Since it is clear that "God so loved the world...." the world is worth saving, -- it is worth engaging, not escaping. But what we wish to escape is worldliness. There is a big difference.
One of the reasons this confusion occurs is due to the ambiguity in the meaning of "earth" or "world" in the Greek New Testament. The NT literature uses the word "kosmos" (world, cosmos) in two ways:
1) as mankind, the realm of creation that God loves and comes to save;
2) as the fallen world-system or idolatrous/secular/legalistic cultures of this age, ruled by Satan, which God comes to judge.
Christians are called to separate from the fallen, sinful world cultures, but not to attempt to separate from mankind itself, which is unrealistic and not compassionate. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. We are to engage the world, resist evil, oppose the devil and proclaim the Gospel.
"For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ... And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."
-- John 3:19-21
Return to dilogic diagram