Terms in the Holy Bible – The World

📌 Introduction and Source of the Talk

His Holiness Pope Shenouda III presents an explanation of the word the world in the Holy Bible and emphasizes that the word appears with five meanings that must be distinguished according to context.

✨ First: The Material World

This meaning refers to the material world with all its lusts and evils. Whoever loves the world in this sense becomes an enemy of God, as expressed in verses like “Do not love the world nor the things in it” and the mention of Demas’ love of the present world.

✨ Second: The World Meaning the People

Here the world means the people and the humans who inhabit the world. Thus John 3:16 says God loved the world (i.e., the people) and gave His Son to save believers and give them eternal life.

✨ Third: The World Meaning the Earth

In other passages the word world means the earth on which we live and this life, as when Christ says “I was with them in the world,” meaning in this life.

✨ Fourth: The World Meaning the Universe or Pre-creation

It is sometimes used to denote the universe as a whole or that which existed before the creation, as in Christ’s words about the glory He had with the Father before the world existed.

✨ Fifth: The World Meaning the Present Age or This Era

It refers to the present time and the historical period that will end at the consummation of the world, as in Christ’s parables of the wheat and the tares and the harvest at the end of this age.

🌿 Spiritual Message

Distinguishing between these meanings helps the believer to understand biblical texts accurately: “the world” may be synonymous with evil and corruption, or with the people whom God loves, or with the earth and the universe, or with the present age that will conclude at Christ’s coming. Therefore one must read according to context to extract the correct meaning.

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