World (Bible)

Occurrences in Scripture

In the New Testament, "world" chiefly translates the Greek word kosmos. It appears with particular frequency in the Gospel of John and 1 John. The same word carries several meanings depending on context.

• The created universe: "God that made the world and all things therein" (Acts 17:24)
• People, humanity: "For God so loved the world" (John 3:16); "Ye are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14)
• An order opposed to God: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15); "the friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). The Gospel of John calls Satan "the prince of this world" (John 12:31).

John 1:10 combines these senses within a single verse: the world was made by the Word, yet that world did not recognize him.

Background of the Term

Kosmos originally meant "order" or "adornment." The word rendered "adorning" in 1 Peter 3:3 is the same term. The Old Testament has no single word that corresponds exactly to it. Instead, it uses expressions such as "the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1) or "the world" (Psalm 24:1) to denote the whole created order.

Not every word translated "world" (sesang) in the Korean New Korean Revised Version is kosmos. In "unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20), the underlying word is aion, meaning "age" or "era." The same word appears in Romans 12:2, "be not conformed to this world," which the New Korean Revised Version renders "this age."

Meaning Across Scripture

The Old Testament depicts the world as God's creation, which he made and saw to be "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Building on this foundation, the New Testament calls the order of fallen human society "the world" and speaks of God's love and salvation directed toward that world. Second Corinthians 5:19 states that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." Revelation 11:15 looks ahead to the consummation of the kingdom of God: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ."

Interpretation and Debated Issues

• The extent of the atonement: Many in the Calvinist tradition read "world" in John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2 as people from all nations, not Jews alone. The Arminian and Wesleyan traditions read it as all people without exception.
• The relationship to the world: Jesus prays not that his disciples be taken out of the world but that they be kept from evil (John 17:15). The Anabaptist tradition emphasizes a community set apart from the world. Within the Reformed tradition, the stream associated with Abraham Kuyper emphasizes engagement with society and culture on the basis of the cultural mandate and common grace. H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture (1951) is known for classifying these attitudes into types.
• A common misunderstanding: The command "Love not the world" is sometimes taken to mean that matter or the body is evil in itself. Such a view, however, is closer to Gnosticism. What the biblical text warns against is not the created order but the desires and the order that have turned away from God (1 John 2:16).

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, "world" is commonly used as a blanket term for everything outside the church, as in "worldly people," "worldly songs," and "worldly affairs." Some within the church criticize this usage for fostering a dualism that divides church life from everyday life. John 3:16 is widely used in evangelism tracts and as a memory verse.