John 3:16 Part One

John 3:16 Part One

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:16

The most famous verse in the Bible. Possible the most famous line of any book. John
3:16 has found its way far from the church pulpit and unto gratified walls, stickers, mugs and
even signs at football games and wrestling matches. It is used because it’s a short sentence which
captures the bare gist of the gospel message.

For God so loved… This tells us that not only is there a God but he loves us. These are
two statements that one must have faith to believe especially in the world we live in today. There
is no visible proof of God himself (not getting into his handiwork of creation or course). His face
does not shine in the sky. These is no video on Facebook or TikTok of God. And then of course
his love for us can be hard to see when there is so much death and pain in the world. It is the
atheist’s number one comment. How could a loving God allow all this to happen? When a plane
crashes, when an earthquake kills scores of people or when someone dies of cancer people
commonly ask, where was God?

You of course could go over the regular list of answers: God was always with you, He
carried you when you thought you were alone, Satan still has power until God comes back and
other responses, but many times it just doesn’t seem like enough. I’m not going to write here and
try and give a brand new answer that somehow fulfills those who aren’t satisfied with the regular
answers. The reason why they are so common is because we really don’t have a better answer.
For me it goes back to what I originally said- it takes faith to believe.

What I do find is that those who can hold on to their faith in God will find peace in their
hearts after some time. An acceptance and understanding slowly overtakes the broken heart and
the person can truly find acceptance in their life. Does this always happen? I can’t be sure of that
but from personal experience of seeing people go through this, the vast majority do.
Those who reject their faith I find have a tendency to become bitter and cynical. This of
course is to be expected when the one power that you thought you could truly trust seems to fails
you. Trust becomes hard when you give up faith. Like a line of dominos, the falling of faith
seems to knock other things in their life as well- hope, love, joy and so on.

I hope these two statements can be strong and real in your lives. Belief in God and his
love really can fill you up with the gifts of the Spirit and can truly make your life better. May you
always be able to keep your faith in them.

Blessings

Pr. Steven Couto