil to create. But he loves the world he has made. He invites us to love it and live in it too. So come play. Come live. Come experience the life that is truly life. Come to Him and live.

***Some of these ideas are quoted from Paul Marshall's book Heaven is Not My Home: Living in the Now of God's Creation

Labels: Reading, truth