For God So Loves All

A dear friend once shared that whenever she sees someone carrying a sign that says, “John 3:16,” she assumes it implies bigotry and exclusion. I was surprised because in my privileged white, straight, CIS-gendered bubble, I’ve only ever thought of this verse as being about God’s love.

In case you’re unfamiliar with arguably the most famous memory verse of all time — I once could even say this in Spanish, but please no quizzes for my aging brain — here it is in the NRSVUE:

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

She shared some perspective I hadn’t considered. First, people who carry signs around don’t always have love of God and neighbor in mind and purpose. Second, she pointed out that this verse can be used to justify exclusion, at least on the basis of requiring, “belief.” She said she felt that some people use this verse to claim that people like her would perish in Hell, at least according to the whims of an anonymous sign porter. While I can’t speak to the porter’s intent — who was undoubtedly standing on the side of some large sporting event wearing a befitting rainbow clown wig — I can see my friend’s point.

We were in a decently-sized Bible study group when she brought this up, so I really didn’t have much time to think about this or formulate any kind of good response. Not that I would be qualified to do so in the first place. I mumbled something about universal salvation and the fact that, “belief,” isn’t consent to dogma but is more about holding Christ dear. Marcus Borg once visited my church and told me that when we hear, “believe,” we should think more, “belove.” All fine answers for any first-year seminary student, but wholly inadequate for a friend who had faced repeated bigotry at the hands of many wigged-out clowns.

This was about a year ago and it’s bothered me ever since. Then recently, David Artman had Jonathan Mitchell on as a podcast guest. I know nothing about Mitchell at this point other than the loving and gentle Artman saw fit to discuss his insights into New Testament translations and the Septuagint, so this is not a personal recommendation. Here is his site if you want to learn more, but be warned, the site design is so bad it might steal your boyfriend.

But what Mitchell said turned my thoughts on this verse upside down. He made a strong case that we should understand this verse in the present tense. This isn’t something God did a long time ago that requires your intellectual assent. This is something God is doing for everyone, then, now and in the future. Despite years of evangelicals telling you that you’d better give your life to Christ or perish in Hell, the perishing in this verse is about failing to lead the kind of life God has in mind for all of creation.

Another thing that jumps out at me is Mitchell’s explanation of the first half of the verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” Because of my conservative religious upbringing, the words, “so,” and, “gave,” had a very specific meaning in my mind since childhood. “God so loved,” meant that God loved a really big amount, enough do do something super big. What was that big thing? God sacrificed His Son, that’s the, “gave,” part. But Mitchell would have us read, “God so loved,” not as in, “God loved us this much,” but as, “God loved us in this way.” And giving us His Son is about sending us a model and representative, more than giving the Son up to death.

Mitchell is way smarter than I am about Greek, but really, who isn’t? I’m going to do my best to share his thinking on this verse, but you are better off reading Mitchell’s work on the Gospel of John for yourself (again, epilepsy warning). But my sense is Mitchell would prefer a reading closer to:

God continues to love all of creation in this way: He gave you the Son as a representative into this world order and even treats you like the Son, so that everyone who continues to put their trust in the Son and the Son’s ways will avoid destroying themselves and falling into ruin, and instead will enter into and continuously enjoy the Age of the Messiah.

The starting place of all theology for Mitchell is contained in the idea here that God loves all of aggregate humanity, which he says is a better translation. God is loving you, present tense, everyone with no exceptions. Getting to a nose-on translation is messy, so Mitchell is understandably wordier than most translations in his effort to give us the real flavor of the intent of the verse that we have varnished over with hundreds of years of misunderstood atonement theory.

God continues to so love us eternally because God is love. God sending His only Son is better read into a culturally understood idea that the Son is a unique representative or emissary in the the order of the world. Mitchell states that the verbs show we are in a state of progressing toward greater faithfulness to Christ and that is how we live a fulfilled human life in this new post-resurrection age.

This isn’t about who gets into Heaven, this is about living your Christ-centered life right now. Thanks to Christ, union with God can be experienced right now. Eternal life is right now. We lose ourselves by not following the spirit of love and Christ showed us, as God’s unique representative that lives wins over all, even over death.

I’m taken by this because it really mirrors what I think about the roots of my own belief. My belief — you could call this my personal theology or how I think the world works or just what I hold to be dear as I live my life — comes more from logic and personal experience than it does from trying to form an airtight systematic theology from scripture. Life is messy so our scripture is messy. There isn’t a single way each of us should follow exactly. Logic tells me there is a source and ground of all being. But that’s as far as logic can go. Jesus and my personal, intimate experience of Christ shows me this God not only exists, but also that God is love and loves all of us eternally. God demonstrated this through Jesus’ life and resurrection and if we trust that demonstration our lives can become full through divine providence. That’s it. I don’t care who you want to marry, what day you worship on, what you wear or eat, or what you believe about baptism mechanics or transubstantiation. I think that’s what Mitchell means when he says it is the starting place of all theology. In the end, this is all that matters and while it’s fun to argue other points, I don’t need anything else.