human heart than to live without love. As Dr. Smiley Blanton once put it: "We love or we perish!"
Now, if I were to ask you to write down what you consider the single greatest verse of Scripture in the whole Bible, what would you put down? Of course, there would be a variety of answers given, I'm sure, but in all likelihood, the verse most written down would be John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
With good reason, many people would select John 3:16. This single verse is a magnificent summary of the gospel, the message of the Scriptures in capsule form. It is the story of God's seeking, redeeming, reconciling love, all in one sentence. It has been called "everybody's text." Here, for every simple heart, is the essence of the Christian faith and "good news," and God's greatest promise.
This verse reminds us that we are indeed loved and that God himself is the one who loves us; that God seeks us out, that God values us, that God graciously reaches out to save us, and that when we (in faith) accept God's love, we can have life eternal. We see this verse acted out dramatically during Holy Week.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rides triumphantly into the Holy City. He is received as a king, with palm branches strewn before him and loud Hosannas ringing in the air. But he comes to establish a surprising kingdom, one different from anything our world has ever seen—one built not on power and violence and might, but rather a kingdom built on faith and hope and love. Through the days of Holy Week, he teaches the people, heals the sick, helps the needy, cleanses the Temple, and withstands, with amazing spiritual dexterity and wisdom, the tricky, loaded questions fired at him by the chief priests and elders who are trying to entrap him.
He tenderly takes the disciples through the last supper, and then he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. There he is betrayed by one of his closest friends, arrested on trumped-up charges, rushed through a hurried fixed trial that takes place illegally in the middle of the night, and is sentenced to death by crucifixion by a waffling Pontius Pilate.
And then on Good Friday (which, by the way, originally was called God's Friday), in the greatest act of sacrificial love this world has ever known, he goes to the cross and dies there for you and me. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."
No question about it, John 3:16 is one of the greatest statements ever spoken, because it describes, defines, and outlines the fullness of God's redeeming love. The verse falls neatly into three parts, showing us the width of God's love, the depth of God's love, and the power of God's love.
First, We See the Width of God's Love
Look at the very first phrase: "For God so loved the world"—not just one nation, not just one culture, not just one denomination, not just the attractive people, not just one little corner of creation, but the whole world! As the famous spiritual puts it: "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." In a word, the reach of God's love is as wide as the universe.
One sad thing that happens to us human beings is that we often forget the bigness of God's love, and consequently, we become small and selective in our loving, limiting our love to only a favored few. Not so with God. God's love leaps over every barrier to embrace every person. And as human beings, we become impatient with people who don't act as we want them to act or do what we want them to do.
The great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther once became so aggravated with those around him that he cried out, "If I were God and these vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world to pieces!" And Luther might have done that, but not so with God. The Bible underscores again and again the amazing grace of God, and this verse (as no other) shows the enormous sweep of God's gracious forgiving, seeking, reconciling love for the whole world. We may reject God's love. We may run away from God's love. We may ignore God's love. And our own hardness of heart may keep us out of God's kingdom, may keep us from accepting God's love in faith. But one thing we can know, one thing we can count on: God loves us, and God wants to bring us into the circle of his love.
It's important to remember now that although God's love is worldwide, it is yet very personal. Even though God's love is vast enough to reach around the globe, still it is closer to each and every one of us than our breathing.
Remember the "Peanuts" comic strip in which Lucy announces that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Younger brother, Linus, is very upset by the prospect, and he says, "Lucy, it won't work. You can never be a doctor!"
"And just why not?" Lucy retorts.
"Because," replies Linus, "you don't love humankind. You can't be a doctor because you don't love humankind!"
"But I do," says Lucy, "I do! I love humankind; it's people I can't stand!"
Not so with God. He loves the whole world, and he loves all the people in it. Do you see what this means? It means that you are the beloved child of God, that I am the beloved child of God, and that every single person we meet in this world is the beloved child of God. The message is obvious: Accept God's love for you and love God back, and pass God's love on to others in this world. Here we see the width of God's love—"For God so loved the world."
Second, We See the Depth of God's Love
God's love is wide and it is deep. Here's how John's Gospel records it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Talk about depth of love. He gave his only son!
You are aware of the fact that the New Testament was written originally in the Greek language and that the common Greek had several different words for love. The three most familiar of these are:
EROS—which gives us our word erotic;
PHILIA—which gives us our word philanthropist; and
AGAPE—the word used throughout the New Testament to describe God's love.
In capsule form, eros refers to sensual love; philia refers to social love; agape refers to sacrificial love. God's sacrificial love is what we see in Jesus Christ. God so loves the world that he gives his only son to save it.
In Becoming a Whole Person in a Broken World, Ron Lee Davis tells about a young woman named Marie who was admitted to a mental hospital in Europe. She was in a terrible emotional state. She had been reared by violent, abusive parents. At age twelve, she saw her mother and father in a horrible drunken argument one night. They were fighting and struggling over a gun. Suddenly, the pistol fired, and before young Marie's eyes, her father fell dead!
Little Marie's mind snapped. She was filled with pain, frustration, and hatred. She retreated into a fantasy world, but it too was violent. Marie would scream, scratch, hit, and curse at anyone who came near her. She was placed alone in a padded cell. The attending physician tried several approaches, to no avail. She seemed only to become worse. Finally, the doctor decided to try a then common therapy called catharsis—the venting of rage upon someone else.
A nurse named Hulda volunteered to be the victim. Every day, Hulda would enter Marie's padded cell. For a full hour, Marie would curse, kick, scream, hit, and scratch Hulda. Then exhausted, Marie would crouch in a corner like a frightened animal, and the nurse Hulda (battered, bruised, and sometimes bleeding) would go to Marie and hold the child tenderly in her arms, rock her gently, and say over and over, "Marie, I love you. Marie, I love you."
Little by little, this message of love got through. Little by little, Marie was able to respond with tears and affection.
