God Loves the World, Really
John 3:16
For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This verse is
very familiar. A polling group set up a booth
on a busy city street and asked people walking by to recite a Bible verse - any
Bible verse – from memory. Of the
unsaved who responded, a very large majority recited all or at least part of
this verse.
That verse is as
familiar to Christians as the sun rising in the morning. Yet as familiar as we are with this verse we
misapply it at times. In many churches
it seems to be read this way: "For God so loved the Christian church..."
The emphasis in many churches is on our own comforts and our own
blessings. Oh how wonderful it is for
us; we are saved! We have blessings and peace
and joy and we are going to Heaven!
That's all true,
but please take a look at your church bulletin and see if there are any
programs for taking the gospel to the unsaved outside of the church. If there
are none, then what’s the point of church?
"For God so
loved the world..." What I first notice is that this verse begins with a statement.
This tells me the Who, the why and the
where of the verse. The Who is God
Himself, the Almighty, Father God, the Creator of Heaven and earth. The why is that God loves. God, the Creator, loves what He created. The where is the world He created and, most
import, the people who live in this world.
And I suspect that that also includes the non-Christians in the world.
I’m glad God
loves sinners. I was once one myself and
if God didn’t love sinners I’d still be a sinner with a bleak future involving
wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Bible
doesn’t say a lot about hell, but what it does say is scary. Eternal separation from God, eternal
darkness, eternal torments, an eternity without hope of redemption and knowing
you turned down Jesus’ sacrifice and offer for salvation.
And another
amazing thing about God’s love is that He loved before there was a need to
love. He loved us from the beginning of
creation and has never stopped loving us.
He loved us so much He made the kind of sacrifice that goes beyond words
– He gave His only begotten Son. I
cannot imagine offering a child for anyone or any reason, but God could - and
did - for me. 2 Peter 3:9 says He is not
willing that any should perish. He was
so firm in His resolve that He gave His Son to become sin for us so we would
not perish.
And that brings
us to the second “who” in this verse.
This ‘who” is us. This “who” is
whosoever wants to believe on Jesus and not suffer the eternal separation from
God. Jesus used the word, “apollymi,” which is usually translated “perish” but a
better translation is “to destroy utterly.”
Another definition I read was “should be being destroyed.” I will confess that when a young pastor
witnessed to me and showed me my sin and I asked Jesus for forgiveness; I only
did it as a fire escape from hell. All
the love displayed was on God’s side, not mine.
The reward part
is at the end of this verse, eternal life.
We read a little of heaven in the Bible and find that the Bible has
little to say on the subject. You can
talk about mansions and golden streets and jewels and gates and light and it
all sounds nice but I have no reference to compare it to so it means little to
me. But eternity with God the Father and
with Jesus sounds like the reward that really matters.
Yes, God cares
about sinners. Yes, He is not willing
that any should perish. But how can
people know about God’s love for them unless we tell them? We are told to love our neighbors as
ourselves, but if we don’t bring the Gospel to them are we really showing them
love?
Our church doors
are open every Sunday and it would be so easy if the unsaved of our village
came to us. It would be easy but it is
probably not going to happen. And
besides, we aren’t called to sit in our pews and wait for the unsaved, we’re
commanded to go and be witnesses to them.
We need to step out of our comfort zone and go to the unsaved and be witnesses.
Stephen Cram May 5, 2013
Beware lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition
of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with
Christ. Colossians 2:8
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