“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 [NASB]
For so many people, like you, whether Christian or not, who
attended Sunday School at some time, this verse was the first one that struck
home for you. It was the first one you memorized, and it may be the only one
you memorized. For people who continued attending church and who gave their
lives to Jesus Christ, a deeper understanding of the message of this verse
occurred. This understanding goes like this, “God loves me so much that He sent
His Son to die because of my sin, my badness, in my place so I would not have
to endure eternal judgment.” God loves you so much He does not want you to be
separated from Him forever but made a way to bring you back to rightness with
Him by cleaning your sins and the guilt of sins from your life.
This understanding is correct. It really is about you…about me.
But how often have we stopped there saying, “Yes, I believe. Thank you, Lord,
for saving me”? How often have we not taken our blinders off to see beyond ourselves
to what this verse could mean for other people. Jesus said, “Greater love has
no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13
[NASB]) Was He only speaking about His loving people and so dying for them? Or,
was He teaching others what they should also do?
Jesus’ life on earth was more than just coming to die for us
and then going back to the Father. If that was all He came to do, He could have
come down fully grown, and been crucified immediately. Instead, Jesus spent 33
years on earth. Why? So, He could be about His Father’s business. (Luke 2:49)
He said this as a twelve-year-old child to his mother and father when they
looked for him and found him teaching in the temple. Jesus came to earth to
teach us about the Father, His love for us, His care, His heart, and His gift
of salvation. A teacher never teaches just so the listener can have knowledge.
A teacher teaches so the listener can have and use knowledge by which to live
in this world. That was a big part of Jesus’ life. He began teaching at 12 and
didn’t stop until his death 21 years later.
When Jesus said in John 3:16, “God so loved the world,” He taught
about true love, which only comes from the Father because God is love. (1 John
4:7-21) He taught about God’s love so we would desire it for ourselves and come
to know Him as our Savior. But Jesus also taught about true love, the love that
comes only from God, to educate people so they would embody this love of God in
their daily interactions. He wanted His followers to be intentional in loving
other people, just as the Father was intentional and made a plan from the
beginning of time to love people by sending His Son.
You see, John 3:16 is not all or only about You. It is about
God. Since it is not all about you and since you have received His wonderful
gift of love and salvation, you are compelled by His love within you to
share it. The love God puts in each of us when we accept His gift of salvation
is not for hoarding. It cannot be hoarded because it is too high, wide, and
deep to fathom or contain. True love, God’s love, when it enters your heart,
overflows abundantly. It rushes over the top and floods out of your life in words,
actions, and thoughts. Yes, “God so loved you,” but hear Jesus’ words again. “God
so loved the world.” True love, God’s love, is alive, active,
overflowing, unending, uncontainable, and for all people. This love is about
God and from God for all people.
Jesus came to bring us salvation and eternal life. He did it
because of His love for us even when we were filthy with sin. With our dirty
faces, darkened evil hearts, and blindness to anyone but ourselves, He saw our
spirits and knew who we really are and He cared. Jesus loved us too much to let
us stay that way, captive to the dark. Jesus’ love poured out to us, as He
explained in John 3:16, allows us to see other people as Jesus sees people and
allows us to love other people as He loves them. When this happens, we say, “God
so loves them (the world) that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever of
them believes in Him will not perish but having everlasting life, and I so love
them that I must tell and show them God’s love poured out in and through me.”
Jesus came to bring salvation and life. He also came teaching
us to do as He did on earth. Jesus taught and commanded His disciples and followers
to go and tell the world about Him and make disciples. Through Peter, He said, “If
you love Me, feed my sheep.” “God so loved the world” is not just for you to hoard.
With God’s love in you, you are to be like Jesus; go to all the nations and
telling them about the love of God, His great plan from the beginning of time. See
people through God’s eyes of love and go tell and show them His love. “God so
loved the world” is for all people, not just you or me.
“Do you love Me?”
Jesus asked.
You must answer that for yourself with your heart, your
words, and your life.
How will you answer? In word only or in deed?
“So, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am. IF I then, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” (John 13:12-15 [NASB])
