What the Bible means by "world"

 I was talking about the love of the world yesterday. Running the risk of seeming to oppose the Apostle John, I took the stance that we must love the world, that it is natural and healthy for us to do so.

But I never really addressed the question, what is the world? Or, more precisely, what do the Bible authors mean by "the world" in various parts of Scripture?

I asked Google to show me, and the this was at the top of the list. It comes from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Let me summarize:

• "The world" often means the sphere we call earth or perhaps even the whole created universe. So that moss-covered stump I was admiring yesterday on my traipse through the local nature preserve, that was a thing of the world in this common sense. I don't think anyone, not even John, will have a problem with loving such things.
• Or "the world" refers to the human world, perhaps we might call this "culture." We're talking here about people and what they have made. Some of it is very evil, but some very good and beautiful. Discernment is recognizing when something is a reflection of that image of God which all men and women are capable of reflecting, or of that which is fallen, that which is selfish, in rebellion against the Creator. Both of these things exist, and all human things are compromised, yes, or as Lewis would say "bent," but the beauty of our origin is still present in us and in the things we create.
• Sometimes "the world" refers to a subclass of people that are "indifferent or hostile to God." When John says the world hated Jesus he is using "world" in this sense, for there were some who clearly loved Jesus, and many who'd never heard of him. John cannot mean here all people "the world over."
• And sometimes "the world" refers to the present age in which the kingdoms of this world hold sway, as opposed to the coming age, where Jesus is king forever.

I think what John had in mind in 1 John 2:15-17 is something akin to the third and fourth category above. Elsewhere the Bible authors use terms like: "this present age," "the kingdoms of this world," "the powers of this dark world." 

In the world we walk through (a world made by God for people), we see everywhere the evidences of the Creator's glory, which we despise at our peril, and also the clear evidences of sin's marring effect, deadly and grim. So my conclusion: be discerning. There is much to love in this fallen world that God is redeeming. And there is much to hate that reflect more of the "powers of this dark world" than they do the glory of God.