Speculum et Lavacrum

John 3:16 and the Whosoevers of the World~

"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."

One of the great problems with today's Evangelical sermons is that they're more "sermonettes" than anything else. A verse is quoted and then used as a spring board for the rest of the "so-called" sermon, instead of honest exegesis.

So, let's go through this passage line by line. The whole context starts in verse one and then goes all the way through verse twenty-one. However, for time's sake I want to just focus on four verses,

Joh 3:14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
Joh 3:15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
Joh 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.
Joh 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.

Here's enough of the passage in order to give us a decent context. This is a Soteriological passage, but John's focus is not necessarily the ordus soludus. He is responding to Nicodemus, a Jewish leader (v.10), and/or a Pharisee (v.1). So, John is specifically responding to a misunderstanding that the Pharisees had of Salvation, and the nature of the Messiah. The Jews had a concept of the Messiah and Salvation that was purely nomistic and nationalistic. Jesus is saying, no, you have it wrong, it goes much deeper and further than that. So when looking at this passage, that has to be first and foremost kept in mind, not how and who is involved in the process, instead what is the process.

Another issue that we run into, is a misunderstanding of the terms used here, "world" and "whosoever believes". Unfortunately, we're a very individualistic culture, so we think in these terms. World must mean "every individual" and "whosoever" must mean "every individual", when this is not the case. The New Testament comes over to us from the East, where they think in terms of community, nationality, family, your basic social corporate constructs.

So first, the term "world", in Greek, κόσμος or transliterated, kosmos. The term κόσμος must be defined in the context of the passage as it has many meanings and applications, especially in Johannine literature. κόσμος in Koine (common) Greek as such vast application that this word alone covers two whole pages in Frederick, William, and Danker's "A Greek=English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. BDAG". But on page 562, righ hand column, under section 6b, they have John 3:16 under "all humanity, especially of believers, as the object of God's love". What does this mean? Specifically the term "world" in John 3:16 has a delimiter by its context. What is the delimiter? Look at verse 17, "...but that the world might be saved through Him." The word "might" here doesn't have the conotation of of an indefinite clause, that of a "possiblity", but is instead definite, it has the conotation of "would be saved". So here's the question, will all of mankind be saved? If not, then the term world here doesn't mean every individual. What was one of the concepts that the Jews had that I mentioned earlier? Nationality. They believed that the Messiah was coming for merely Israel. Jesus is saying, no, I'm coming for not only the Jew but for the whole world. People from every tribe tongue and nation, as John calls them later in chapter ten, "the other sheep" in John 10:14-16 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd." Who does Jesus lay down His life for? The Sheep, and the sheep only.

Secondly, the phrase, "...that whosoever believes...", going to the Greek again, πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων, or transliterated, "those who are believing, or every single one who believes". There is no term for "whosoever" in Greek. So this word, whosoever, is a translation of a phrase. Hence, "whosoever" does not mean by any means that this is a unknown people, that there is no election, or that there is somehow a universal application to it, hence meaning that everyone has a moral capacity. πᾶς, meaning all is delimited by ὁ πιστεύων, those believing. So this is speaking of a very specific group. The text is not speaking at all of who will believe, nor is is speaking at all of who has the capacity. All this is saying is, all those who believe, this group, will have eternal life. Nothing more. So when those who use John 3:16 say, "see! it says world and whosoever, therefore this has universal application and everyone has the capacity to choose to believe!" they miss the whole point and context of John, not to mention a proper exegesis.