“For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John
3:16)
“Do not love the world
or the things in the world.
If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)
Have you noticed the
seeming conflict in the two verses above? Both are written by the same inspired
author. Both use the same Greek words for the relevant terms (love and world).
Yet what God does in the first, believers are forbidden to do in the second.
Are Christians not to love what God loves? How do we reconcile this apparent
contradiction?
Bible study is a very
important discipline. We are not only to read Scripture but to meditate
upon it, to seek understanding from it, in other words, to study
it (Psa. 1:2; 119:97-105; Eph. 3:4; 2Tim. 3:14-17). First and foremost this
deeper study ought to be facilitated and directed by the teachers God has given
to the Church (Eph. 4:11-16; 1Tim. 4:16; 2Tim. 4:1-2). It is not that
pastors and teachers study instead of us, but their study helps direct our
study so that the Church is built and nourished by the sound doctrine delivered
by Christ (cf. 1Tim. 1:5-11; 2Tim. 2:14-18). But there is also a place for
personal and private Bible study, particularly in reflecting further upon the
teaching delivered in our corporate assemblies and classes. This is why it
important for every Christian to know basic principles of Bible study.
One of the most important
principles of Bible study is context, i.e. the text that is “with” the
text you are studying. This includes the verses immediately before and after,
the chapter in which a verse appears, the section of the Bible book, the entire
book, the rest of the author’s works, and even the entire Bible itself! We
interpret Scripture with Scripture because the Bible is inspired and inerrant
and teaches a coherent system of doctrine. Every verse of Scripture must be
read and understood in light of its context, i.e. the rest of Scripture, not
interpreted in a manner that contradicts it because such an interpretation is
not of God.
Another important aspect of
Bible study is recognizing semantic range, i.e. the various possible
meanings of a given word. The same word does not mean the same thing in every
place. The two verses above are a perfect example. Does God love the same world
in the same way that we are forbidden to? No! How do we know the words carry a
subtly but significantly different meaning? We know because of context.
In John 3:16 the writer is emphasizing
God’s love for the ungodly in every nation, not just the covenant nation of
Israel. God loves the ungodly by giving his Son so that they might be saved. In
1 John 2:15 the world which the writer has in mind is that which is
characteristic of ungodliness, the lusts of the flesh and eyes and pride
(v.16). Loving the world in this case is not a redemptive act of sacrifice but
an idolatrous attachment to that which is anti-God. To love the world in this
sense is to defy the love God has shown to the world in the former sense.
Most
people intuitively understand the difference between these two verses but fail
to apply the same principles of context and semantic range when
interpreting other passages. Words do not always mean the same things in
every use, and the best determiner of what a word means is not the dictionary
or lexicon but the biblical context. Remembering this will not only help us
understand the Bible but will help us recognize many misguided interpretations of
it. –JME
