whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things now here or things to come, all things belong to you;

Consequently the “world” belongs to these spirit-begotten Christians in the sense that the things arranged among mankind are for the use of God’s people. For example, the Bible says of the “superior authorities,” the political rulers in the world, that “it [the authority] is God’s minister, an avenger to express wrath upon the one practicing what is bad.” They are “God’s public servants constantly serving this very purpose.” (Rom. 13:1-4, 6) Such authorities serve the Christian’s interests when they keep law and order, so that the Christian “may go on leading a calm and quiet life with full godly devotion and seriousness.”​—1 Tim. 2:1, 2.

Christians can accordingly use the transportation systems, the mail service, the police, and any other lawful things as ‘belonging’ to them, in carrying on proper living and preaching the good news. However, as a warning Paul later counsels that “those making use of the world [should be] as those not using it to the full.” (1 Cor. 7:31) All such things should be used only to the extent that they serve Christian interests.