Father has told me them, so I speak them.”—John 12:49, 50; 14:10; 7:16, 17.

WORK

The exercise of physical or mental effort to accomplish a purpose or to produce something; work is commended in the Scriptures. (Eccl. 5:18) It is a gift of God for man to eat, drink and “see good for all his hard work,” and it is the divine will that man “rejoice in his works.” (Eccl. 3:13, 22) Work was not first instituted in man’s case after he sinned, for Jehovah gave the perfect, sinless man and woman a work assignment when he commanded them to subdue the earth. (Gen. 1:28) However, vain work resulted from sin.—Gen. 3:19; compare Romans 8:20, 21.

Under the Mosaic law periods of rest from labor were decreed. The Israelites were not to work on the weekly sabbath day. (Ex. 20:8-11) Also, “no sort of laborious work” was to be done at times of holy convention.—Lev. 23:6-8, 21, 24, 25, 34-36.

JEHOVAH AND HIS SON ARE WORKERS

Jehovah is a worker whose works include such things as the heavens, the earth, animals and man. (Gen. 1:1; 2:1-3; Job 14:15; Ps. 8:3-8; 19:1; 104:24; 139:14) It is fitting to acknowledge the greatness of Jehovah’s works, extolling and thanking him for them. (Ps. 92:5; 107:15; 145:4-10; 150:2) God’s works are faithful and incomparable, are wrought in wisdom and are “truth and judgment.”—Ps. 33:4; 86:8; 104:24; 111:7.

Jehovah did a “great work” in effecting the Israelites’ deliverance from Egyptian bondage and enabling them to take possession of Canaan. (Judg. 2:7) His works sometimes involve the execution of divine judgment. (Jer. 50:25) Thus, through Isaiah, it was foretold: “For Jehovah will rise up . . . that he may work his work—his work is unusual.” (Isa. 28:21) Such an ‘unusual work’ took place in 607 B.C.E. and in 70 C.E., when Jehovah worked or brought about the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple.—Hab. 1:5-9; Acts 13:38-41; see POWER, POWERFUL WORKS.

Wisdom personified is represented as being beside Jehovah in creative work as his “master worker.” (Prov. 8:12, 22-31; compare John 1:1-3.) When on earth as a man, God’s wise Son, Jesus Christ, showed that he was a worker and that, though material creative works relating to the earth had concluded, Jehovah continued to work, for Jesus said: “My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working.” (John 5:17) To Jesus it was as nourishing, satisfying and refreshing as food to do the work he was assigned by Jehovah. (John 4:34; 5:36) Christ’s works were done in his Father’s name, and were from the Father and showed he was “in union with the Father.” (John 10:25, 32, 37, 38; 14:10, 11; 15:24; Acts 2:22) Jesus successfully finished his God-assigned work on earth.—John 17:4.

Jesus said: “He that exercises faith in me, that one also will do the works that I do; and he will do works greater than these, because I am going my way to the Father.” (John 14:12) Evidently, Christ did not mean that his followers would do works of a more miraculous kind than he did, for there is no Biblical record that any of them performed a miracle surpassing that of Jesus in raising Lazarus who had been dead for four days. (John 11:38-44) But, since Jesus was going to the Father, and his followers would receive the holy spirit to be witnesses of him “both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth” (Acts 1:8), they would cover a greater area and work for a longer time than did Jesus, in this sense doing greater works than he did.

NECESSITY OF WORKING

Jesus Christ said that “the worker is worthy of his wages,” thereby indicating that those who labored in connection with spiritual matters would not lack necessities of life. (Luke 10:7) However, as the apostle Paul pointed out to the Thessalonians, the lazy person who refuses to work does not deserve to eat at the expense of others, but should learn to work with his hands to care for his needs. (1 Thess. 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:10, 12) Likewise, the stealer should “steal no more” but “do hard work.”—Eph. 4:28.

QUALITY OF THE WORK OF GOD’S SERVANTS

When doing any work, the servant of Jehovah should remember his relationship with God, doing everything “whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men.” (Col. 3:23) This calls for industriousness (Prov. 10:4; 13:4; 18:9), honesty and fidelity. Manifesting such traits brings glory to God, as evident from the admonition given to Christian slaves: “Let slaves be in subjection to their owners in all things, and please them well, not talking back, not committing theft, but exhibiting good fidelity to the full, so that they may adorn the teaching of our Savior, God, in all things.”—Titus 2:9, 10; Eph. 6:5-8; Heb. 13:18.

PROPER EVALUATION OF THINGS OBTAINED BY WORKING

Christians should appreciatively look to God for his blessing on their work and not be unduly anxious about their material needs. Jesus advised his followers to seek first the Kingdom. (Matt. 6:11, 25-33) He also urged: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for life everlasting.” (John 6:27) Hence, God’s servants wisely keep the money and material things obtained by working in a position subordinate to the much more important spiritual riches. They also use material resources acquired by labor to advance spiritual interests, and they thus “make friends” with God and Christ.—Eccl. 7:12; Luke 12:15-21; 16:9.

IMPROPER WORKS TO BE AVOIDED

Jehovah determines which works are proper and which works are improper. He “will bring every sort of work into the judgment in relation to every hidden thing, as to whether it is good or bad.” (Eccl. 12:13, 14) God will also deal with each person according to that one’s work. (Ps. 62:12) This and especially love for Jehovah God are good reasons for shunning improper works and doing works that are pleasing in his sight.—1 John 5:3; Ps. 34:14; 97:10; Amos 5:14, 15.

To experience divine favor, Christians must avoid the “works of the flesh,” which include such things as fornication, loose conduct, idolatry, practice of spiritism, hatreds, fits of anger and drunken bouts. Such practices would bar one from inheriting God’s kingdom and are evidently included among the “unfruitful works that belong to the darkness,” works that result in no benefit.—Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-14; 1 Pet. 4:3; compare John 3:20, 21.

PROPER WORKS

Dependence upon Jehovah God is essential if one’s works are to succeed. (Ps. 127:1; Prov. 16:3) It is God who backs up and strengthens those who work at doing his will. (2 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 4:13) Whereas human living abounds with vain works (Eccl. 2:10, 11; see ECCLESIASTES), works relating to true worship are not in vain. Hebrew Christians were given the assurance: “God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name, in that you have ministered to the holy ones and continue ministering.” (Heb. 6:10) Such work evidently included rendering material assistance or other kindnesses to those in need or to those experiencing suffering and persecution. (Compare Ephesians 4:28; Philippians 4:14-19; 1 Timothy 6:17, 18; James 1:27.) Other fine works are sharing in making disciples (Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Cor. 3:9-15) and, in the case of men, serving as an overseer in a Christian congregation and teaching fellow believers.—1 Thess. 5:12, 13; 1 Tim. 3:1; 5:17.

FAITH AND WORKS

Works of the Mosaic law, which included such things as sacrificial offerings, purifications and circumcision, did not serve to declare a person righteous. (Rom. 3:20; 4:1-10; Gal. 3:2) Yet, the disciple James—who is not discussing works of Mosaic law—says “a man is to be declared righteous by works, and not by faith alone” (Jas. 2:24), for there must be practical works that demonstrate one’s faith, giving proof of it. (Compare Matthew 7:21-27; Ephesians 2:8-10; James 1:27; 2:14-17; 4:4.) For example, Abraham had works that proved his faith, such as his willingness to offer up Isaac. Rahab also proved her faith by her works of hiding the Israelite spies.—Heb. 11:17-19; Jas. 2:21-25.

WORLD

This is the usual English term for translating the Greek koʹsmos in all but one of its 187 occurrences in the Christian Greek Scriptures.

The King James or Authorized Version used “world” to render not only koʹsmos but also three other Greek words in some of its renderings of them, namely, ge, ai·onʹ and oi·kou·meʹne, and five different Hebrew words (ʼeʹrets; hheʹdhel; hheʹledh; ʽoh·lamʹ; te·velʹ). This produced a blurring or confused blending of meanings that made it difficult to obtain correct understanding of the scriptures involved. Later translations have served to clear up considerably this confusion, though in a number of texts many still treat certain of these terms as though they were virtually synonymous with koʹsmos.

The Hebrew ʼeʹrets and the Greek ge (whence the English “geography,” “geology”) mean “earth” “ground,” “soil” or “land” (Gen. 6:4; Num. 1:1; Matt. 2:6; 5:5; 10:29; 13:5), although in some cases they may stand metaphorically for the people of the earth, as at Psalm 66:4 and Revelation 13:3. Both ʽoh·lamʹ (Heb.) and ai·onʹ (Gr.) relate basically to a period of time of indefinite length. (Gen. 6:3; 17:13; Luke 1:70) Ai·onʹ may also signify the “system of things” characterizing a certain period, age or epoch. (Gal. 1:4) Hheʹledh (Heb.) has a somewhat similar meaning, and may be rendered by such terms as “life’s duration” and “system of things.” (Job 11:17; Ps. 17:14) Oi·kou·meʹne (Gr.) means the “inhabited earth” (Luke 21:26), and te·velʹ (Heb.) may be rendered as “productive land.” (2 Sam. 22:16) Hheʹdhel (Heb.) occurs only at Isaiah 38:11, and in the Authorized Version is rendered “world” in the expression “inhabitants of the world.” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 4, p. 874) suggests the rendering “inhabitants of (the world) of cessation,” while pointing out that most scholars favor the reading of some Hebrew manuscripts that have hheʹledh in place of hheʹdhel. The New World Translation reads “inhabitants of [the land of] cessation.”—See AGE; EARTH; SYSTEMS OF THINGS.

“KOʹSMOS” AND ITS VARIOUS SENSES

The basic meaning of the Greek koʹsmos is “order” or “arrangement.” And to the extent that the concept of beauty is bound up with order and symmetry, koʹsmos also conveys that thought and therefore was often used by the Greeks to mean “adornment,” especially as regards women. It is used thus at 1 Peter 3:3. Hence also our English word “cosmetic.” The related verb ko·smeʹo has the sense of ‘putting in order’ at Matthew 25:7 and that of ‘adorning’ elsewhere. (Matt. 12:44; 23:29; Luke 11:25; 21:5; 1 Tim. 2:9; Titus 2:10; 1 Pet. 3:5; Rev. 21:2, 19) The adjective koʹsmi·os describes that which is “well-arranged” or “orderly” at 1 Timothy 2:9 and 3:2.

Evidently because the universe manifests order, Greek philosophers at times applied koʹsmos to the entire visible creation. However, there was no real unanimity of thought among them, some restricting it to the celestial bodies only, others using it for the whole universe. The use of koʹsmos to describe the material creation as a whole appears in some apocryphal writings (compare Wisdom 9:9; 11:18), these being written during the period when Greek philosophy was making inroads in many Jewish areas. But in the inspired writings of the Christian Greek Scriptures this sense is virtually, perhaps entirely, absent. Some texts may appear to use the term in that sense, such as the account of the apostle’s address to the Athenians at the Areopagus. Paul there said, “The God that made the world [koʹsmos] and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples.” (Acts 17:22-24) Since the use of koʹsmos as meaning the universe was current among the Greeks, Paul might have employed the term in that sense. Even here, however, it is entirely possible that he used it in one of the ways discussed in the rest of this article.

LINKED WITH MANKIND

Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament (1960 printing of the ninth ed., pp. 215, 216), after presenting the philosophic use of koʹsmos for the universe, says: “From this signification of χόσμος [koʹsmos] as the material universe, . . . followed that of χόσμος as that external framework of things in which man lives and moves, which exists for him and of which he constitutes the moral centre (John xvi. 21; I Cor. xiv. 10; I John iii. 17); . . . and then the men themselves, the sum total of persons living in the world (John i. 29; iv. 42; II Cor. v. 19); and then upon this, and ethically, all not of the ἐχχλησία [ek·kle·siʹa; the church or congregation], alienated from the life of God and by wicked works enemies to Him (I Cor. 1. 20, 21; II Cor. vii. 10; Jam. iv. 4).”

Similarly, the book Studies in the Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, by K. S. Wuest (p. 57), quotes Greek scholar Cremer as saying: “As kosmos is regarded as that order of things whose center is man, attention is directed chiefly to him, and kosmos denotes mankind within that order of things, humanity as it manifests itself in and through such an order (Mt. 18:7). . . .”

As to the difference between koʹsmos and ai·onʹ, Schaff-Lange’s Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical Commentary, in commenting on Ephesians 2:2, says: “χόσμος is the external appearance, the external continuance of the world of men, αιών [ai·onʹ] its course, current, impulse . . . ; the latter may change, vary, in different periods, the former remains, and as the latter is estranged from God, so is this.”

All humankind

Koʹsmos or the “world” is therefore closely linked and bound up with mankind. This is true in secular Greek literature and is particularly so in Scripture. When Jesus said that the man walking in daylight “sees the light of this world [koʹsmos]” (John 11:9), it might appear that by “world” is meant simply the planet Earth, which has the sun as its source of daylight. However, his next words speak of the man walking at night who bumps into something “because the light is not in him.” (Vs. 10) It is primarily for mankind that God gave the sun and other heavenly bodies. (Compare Genesis 1:14; Psalm 8:3-8; Matthew 5:45.) Similarly, using light in a spiritual sense, Jesus told his followers they would be “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14), certainly not meaning they would illuminate the planet, for he goes on to show their illuminating would be for mankind, “before men.” (Vs. 16; compare John 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12:46; Philippians 2:15.) The preaching of the good news “in all the world” (Matt. 26:13) also means preaching it to mankind as a whole, even as in some languages “all the world” is the common way of saying “everybody” (compare French tout le monde; Spanish todo el mundo).—Compare John 8:26; 18:20; Romans 1:8; Colossians 1:5, 6.

In one basic sense, then, koʹsmos refers to all