Perhaps there is not a polite way for a tourist to pose such questions to the locals, but here is an attempt. My apologies for any offense it may cause.
Just to be clear, I'm sure John 15:19 refers to the disciples and the Roman Empire, not modern Christians and the whole planet. Yet it seems to me that the majority of Christians I encounter speak and write as if they think otherwise. Some even say outright that the world hates them and they don't belong here. But this is only my experience, and I don't know how it would compare to global statistics that might be gathered if I had the resources for that kind of research.
Is this a common attitude or viewpoint among Christians? Do most of you consider yourselves alien to your own planet? to your own species? Or is it only an outstanding minority of Christians who think this way?
If I'm not mistaken, Jehovah's Witnesses consider themselves Earthlings, but this site does not consider them Christians.
The word "world" in Modern English lacks a lot of the nuance and complexity that it used to have, and this is even more true when it is used to translate some Greek words.
In John 15:19 the word used that is translated as "world" is κόσμος (
kosmos), when we see "world" in English translations of the New Testament, this is most commonly the word being translated. This word requires us to do some digging however. In Greek the word kosmos literally means "order" or "arrangement". Among the very ancient Greek philosophers this is the word they used to describe the order or arrangement of reality, and different philosophers had very different views about that. But through them the word kosmos came to be used to describe the "order" of what we would call the universe, or the world (as in the things we see here on earth, or when we look up into the sky, etc). But its precise meaning in a given conversation requires some context.
So, for example, the famous passage in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world" uses kosmos, here it's referring to God's love for His creation, and specifically His love of human persons. But, in the example of John 15:19 Jesus is using it to refer not to refer to the planet earth, or to speak of the general human population; but really means it in its sense of "order" or "arrangement", that is the present order of things, the current "world-system" we might say. The Roman Empire, sure, in the sense of Rome's imperial power and ambitions, but can just as well be speaking of the Jewish Zealots' hopes and ambitions of a liberated Jewish state. The word kosmos in this sense isn't referring to a single worldly power or system, but the general state of things where sin and death pervade, where men compete with men, where nations rise against nations, where people seek power and use violence, where there is all this sickness, suffering, death, etc.
So Jesus can also say "My kingdom is not of this kosmos" (John 18:36), by which He means that His kingdom--the way Jesus is King--is not like the way Caesar in Rome is emperor, or the way Herod is king, or the way Pilate is governor of Judea. Jesus is King in a radically different kind of way. Jesus wasn't interested in taking Herod's throne, or marching on Rome to install Himself as emperor--Jesus is King and the way He is King is as the One who suffers under Pilate and is crucified, who dieas, is buried (and who will rise again on the third day victorious over death, and who will take His Throne at the right hand of God the Father).
This world, that is, planet Earth, as well as the great big universe in which the earth is located, was made for us, and we were made for it.
But the way this world is should make us uncomfortable, as though we are aliens--strangers--in it. It's as though we allowed a robber, a strongman, to come into the house and now that strongman holds us hostage in our own home. But Christ has wrestled the strongman to the ground, and disarmed him, and now He is patching us up and also will restore the whole house back to its rightful condition.
-CryptoLutheran
