I think the world that God loved was his creation of man in a natural world , the world that John talks of is that of the satanic world that man and demons created for themselves the one that includes wealth and power that leads to greed and corruption .IMO
What is the "world" we must not love?
by Awakened at Gilead 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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truthsetsonefree
I think the valid meaning would be whatever John meant. That probably was what the WT says it is, all mankind alienated from God.
For me, I have reevaluated EVERYTHING. That includes what the Bible says. So I don't accept that I have to alienate or "not love" anyone on those merits. I use a standard that revolves on compassion and unconditional love for all.
John may have also meant intangible things like material possessions and philosophies, but that just gets too nebulous for me which is one problem with much of this religious stuff. It comes from another era. Fundamentalists can't seem to grasp the thought that we have gotten better at quantifying things today and therefore ancient texts should not be strictly relied upon.
Isaac -
real one
I agree with most of the posts about this scripture. John was speaking about being worldly, lustful desires,display of ones means,etc
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caliber
Do not love the "things and desires " of this world that are set apart from God. The people of this world ?
now that's a much different story ! People shall NEVER be just things to me .
Caliber
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Narkissos
Contrary to WT teaching (at least as I remember it), the systematic (yet dialectical, hence the "contradictions") use of kosmos ("world") in Johannine writings (Gospel and epistles of "John") does not primarily, let alone exclusively, refer to "people". It reflects a particular (proto-Gnostic) philosophical and religious view of "reality" (considered as an orderly system, according to the Greek sense of kosmos) as essentially flawed. The Redeemer is "not of this world" -- neither are the elect who are, just like him, children of "God" (or rather, "the Father") -- but he comes into this world to reveal them their true nature. So the elect are "not part of this world" in a very ontological, metaphysical (not only moral) sense: they are from above and bound to above. The world is neither their true origin nor their ultimate destiny. All "moral" teaching about not living by the world's principles is secondary and subsequent to that.
In later, full-fledged Gnostic teachings, this basic idea will develop along more radical lines, e.g. that the "Father" is not the creator of the world, and that the world is utterly lost to itself: salvation is all about escaping from the world, which can lead to moral attitudes ranging from absolute asceticism to indifference (what is done in this world doesn't really matter). In Johannine writings, the perspective is not nearly as radical: the Father loves and wants to save the world through the elect.