Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

^8. But see, that which persecutes is called the “world;” let us prove whether that also which suffers persecution is called “the world.” What! Are you deaf to the voice of Christ who speaks, or rather to Holy Scripture which testifies, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” “If the world hate you, know ye that it first hated Me.” See, the “world” hates. What does it hate but the “world”? What “world”? “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” The condemned “world” persecutes; the reconciled “world” suffers persecution. The condemned “world” is all that is without the Church; the reconciled “world” is the Church. For He says, “The Son of Man came not to judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved.”