How can Christians love a world that has largely rejected God?
As St Paul wrote: “Christ must reign!” Jesus expects us to establish justice and peace.
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What you need to know:
- Sometimes the Bible uses the term “world’ to refer to the evil that is in the world.
- This is what Jesus meant when he told the Apostles at the Last Supper: “In the world you will have trouble, but be brave, for I have conquered the world.”
The term ‘world’ is used hundreds of times in the New Testament. Jesus often talked about preparing for the end of the world and about the world to come. Two instances of using the term “world” appear to be contradictory. Jesus told his disciples that God loves the world, but he also told the Pharisees: “The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I give evidence that its ways are evil.” So, which is it? Are we supposed to hate or love the world?
As St Paul wrote: “Christ must reign!” Jesus expects us to establish justice and peace. Let us not be deterred by the fact that we are destined to be persecuted fiercely precisely because we worship God and serve him alone.
The book of Revelation reminds us about the “great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan”—the angel who rebelled against God and was cast out heaven. The text says: “Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there. But for you, Earth and Sea, trouble is coming! The devil has gone down to you in a rage, knowing that his days are numbered.”
Christians ought to love the world, because it comes from the hands of God. It is easy to love the world because it is our home. It is God’s gift to us and we will naturally want to care for it. But it is also hard to love what the world has become, looking at Satan’s rebellion and our own sins.
What Prophet Jeremiah wrote long ago applies today: “They cry: Peace! Peace! But there is no peace.”
Sometimes the Bible uses the term “world” to refer to creation. This is what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisee Nicodemus: “God loved the world so much that he sent his only-begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost.”
Sometimes the Bible uses the term “world’ to refer to the evil that is in the world. This is what Jesus meant when he told the Apostles at the Last Supper: “In the world you will have trouble, but be brave, for I have conquered the world.”
We are caught in that biblical paradox. We live in a world we have to love even though it is a world that has largely rejected God, even though it is a world that all too often rewards vice and punishes virtue.
St Augustine explained it by recalling the command Christ gave: “Love your enemies.” Though almost impossible to do, God will help you to do it. Be ready to forgive the people who make your life miserable, while at the same time working to make the world a place where God’s children can live in peace.
