John 3:17
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
I have been riding my bike quite a bit this summer and one interesting observation of note is the number and variety of places I have seen quoted John 3: 16, “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.” You will not be surprised that I have seen it on more than one church sign but would you believe I have ridden by private residences with this verse posted in their yard or at their mailbox. It is encouraging that people are devoted to Jesus’ words and sacrifice on behalf of the world. I would hazard a guess that John 3: 16 is the most widely known verse in the Bible. What I find interesting, though, is that so few people have any idea what Jesus said in the very next verse, practically in the same breath. It seems to me, that verse 17 is at least as important as verse 16. Verse 17 tells us that God sent the Son into the world for salvation. He came to save the world. It goes further by relieving our anxiety about judgment in that Jesus explicitly says that God did not send him to earth to judge the world. Whew! Salvation without judgment. Does the Good News get any better than that?
It seems clear that one of the reasons we do not know verse 17 is because it is not taught to us or drilled into us the way verse 16 has been. Truly, there does not seem to be as much teaching, especially good teaching, on judgment. Recently I dialogued with someone about sin. What caused it to be enlightening is that, for many people, though they are happy to hear that Jesus isn’t judging them, they shy away from verse 17 because it might force them to drop their negative judgments of others. If we don’t preach verse 17 then we are free to go on judging others. Afterall, it is their sin which is compromising the world, not mine.
This is dangerous theology at best; an all out denial of the Gospel of Christ at the worst. I do not deny that living a judgment free life is extraordinarily hard. That is why we need a daily walk with Jesus. Only by his wisdom and strength can we learn to let go of the painful reality of a critical spirit. We suffer greatly if we fail to let go of judgment and criticism. Jesus died for the people we like to denigrate. I can’t think that makes him feel very good or very proud of us. I write this today in the hopes that we will begin to think about John 3: 17 with some of the same fervor that we have given verse 16 and in meditating on it, that we might become a gentler, more compassionate body of believers.