God loves the world, is a phrase that has in my view two general reactions in every person that hears it. There are those that react in agreement “Amen!” and then there are those that react in discussed, unbelief and confused, “You are crazy, you don´t know what you are talking about and even others would say, impossible, God demands perfection.”

I hope today you will try to see this verse, that is so well known, in a way that will let you see more of God´s real character. Read it slowly, break it up and think with me but also for yourself.

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. John 3:16 (KJV)

Before we continue it is important that you remind yourself whether the word of God is true and real or not. If you have any doubt that those words you just read are God inspired, there is no need for you to continue here. You might as well move on to youtube and watch cat videos. But I would suggest researching the proof available from scholars comparing the Bible to other historic records and finding the Bible not just accurate, but even prophecies from the Bible happening as prophesied in history. For those confident to explore God inspired words, let´s dig in.

For God so loved the world…

In the first few words of the verse it affirms that God loved the world. It does not say God so loved his people or God so loved the righteous or holy. But God loved the world. And world here in the Greek can refer to just the people but can also mean the whole earth, the whole of creation. The part also does not say God “would love” or even God “liked” the world. It says God so “loved” the “world”. So it makes it clear that His heart had love for this world, and it did not exclude or put any qualifying criteria to His love towards the world.

The word “so” found before the word “loved” indicates that the rest of the verse will indicate to us how He loved the world or how he would demonstrate His love.

that he gave his only begotten Son,

We then discover that He gives His only Son. But how and why does that show us His love?

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish

Well apparently from the next section it is clear that without the Son, being available for some to believe in, everyone would perish. And perish means what exactly?

but have everlasting life.

Well as the last section indicates, perish is stated here as the opposite to having eternal life. Now eternal life sounds awesome. Who would mind living for ever? Well, if you think about it, there are some very unhappy people on earth that would prefer to die, some even take care of that problem themselves and end their own lives. Furthermore I know of lots of people that declared faith in the Son of God and still died. So surely there must be more to this than just living forever otherwise why bother.

God didn´t however give us only one verse to help us in life, but he left us a whole Bible, with a number of books and thousands of verses. So to help us with this verse we find Jesus, the Son, used the words eternal life more than once and in John 17:3 we find Him clarifying the meaning.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ‭‭John‬ ‭17:3‬ ‭(KJV‬‬)

So from this verse it is clear that eternal life is about knowing God. And just to clarify this even further the word used in original text for this knowing of God, is the same word found in Genesis when it states that Adam knew Eve and they had children. Therefore indicating a very intimate knowing of two parties. So “eternal life” is to intimately know God and to be intimately known by Him. So I would suggest that eternal life is to know, understand, talk to, commune, walk with, or simply have the closest relationship you can imagine with anyone, with God himself.

So let’s apply what we saw and discover more.

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. John 3:16 (KJV)

So God loved the world so much that He gave His son, so that whosoever believes in the Son, would not perish, but have an everlasting life in which they will have a living intimate relationship with God.

that he gave his only begotten Son,

So God loved the world and desired an incredible relationship with all people. But He had to give His Son. He had to because as things were people were perishing. And as we saw perishing was living outside of the great relationship and knowing of God.

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish

He gave His Son, but only those that believed would not perish. Modern dictionaries describe belief as follows:

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Belief – confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof

In The Bible belief and faith is many times used interchangeably and in Hebrews 11:1 we find the following:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

Put another way belief or faith is to embrace, accept as truth and act on God’s Son´s coming to earth.

So to unlock the gift, given in love, by God, one has to embrace Jesus Christ. When we do that we will know God, and He will know us, and we will experience His love.

God loves the world. But the world cannot experience it without Jesus. God’s heart is full of love towards the world. He did not send Jesus to condemn the world.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. ‭‭John‬ ‭3:17‬ (‭KJV‬‬)

This knowing of God and His Son is as we read Eternal Life and a journey of relationship all of us believers are on.

If you have never accepted and embraced Jesus, it is an easy decision but a profound one. A decision you can only arrive at supernaturally. So if you have read these words and made up your mind that Jesus is real. Then embrace it, start talking to God. Seek Him out, you’ll find him close by.

And if you like to, keep reading my blog. Here I will share my discoveries and hope it will help you. You are welcome to share it with others.

May you be bold and enjoy eternal life and our Farther God’s love.