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. (KJV)

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (CSB-Christian Standard Bible)

In the Greek language, the word “so” in this verse is “houtos” (hoo’-tos).  The definition of houtos is “in this manner, in this way, after this manner”.  Shawn’s former pastor said in a sermon one time that people would say, “God sooooooooooooooooo loved the world,” as if it refers to the degree in which God loved the world, but it’s not referring to how much God loved the world, but how He proved His love to the world and that was by sending Jesus Christ to earth to take our punishment in our place so that we would be reconciled to God.  Imagine demonstrating to someone how to do a particular task, you may use the phrase, “And you do this like so” - this is what the word “so” in this verse means.  It doesn’t describe the magnitude of God’s love.  It demonstrates how He has shown His love.

The word “world” here doesn’t refer to every single individual.  The Greek word is “kosmos” which in this case refers to the inhabitants of the earth, the whole of humanity.  See, John was writing his gospel to the Jews.  In the Jews’ mind, they were the only ones whom God was going to save, but their idea of salvation was that God would free them from Roman tyranny.  Their understanding was that God would save them in an earthly, physical sense, not in a spiritual sense.  So, to say that God loved the entire world and that God’s salvation was for the whole of humanity and not just the Jews was a shocking statement to them.  In their minds, they were the only “chosen” people and everyone else was just left out in the cold, so to speak.

In the Greek reading of this verse, you have “hina (so that) pas (everyone, all) 0 (what, that, which, who), pisteuon (believing).”  When reading it in English, you have “so that everyone who believes”.  Some have also interpreted it as “so that all the believing”.  “The believing” are those who have already put their trust in Christ.  Even if you say, “everyone who believes”, it’s still the same thing.  You’re talking about a specific group of people and this group is comprised of those who are born again.

And what is special about this particular group?  This group will NOT PERISH but have ETERNAL LIFE.  Why?  Because they are “the believing”.

This is why I like word studies.  It gives more clarification to what Scripture means.