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Elizabeth,
To be "in the world" but not "of the world" means that you are located or reside in the midst of the world, but do not think or act like people in the world act. Here, "the world" means the organized system of human civilization that is actively hostile to God and alienated from God.
Worldliness, then, is love for this fallen world. It’s loving the values and pursuits of the world that stand opposed to God.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
(John 15:18–19, RSV2CE) |
“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Romans 12:2, RSV2CE) |
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
(James 1:27, RSV2CE) |
“Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
(James 4:4, RSV2CE) |
The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible remarks,
"Keep them in your name": "The ‘name’ is the divine essence manifesting itself in its attributes of power and wisdom—these together with the divine nature having been communicated from the Father to the Son. The petition is that the Apostles should be kept united in mind and will and heart, realizing a unity modelled on the ineffable pattern in which all is one in a distinction of persons."
(Leonard, W., “The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. by Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe (Toronto; New York; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1953), p. 1010) |
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"By praying him to keep them in his name (v. 11) he is asking for their perseverance in the teaching he has given them (cf. v. 6) and in communion with him. An immediate consequence of this perseverance is unity: “that they may be one, even as we are one”; this unity which he asks for his disciple is a reflection of the unity of the three divine Persons."
(Saint John’s Gospel, The Navarre Bible (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2005), p. 168) |
The eight instances in which God appeared: One could probably reckon this various ways, but I'd list the following (more than eight):
- The Garden of Eden: God interacts directly with Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-3.
- In Genesis 12, God calls Abram (Abraham) to leave his homeland.
- In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abram, appearing as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.
- In Genesis 18, God appears to Abraham in the form of three visitors. (Hospitality of Abraham)
- God appears to Isaac in Genesis 26:24, reaffirming the covenant made with Abraham.
- God appears to Jacob in Genesis 28 in a dream, showing him a ladder reaching to Heaven.
- Jacob wrestles with God (Genesis 32:28)
- In Exodus 3, God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush.
- On Mount Sinai, God appears to Moses in a cloud and speaks to him directly, giving him the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19-20).
- In Exodus, God leads the Israelites out of Egypt as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13).
- At Mount Sinai, God’s presence is visible to all the Israelites as smoke, fire, and lightning (Exodus 19-20).
- In Joshua 5, God appears to Joshua as the commander of the Lord's army.
- Isaiah has a vision of God in Isaiah 6.
- Ezekiel sees visions of God, described in great detail in the book of Ezekiel.
(Ezekiel 1)
These appearances, often called theophanies, vary from direct interaction to dreams and visions, emphasizing the diverse ways in which God communicated with people in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Eric
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