“For God so loved the world, that
he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John
3:16.
H. Montgomery Hyde in his life of Lord Carson
of Duncairn tells that in June 1935 he caught bronchial pneumonia.
It looked as though at 80 years of age he would not survive.
He died aged 85. Only a few family and friends were allowed
to see him.
One visitor was Dr. C.F. D’Arcy, the Church of Ireland
Archbishop of Armagh, an old friend. In their brief conversation
Carson told him: “I have seen much to shake my faith,
and what remains with me is no more than what I learned at
mother’s knee – God so loved the world…..”
D’Arcy assured him: “If you believe that that’s
enough.”
Many have favourite bible texts but John 3:16 has been described
as “The Gospel in a Nutshell.” It proves that the
most important and profound truths can be presented in simple
language, with an economical use of words.
When Charles A. Dana was editor of the New York Sun, he assigned
an event to a cub-reporter telling him that he would have
a certain space for his report. When the young fellow protested
that it was not enough, Dana told him, “Son, get a copy
of the Bible and read Genesis chapter one. You’ll find
that the whole story of the creation of the world is told
in 600 words.”
No one understood better than Jesus the value of simplicity
and brevity in speech. There are His incomparable stories
which have not an unnecessary word. He used language the people
could understand, ideas and illustrations familiar to them.
And He took them on to think with Him on matters of crucial
importance to them whether or not they recognised it.
Christians have to accept the fact that they would be much
better witnesses for Christ if they learned to speak as He
did and do as He did. Brevity may be the soul of wit, it is
the heart of Christian preaching and teaching. It is essential
in communication in consequential matters of whatever kind.
During the American Civil War a memorial service was held
at Gettysburg cemetery with Edward Everett, president of Harvard
University, and Governor of Massachusetts, senator and orator
as the main speaker. The President of the United States, Abraham
Lincoln was invited to make a few remarks. He spoke for a
few minutes. It was his famous Gettysburg address which has
these lofty sentiments:
“That we highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of
the people by the people and for the people shall not perish
from the earth.”
Few Americans could quote anything said by Everett in a lengthy
speech, fewer are unable to repeat the inspiring words of
Abe Lincoln.
John 3:16 is a prime example of the economical use of words.
It tells what we need to know about God, His treatment of
people, the provision He made to bring them into a personal,
proper and permanent relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.
The most telling expression of God’s love was in the
most compelling language of all, a human life. We see God
in the person of Jesus Christ.
The primary information from John 3:16 is that God loves
people and showed it plainly when in the man Jesus He took
flesh with the single purpose of bringing people into a loving
relationship with Himself. “God so loved that He gave
….”
The love of God for people is reciprocal. It is always “we
love Him because He first loved us.” Jesus showed us
God as He is – the Father who cannot be happy until His
wandering children come home to Him. And what He is not like
– an absolute ruler who demands blind obedience from
every one of his subjects.
The text tells us of the width and reach of God’s love,
the world and everyone in it. St. Augustine put the thought
in a few words,
“God loves each one of us, as if there
was only one of us to love.” Ccould we with ink the ocean
fill, and were the heavens of parchment made, were every stalk
on earth a quill. And every man a scribe by trade. To write
the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry, nor would
the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to
sky.”
The love of God is conditional in that there must be an individual
response to it. Love of God is expressed meaningfully in worship
with the people of God, the church; and in service for others
who may or may not be of “the household of faith.”
Selflessness in the pattern of Jesus should be a characteristic
in the every day and every way of the Christian’s life.
Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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