The Poverty of Language: God So Loved the World, But We Should Hate It?
"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]. "...don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" [James 4:4]. Which one of these Scriptures is true and which is false? They can't both be true, right? We can't in one breath say that God loved the world , and with the next say that we should not even be friends with the world, because that would make us an enemy of God, who Himself loved it. Can we? I hope you're hearing the sarcasm here. Of course we can love the world and hate the world. Of course both John 3:16 and James 4:4 are true. It all depends on what sense we're using the term "the earth." Which brings me to the bigger point. I'm not an enemy of propositional truth. Of course propositions may be true or false. Even the most hardened pos...