One of John 3:16’s most surprising turns is that we are told that God loves the world. We may be tempted to think that there are many things in the world that God loves. After all, how can we not admire the urban and the urban?Rural landscapes, haute cuisine and barbecues in the courtyard, classical symphonies and popular music, Renaissance paintings and kindergarten doodles . . . The world we know is full of textures, challenges, opportunities and joys. The problem is that everything good, interesting and beautiful in the world is saturated with sinners. Since Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the garden, the world has become a desolate land. No matter how wonderful the world is, it is not worthy of God’s redeeming love.
Understanding how the world is unworthy of God’s love is the key to John 3:16. Only then will we appreciate the unexpected gift God gives us. This point was well established many years ago by esteemed theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. In his sermon “The Immeasurable Love of God,” Warfield explores the meaning of the term “World. “(in Greek kosmos) in John 3:16, to poll the depths of God’s love.
What is the meaning of World?Apart from Warfield’s ideas, we found four possible answers.
First, do a lot of people believe that? It means everyone, without exception. In other words, when John 3:16 says that God loves the world, it means that He loves all people, one by one, too. Logic is something like this: God loves everyone; Christ died for all men; Therefore, salvation is possible for all; However, this view seems to suggest that God’s love is powerless and that Christ’s death is ineffective; otherwise, the natural conclusion of this position would be that all people are really saved, rather than potentially saved. If God loves all men and Christ is dead for all men; If God’s love is not powerless and Christ’s death is not ineffective, then the only conclusion that can be drawn is that salvation is assured for all. However, this view contradicts the Bible’s teaching of God’s judgment, as evidenced by the immediate context of John 3. : 17-21.
Secondly, do others argue that? It means everyone, without distinction. This option emphasizes that God loves more than one type of person or ethnic group. Christ’s death on the cross was not only for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. God’s love is not limited to national borders, but it extends to all kinds of nations, tribes, cultures, languages, and peoples. To this, all the people of God (Arminians and Calvinists) say a warm “Amen”. Although this vision has the advantage that it is certainly correct and fits into the broader context of john’s gospel about the global identity of the “children of God” (for example, John 1. 9-13; 4. 42), it fails to grasp the stark contrast between “God loved?”This is the world? that John 3:16 deliberately evokes.
Third, a popular nuance of the above option among reformist theologians is to argue that “World”? in John 3:16, it refers to the elect. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus emphasizes the particularity of his grace. “Whoever the Father gives me, will he come to me?” (6. 37). “I am the good shepherd; do I know my sheep, and do they know me [?] And lay down my life for the sheep? (10: 14-15). “ If you were of the world, the world would love what is yours; How, however, you are not of the world, on the contrary, I chose you among it, is that why the world hates you? (15,19) “It is for them that I pray; I am not praying for the world, but for those who have you given, why are they yours? (17,9). Etc. The point is that God’s people are chosen from an unbelieving world. Again, this view has an important tone in highlighting the biblical doctrine of election But the purpose of the term “world” in John 3:16 is not so much about the identity of God’s people as about the nature of God’s love.
That brings us to the last option. A coherent defense can be made to believe that “World” refers to the quality of God’s love. Warfield convincingly states:
[World] is not so much an extension term here; It is more of a term of intensity, its main connotation is ethical, and the purpose of its use is not to suggest that the world is so great that it takes a lot of love to embrace it completely, but that the world is so bad that it takes a lot of love to be able to love him and, above all, love him as God loved him when he gave his Son for him.
The world represents sinful humanity and is not worthy of God’s saving love. Apart from God’s love, the world is under his condemnation. But in Christ, believers experience God’s astonishing, redeeming, and infinite love. John 3:16 speaks not of the greatness of God, of the world, but of the greatness of God.