The Biblical World View

As we start the year let’s get the perspective appropriate in our lives. To have a biblical worldview, you must know the Bible. Despite the resurgence in sales of Bibles since October of 2025, the real question that needs to be considered should be, is there life change as a result. The Bible is more than many understand as it is always relevant. The purpose of this is multiple, as it is the written documentation & perimeters of the story of creation as developed by the Creator & the rebellion that repeatedly takes place in multiple forms by creation against the Creator. Further, it is the documentation of the covenants cut by the Creator to multiple individuals & the generations tied to them & the responsibilities of each party. This introduction is not what the commonly advanced by church leaders to members of their congregations because essentially, we as Pastors give Bibles then say read it.

When you get into the Word typically if it is your first time the advisement to start in book of John, So when you roll into Ch. 3 you are getting a good understanding of the symbolism, of creation & of the coming of the Messiah. Then you get to V16 & you get reasoning. V16 is the most popular verse in the Bible.

John 3:16-21¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

While in this series we are going to cover the following 5 verses, this week we want to hone in on this & extract the full meaning and enhance the value of this very important verse inspired by God & given to the Apostle John.

Let’s start with the source of the verse, this is a relational verse, meaning the context is about building a relationship, or gaining a relationship with God himself. We are taught that God, is the Trinity, we are taught that God is the Father, we are taught that God is Jesus, some of us are even taught that Holy Spirit is God. In the GR this is Theos, the supreme Divinity, God, godly.

The verb that is the motivator is Loved. This is the reason why the rest of the verse is what it is. The word in GR is agape, describes a volitional, covenant-loyal love that seeks the true good of another regardless of merit or cost. It is rooted in God’s own character and thus governs every sphere where Scripture speaks of relationship—divine, ecclesial, familial, social, even toward enemies.

This means sometimes hard love will be the method of showing love, this means that tolerance has limits. This means that faithfulness to the receiver is assured. This love that God has in this offer is self-sacrificial. It means that storms will also will come & on his side he will cling to you, even carry you through those storms. Sadly what is lost is he wants you to love him with the same level of commitment & sacrifice, and stamina because we recognize who God is. God loves, not because he needs love back, God loves not because we can add anything to hi, God loves because he is demonstrating to us what true love is.

Those whom are extended this offer is broad in scope, it is the world. The world is the target audience. This means everyone is allowed to accept this gift, in order to be saved. It does not matter your race, socio-economic level, education level, who you are family is, what you own, who you are affiliated with. What your interests are. No it is open to everyone.

The outcome of this is to be saved by the Son of God, through belief, which is pis-tyoo’-(pisteuó) to have faith, to entrust. The result of this is to not perish. This is where confusion can set in when you are new to the faith aspect that through Jesus life springs forward. There are those who believe this is an exchange changing it into a deal for life in heaven, life ternal, life away from hell. These people have a theology that there is no connection with God, just a knowledge of & thus God grants them eternal life away from hell based on intellectual recognition of this offer.

The approach is ripe with pride, taking this offer & making it one given because of a misconceived idea of importance. Many modern worship songs on the nation wide Christian radio stations promote this where the message is self-centered & not in awe of God. While we are exclusive creations we need to keep in mind God says we are all equal & he has no favorites.

Not perishing means something much different to us than it does to the original audience because they were raised on the proper understanding of the context of perishing. To us it is merely death. Death is a scary subject, it is a subject no one but people like me jokes about. Here we have lost the importance of separation from God, himself.

The connection is a key to walking through life, because without this we are left to ourselves, but through this belief, trust, we become children of God. It is not relayed to the Christian church enough that each & everyone of us is a spiritual being housed in material matter. There is a spiritual base of your being which is what God created first before you were given structure.

The goals is to bring us home but to get there you will find out is not about what you know as opposed to who you know. Another reason why knowing your Bible is so essential. This is not about faith in the norms, values & traditions as it is as much as it is the command to not stay at that base level of faith. The belief & trust in the Son is essential to receive what is intended for us, in spite what the world & our own bodies tell us. Just remember that our bodies are not our soul.

What this verse is telling us is that the gift was given out of love! Love in spite of us, in spite of our traditions, in spite of our worth! The gift of the Son of God is to keep you from separation from the family! But the star of this verse is the Son of God, not us. The gift is the essence of the love being invested in a humanity given to the wickedness of the spiritual rebellion which dictates the cultural norms.

There is much fight against this verse in the world today. Everything from this never happened to this is meaningless in everyday affairs, but I say that is exactly why there needs to be value placed in this as a world view. Look at the chaos, look at the corruption that has made our cultures a sewer plant today. The wickedness of mankind has sold to the unaware that we are fine, while we are out killing one another over political affiliations & values, to color of our skin, to socio-economic level, to what we celebrate & now if we deem the others as even having any reason to live putting ourselves on the throne as gods of this age.

In this we fail to see what we need saved from.

Loved ones the saving from is not necessarily the things of this age. It is the age to come. You are as I said a spiritual creation housed in material matter. The material matter will decay. It will fade away. Spiritually you will live for in eternity. You will spend a longer time in that than you will here in flesh. God so loved the world that he does not want to have you spend that eternity with out him because without him hell is all that is left.

Hell is separation from God.