FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

It was not God who broke the relationship between Himself and humanity, between Himself and His children. And even when those relationships had been fractured, God’s first response was love. This was the motive for Jesus becoming human.

Because God loves the world so much—Jesus. Love is always God’s action, God’s motivation, God’s explanation, God’s invitation. The word love is often sentimentalized, even trivialized, by much of our culture. But God’s love is active, tangible, and transformative.

It takes shape in our world as it shapes our world. It took shape as Jesus Himself. It is the invitation to eternal life, overcoming the fear of death. In Jesus, God’s love is stronger than death for those who choose that love. And God’s love is greater than our most innate human fear, always reaching out to those first humans hiding from the sound of His approach and to those of us who so often follow their example. Throughout the New Testament, the world is often shorthand for evil, temptations, and distractions. These are part of our world as it is, but there is also so much that is good, beautiful, and true. And this is the world that God has loved—from the first to the last—and continues to love. In Jesus, God was worldly in the best sense of the word. He was for the world, for the sake of the world, and for the good of the world.

The eternal life offered in John 3:16 is not merely the opposite of death or overcoming it. It is a restoration of the relationship with God that gives us the eternal quality of life today—a life that matters for eternity because it is in harmony with the great, eternal, and loving God.