The Christian's Relationship to the World

“They are not of the world.” The question to ask is, “What is the world?” There are at least three meanings attached to the word world. First, the Bible says that there is the created world. “God … made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24). Second, there are the inhabitants of the world, whom God loves and for whom Christ died (John 3:16). Third, there is the cosmos, the world system, which is headed by Satan and based upon self, greed and pride. This is the world that God warns about, and it is this world system and philosophy that Christians are to shun and remain free from. Let’s look at this relationship from Jesus’ prayer for His disciples.