What Is There to Love in the World?

For God so loved the world…

Everything on this side of everlasting life is limited concerning mankind. Here is what I mean:

· There is only so much you can do.

· There is only so much that you can give.

· There is only so much you can control.

· And there is only so much you can care about.

I remember a doctor I once had who was renowned for his ability to accurately and quickly diagnose ailments that stumped other physicians (he was House before there was House). He was nearing retirement and had stopped taking new patients. He was in the exam room with me when there was a knock on the door, and one of the receptionists poked her head in, asking if he would see a new patient (who was a friend of someone supposedly important). He looked at her and shouted, “I can’t see the world!” Indeed.

And here is a similar revelation. No matter how much you’ve got going for you … you can’t love the world.

Nobody does and nobody can love the world except God.

Have you ever really allowed that first phrase of John 3:16 to marinate in your mind and soul and actually sink in? All Christians love that most famous verse of the Bible. But if you think about it, the verse is beloved probably because it reveals that through belief in God’s only begotten Son, we avert doom and are instead gifted eternal life. In other words, we are thrilled about what God is offering us (as we should be). But I wonder if God loving the “world” is part of what we are thrilled about.

God loves us and wants us to be with Him (Revelation 21:3). But who is “us”? Was “us” the Romans who tortured and crucified Jesus? Was “us” the religious leaders who hated Jesus, refusing to believe He was the Son of God? Does “us” include all of history’s idolaters, atheists, evolutionists, and godless intelligentsia?

On a similar note, who are the “them” of “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”? (Luke 23:34) The same as above?

Have you ever heard anyone say, “I love the world”? I haven’t. And I haven’t said it either. There are things about the world I love. There are people who have lived or are living in the world that I love. But I have never even considered saying to anyone at any time, “I love the world.” The “world” is too big. There are too many people. I am limited. So are you.

God so loved the world…but we couldn’t even if we tried (and no one that I know is trying).

I have a hard enough time trying to love those that I like. Then there are those that I don’t like. Love them? Then there are my enemies. These are people who wish I would go away or even die. They want me to fail. They want to embarrass me. They rejoice in my pain (I was blown away by how many people both celebrated and mocked Charlie Kirk’s assassination). Love them?

And do you know who the hardest of all to love is? People that I don’t even know (and that is almost all the people in the world.

How many of us realize that everything Jesus said after For God so loved the world, was said because of those first words?

The most famous verse in the Bible begins with a huge, implied contrast between God and man. God actually can (and does) love EVERYONE! He loves the people who don’t believe in Him. He loves the people who disobey Him. He loves the people who don’t know Him. He loves the people who follow Him. I am just as astounded that God so loved the world as I am that He created it ex nihilo. I can no more fathom loving everyone in the world than I can that everything was created from nothing! How is it possible? I don’t know; it’s over my head (and heart).

Charles Wesley was dead on when he wrote:

“Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God, should die for me?” (from And Can It Be, That I Should Gain?)

But God’s love for the world didn’t begin when Jesus spoke those famous words to Nicodemus, written in John 3:16.

As early as Genesis 12:3, we find God making a promise to the world through Abram:

And I will bless those who bless you … and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

[A]ll the families of the earth means the world. Have you ever thought about all of the rather important people in the Old Testament that God revealed Himself to who weren’t Hebrew (and therefore not part of the chosen people)?

· Melchizedek (king of Salem who greeted Abram following his victory over the five-nation confederacy with “bread and wine” and who the author says “He was priest of God Most High” [Genesis 14:18]).

· Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law was “the priest of Midian” Exodus 3:1).

· Balaam (Numbers 22-24). Though it didn’t end well for Balaam, one cannot deny that he spoke with the God of Abraham and Balak knew it.

· Rahab, Ruth, and Job are a few other names that are prominent in the Old Testament who weren’t Hebrews.

· The kings of Babylon and Persia lauded the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see Ezra 1:1-4 and Daniel 4:1-3).

· The Ninevites repented and believed in God following Jonah’s ministry (Jonah 3).

That is not, of course, an exhaustive list of non-Hebrews who we find in the Old Testament who knew, and for the most part, worshiped God. And don’t forget that before the gospel of Jesus Christ was ever proclaimed to anyone, there were “magi from the east” who came to see Mary’s holy Child “to worship Him” (Matthew 2:1-2).

It wasn’t ‘breaking news’ when Jesus told Nicodemus that God so loved the world. Maybe that truth had been forgotten. Maybe it was being ignored. Perhaps we could suggest the same thing today.

I find it interesting that in the Great Commission Jesus spoke of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18). Nations rather than people? Nations and people seemed to be interchangeable for Him because He followed it up with baptizing them…

The world consists of nations which are filled with people.

The religious sects of Israel two thousand years ago, had divided the world neatly into two groups: Jews and Gentiles. They knew that Gentiles were far more numerous than Jews. But in their minds, God had nothing but contempt for Gentiles (Matthew 9:11; Luke 18:11). I guess they weren’t too keen on reading their Scriptures. Or maybe they just conveniently overlooked what they didn’t like. Sounds familiar.

It may not have been ‘breaking news’ when Jesus asserted that God loved the world, but it was certainly something that few (if any) gave heed to.

If God loved the world, can’t we Christians love those whom He appoints to cross our paths? It’s a lot fewer people than the world.

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