From our famous Bible quotes section: John 3:16
For this section of Famous Bible Quotes, See text below for an simple explanation of this classic passage.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
John 3:16
For God so loved the world,
God loved, the Bible says, because He is love. In other words, His loving does not depend on the quality of the person He loves, but upon the fidelity of His character. We ought to learn to love like that. I read one author who said he learned to love His wife because that's what he does. "Joe" loves his wife because that is who God created Him to be, and it does not necessarily depend on her "lovability" at a given moment. It's a radical departure from what we're used to, but with God's enablement we can learn to love in this way.
that He gave His only begotten Son,
The empasis is upon "only." There is only one, most treasured, that He gave up to secure our redemption
that whoever believes in Him
To "believe" in the Bible means more than a mere assent to the truth. It means to embrace with the heart. To hold something as dearly true. This definition is drawn from the context of how Jesus describes the terms of believing in John's gospel
shall not perish, but have eternal life."
To perish means spiritual and physical separation from God forever. Eternal life is a term used in the scripture to describe a state that begins at belief, and continues into eternity beyond where heaven exists.
For a book length-treament on how to understand the simple truth of what it means to believe this message, I highly recommend C.S. Lewis' Mere ChristianityHave a question about other famous Bible quotes not listed here? Go to the Contact us page and let me know.
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