God So Loved...

Bible software is such a great tool for study. I find even in simplistic word and phrase searches, connections can be made from one scripture to another that can make quite beautiful insights.

Recently, I took a phrase from the most famous verse in the Bible - John 3:16. Here is the verse:

John 3:16
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.

The three words I searched were "God so loved". To my surprise, there is only one other verse in the entire Bible that contains these words in this order - 1 John 4:11. Here is that verse:

1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

So in thinking about these two verse together; I look at 1 John 4:11 and it starts with if God so loved us... and the first question becomes did God so love us?; according to John 3:16 we can say that absolutely, without a doubt, in all certainty YES God did, and so then our response should be as follows - we ought also to love one another.

But in what way do we love one another in response to our accepting John 3:16? Looking back at John 3:16 we see that the way in which God so loved us was in providing salvation in & through Jesus (Him and His work on the cross) and if we are to also love one another - the way in which we must do this is sharing that same Gospel message.

Yes God so loved you; but He also so loved the world. As much as we can stand in awe that God cared enough about us individually to send His only begotten Son - we are ordered to stop standing and care enough about the world to go and declare that same truth to everyone else.