What Does it Mean?
February is the month of love, and though we may address love from different angles, beginning with the love for our parents, love that leads towards marriage, and loving the church, there is another form of love we can engage in. Now, many of you may be wondering why I would be suggesting that we love the world when Scripture cites many times that amongst the enemies of the Christian is the world. The Christian has three chief enemies: the world, sin, and the devil. Make no mistake that this world has been defined in many ways as being anti-God, and our Lord Jesus Christ overly in the Gospels makes us aware of that fact. A quick and candid reading of the Gospel according to John, especially in the closing chapters from chapters 15 all through to chapter 17, we find there that the world in definite terms is defined by Christ as being set against God and His people. In fact, we are told that the world hates Christ, and by extension, it hates us because we love Him. James would also give us a warning in the form of a question when he asks his readers, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?" (James 4:4). Therefore, it seems that I am contradicting myself because there is a clear warning in the Scriptures as to how we relate to the world. However, so as not to seem misleading or contradicting, the very Scriptures are the source of ultimate truth and instruction for us; let me point you quickly to what I mean by a love of the world.
What Jesus’ Death and Resurrection Has to do with It
First, the season of love always finds itself preceding that of Easter. In Luke 24:44-49, the words that would be read at the end of Easter as we commemorate the resurrection of Christ looking forward to His ascension tell us something about loving the world. The verses mark something of importance that was first commanded to the disciples, who were witnesses to the events and, by extension, to us as the Church of Christ. The events are Jesus' death and resurrection, which are essential because we are to present to the world what we did not witness firsthand. Still, we have received most faithfully what happened from those who were witnesses (John 14:26). As you might have guessed by now, loving the world has something to do with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What, then, do I mean by asking us to love the world? I suppose some of you would have already taken your minds to those very familiar words that all of us learned in Sunday school in John 3:16. Therefore, when I say that we are to love the world, it is in the pattern of our father, not that we can ever do what He did, but that we can point the world to what truly matters. Our love for the world is not to participate in the things that those in the world, meaning those who are wicked, join in, but rather, that our love is expressed by pointing them to the one who has redeemed us, the one who died for our sins and was raised from the dead to secure for us eternal life. I borrow from the language of Paul to the believers in Ephesus (Ephesians 2:1-7), for here Paul points us to God's great love that led to our salvation. So now I make my whole point based on Luke 24:47, where Jesus proclaims, "…and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Thus, loving the world has no other meaning here other than proclaiming Jesus’ death and resurrection, and declaring the redemption from it through His name to all nations.
Founded on God’s Word
Therefore, so that it might be clear, the message of loving the world should be entrenched in our minds based on the truth of the Scriptures. I point out that from the words of Jesus in Luke's Gospel that the love of the world ought to be founded on the sure ground of God’s Word so that we do not drift away into contradicting Scripture. In expressing our love to a world that is bent on denying Christ as it did in crucifying Him, we have to tell them the significance of His death and resurrection. We have to stress the point that the most accurate and most perfect form of love was expressed in our redemption from God's wrath because of our fallenness, through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Further, in loving the world, we must point people to the Scriptures, for it is there that the message of redemption is contained, which has been delivered to us by faithful witnesses. Loving the world then means that we grieve in our hearts because of its moral corruption such that we are moved to point out the only solution that is sufficient to rescue humanity from destruction, a solution provided through the rich mercies and grace of our loving heavenly Father. Even as we take time to show love to our loved ones during this season, we should endeavor to point them to the one who truly and perfectly loves them, the one who is intent that His children should not perish.
Love the World But with Caution
Nonetheless, let us be cautious of the danger that we might misunderstand the call to love the world, for we cannot truly love the world when we do not have faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Christ sends out His witnesses to proclaim the message of the Gospel motivated by love for His people, and it is the same kind of love we seek to imitate. It is not that we can die for the world and do what Christ did. Still, we can present the message of redemption because we grieve in our hearts for the condition of the world in its rebelliousness. So, our love for the world, as I have already made the point, is not to participate in its rebellion and constant rejection of the Savior, but in making Christ known for the sake of giving hope to a world without hope. Amen.
