I could never claim to be a learned brother but would offer the following.
My recollection from HEB days is that the following verse was used to tell us to keep from the “world” in the sense of being separate from it, not just from wrong activities but also what they refer to as ecclesiastical sin ie churches other than their own (I imagine that from the REB use of the term in the written ministry which has been shown on these pages, their use of the word is the same). In this context it does strike me as odd that an REB has found that even any of the 500,000 sermons from mainstream churches should be similar to REB ministry as quoted here. I know these sites - and was once even published on one - and have never seen anything similar.
The verse concludes by specifying just what it was talking about in the things which we should not love and I would not expect to connect these characteristics with other Christians. Joan has on a number of occasions rightly objected to the EB including her in such a group.
1 John2:15-16: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world”
Κόσμον (kosmon) =the world
This word is found many times throughout the NT including such iconic verses as the above and:
Mark 16:15 – “And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (The Great Commission)
John 1:7-9 “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”
John 17:18 “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”
It is quite evident that the world is where we are sent to serve and is something Jesus loved. The negative use of the word would, I suggest, mean that believers love Jesus Christ more than anything and that they do not spend their life loving material things beyond the way they meet our needs, but build up treasure in heaven where neither rust nor moth can damage.
With all good wishes
John
Post # 24856 - Posted 3 months ago
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