# Dying to the world without abandoning it

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH05.P014](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH05.P014/#char=493,578): "Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it?"

The change from dying **for** the world to dying **to** it invokes the Christian language of renunciation. The closest verbal parallel is Paul's declaration that through Christ's cross ‘the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world’ ([Galatians 6:14–15, KJV](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10)). John supplies a related paradox: the grain must die to bear fruit, and the disciple must surrender his attachment to life in this world to preserve eternal life ([John 12:24–26](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10)). These are scriptural parallels, not a demonstrable quotation from one particular verse or translation.

‘World’ need not mean the same thing on both sides of Chesterton's question. In his exposition of Galatians 6:14, John Chrysostom distinguishes the physical heavens and earth from worldly prestige, wealth and display; dying to the latter releases the Christian from their attraction. His discussion of the following verse nevertheless anticipates the renewal of creation itself ([Homily 6 on Galatians, comments on verses 14–16](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23106.htm)). Renunciation can therefore concern corrupt attachments rather than hatred of existence.

The word ‘pagan’ assigns love of the world one half of the rhetorical contrast; it does not establish that Christianity lacks sacrificial love for the world. John's Gospel itself places divine love for the world beside the Son's saving mission (John 3:16–17). Chesterton's question asks whether one person can sustain both attitudes. It is a demand for reform without either complacency or despair, not an instruction to destroy creation: the chapter later describes fighting the world's evils under the flag of existence itself.

## Sources

- [The King James Version of the Bible](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10), Galatians 6:14–15; John 12:24–26 and 3:16–17; Project Gutenberg ebook 10, text updated October 29, 2024; KJV translation first published 1611
- [John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on Galatians](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23106.htm), Comments on Galatians 6:14–16; late-fourth-century work; Gross Alexander translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 13 (1889), revised New Advent transcription
- [G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16769), Chapter V, The Flag of the World, subsequent paragraph beginning ‘It was the prime philosophic principle’; work first published 1908; chapter wording inspected in supplied chapter transcription

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