I'm sure there are a few more of these floating around on this blog, but here is a good summary of the issues concerning to whom Christians are obligated to care for and in what ways they are obligated.
What would you comment on Jn 3:16? I agree with plesion being a member of the covenant community but Jn 3:16 has always puzzled me when in other places it states friend of the world is enemy with God.
The word "world" is used in a variety of ways in John. Sometimes it means the wicked world, sometimes the actual created world, and sometimes it means the representative world, as I would take it to mean here. As such, the world here that is loved by God is the world that makes up His believers. They are not just Jews, as in Chapter 1, but as many as received Him became children of God. So the word here seems to suggest that God loved all of His elect in the world, i.e., all of the believers for whom He died so that these believers that come from the entire world would not perish but have everlasting life.
What would you comment on Jn 3:16? I agree with plesion being a member of the covenant community but Jn 3:16 has always puzzled me when in other places it states friend of the world is enemy with God.
ReplyDeleteThe word "world" is used in a variety of ways in John. Sometimes it means the wicked world, sometimes the actual created world, and sometimes it means the representative world, as I would take it to mean here. As such, the world here that is loved by God is the world that makes up His believers. They are not just Jews, as in Chapter 1, but as many as received Him became children of God. So the word here seems to suggest that God loved all of His elect in the world, i.e., all of the believers for whom He died so that these believers that come from the entire world would not perish but have everlasting life.
ReplyDeleteHence, it's clarified in the Gospel of John that God has sent the Son to the elect for the purpose of redeeming them (John 6:35-47; 17:6-9).
ReplyDelete