“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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16-17
John 3:16 is probably the most famous line of Christian scripture there is. Dudes will sit in the end zone of football games and hold it up on posters for the millions to see. People who don’t even believe in God can quote that verse. One of the notorious habits of people who like to make a show of their religiosity is a“proof texting.”
Proof-texting John 3:16 is often ammunition for proving that Christianity is a “turn or burn” proposition (meaning: agree with my particular way/ theology/ doctrine or enjoy eternal damnation). Many a time someone will say to me, ‘ We should all be ‘John 3:16 Christians!”
I wish they would claim being “John 3:17 Christians” instead. If Christians would focus harder on “saving the world through him” (i.e. promoting, living out, preaching, teaching and embodying lives that were very Jesus-like) rather than sorting out the whole “whosoever believes in him” part, our world would be a vastly better place.
If the Son did not come to condemn the world, then it follows, too, that we ought not be about the business of condemning, either. Push back and resist injustice, call out the wrongs of the world, but it is not our job to condemn anyone. Our vision, then, could be a world without condemnation, a world in which all people are seen through the lens of Christ- as children of God- even when we disagree with them.
Luke 23:34 reads, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Proof-text that. Jesus refused to condemn people who were killing him with horrific, slow torture. So, I think it follows that we get very little slack for condemning anyone.
Condemn actions- condemn laws, condemn injustice- but not people, and we are freed up to be a part of God’s real work in the world.
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