For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. John 3:16-17 The Living Bible
If you are a regular reader of these posts, you know that our outreach is especially to those who feel that they are “outsiders” to religion in general, and to the organized church in particular. There are a number of reasons outsiders feel they way they do, but the main reason is the religious system at its core requires separation and division to exist. The outsiders are the separated ones.
The etymology for the word “denomination” derives from about the 14th century, meaning “a naming, the act of giving a name to” according to dictionary.com. In the early 18th century, it came to mean the naming of a religious sect. Currently, it has come to mean a group having a distinctive interpretation of a religious faith and usually its own organization. In practical terms, it means that the distinctive interpretation is a wall, a barrier, a separator beyond which those with different interpretations may not pass.
A comprehensive review of the ancient origins of this practice in religious circles is beyond the scope of this post. But, believe us, outsiders know all too well the exclusion they feel exuding from most religious establishments. Its primary hallmark is an air of superiority for the insiders, and guilt and inadequacy for the outsiders. “Just agree with us, and you can be an insider, too!”
We are ecstatic to announce some good news for all of you outsiders! It was never Father’s intention, desire or will for you to be outside of His blessings–and you are not outside of His blesssings! Our opening passage, one that is well-known, albeit not always accurately translated, plainly declares that Father now loves, has loved, and always will love, the entire world–and that includes all of you who feel you are “outsiders”! You may in fact be an outsider to the church organization, but you are most definitely NOT an outsider to God or God’s love.
(We sincerely apologize to everyone who has been taught that God is about to burn up the inhabitants of the world because He is so mad at them. We regret to inform you that you have been taught an untrue image of the heavenly Father. We respectfully suggest that you ask Him if those are His intentions, and do not believe it until He tells you it is true.)
Continuing our practice of presenting the facts, and teaching the ability to find the facts for yourself, we first turn to the word “love”. Regrettably, most translators lump several words used in the original text into a single English word in the translation. Several different Greek words, having markedly different meanings in Greek, are all translated “love” in most bible translations.
These meanings range from friendship (“phileo” as in Philadelphia) to sexual love (“eros” as in erotic) to unconditional love with no strings attached (“agape” for which there isn’t a readily recognizable English word). Dear reader, do you want to guess which word was used in reference to God’s love? If you guessed “no strings attached”, you are correct!
Here’s how you can learn to check these things out for yourself. There is a free online resource called blueletterbible.org. From the home page you can enter a bible word like “love” and find out its correct meaning and compare how it has been used in other places in the bible. You are no longer dependent on the translators–the wonderful folks at this website have done all the hard work for you. May Father bless each one of them!
As this post is written, the box at the top is entitled “Search The Bible”, and one of the examples is John 3:16! But for practice, enter “loved” in the box and click the magnifying glass. The website will gather all the verses in the entire bible where the word “loved” is used in that translation. Look to the right, for a listing by each book in the bible–here, we’re looking for the book of John (Jhn). Click on it.
The first entry is John 3:16. To the left is a button called “Tools”. If you click on that button, you will get either a drop down list offering an interlinear version or another box where each word is interlineated into several categories. The first column, called “Strong’s” is a dictionary with numbered entries; further to the right is the Greek root word and an English transliteration. Click on the Strong’s number, G25, and it will take you to the definition of the word. If you cannot find it, here is the link.
You will notice when the reference is to people, it means “to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly.” So God is welcoming someone He loves dearly, but you may be asking, “Does that include me?”
The next word we look at is the word “world”. Does that mean the planet? Does that mean the people of the world, or the religious people of the world? Let’s follow the same procedure. Enter “world” in the search box. Again, find John, and click on it, and then scroll down to John 3:16. Click the “Tools” button and find the word “world”.
If you went to the right place, you saw the Strong’s number G2889, and if you clicked on it, you found out the Greek word is “kosmos“. You probably recognized right away its similarity to our word “cosmos”–same idea, it is in fact the entire universe! But in a micro sense, it also includes all humanity. The sheer breadth of meaning of this one word is eye-popping, and yes, it even includes God’s enemies! (We welcome you, if you happen to be one of those.)
Yes, dear reader, Jesus came to help, to put the entire universe right again, and that includes you, as well as that exclusionary church on the corner. He does this by implanting His divine nature into you and teaching you, through the circumstances of life, to trust Him to get you through them.
It all begins with deciding you would rather live in the light, rather than in darkness; deciding you are tired of getting it wrong, and that you’d like to get it right for once in your life. All you have to do is decide to make Jesus the boss, and trust Him to work it out.
We are seriously saying that Jesus has the power to make the entire universe right again, and to include you in the restoration process. We respectfully ask: what have you got to lose? Is it all that cool bumping around in the dark? We further say we are convinced that He is going to accomplish exactly what He came for. In our next post, we will explain how you can ask Him for yourself.
Blessed are you, O Lord our wonderful God. What great love you have shown to us! When it is fully seen, and the reality of how little we deserve it hits us, we fall to our knees in grateful tears. Your unconditional love, with no strings attached, never fails. Baruch ata!