Do you love the world? Your definition of the world may determine your answer. Do you delight in the beauty of nature—God’s creation? That is good. Do you love the people of the world, as God does (John 3:16). That, too, is good. But there is one sense in which we are not to love the world. The apostle John wrote, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Basically, the world may be summed up in this sense as the system of things of which Satan is the head. He is the "prince of this world" (John 14:30), and "God of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). God, our Creator, allows Satan to have limited control of this world, and thus we see the evils around us. It is most evident in evil government, and even in religion (Revelation 13 & 17). It is the antithesis of the kingdom of God. Christians are those who have been "delivered from the power of darkness, and (are) translated into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). Though true believers are still "in the world," we are not to be "of the world" (John 17:11, 16). Our values, morals, and spirituality are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed according to the will of God (Romans 12:1-2). –Ron