The Other John 3:16

“Feeling spiritually 'off'?  Love someone sacrificially. Give your life to serve another. Your spirit will realign with

God's Spirit in you.”

~ Bruxy Cavey

John 3:16 is perhaps the best-known verse in all of Scripture – it’s been called “the Gospel in a nutshell.”  No, I won’t quote it here for you.  What’s the matter, your arms are broken?  Go look it up yourself!

Alright, here: “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.”

The Gospel in a nutshell, indeed – the plan of God (Jesus bringing us eternal life), the motivation for that plan (His great love for us), and the faith required to receive it – it the essence of the Gospel, made beautiful and simple and clear. 

However, John wrote more than just the one book – we actually have several of his writings recorded in the New Testament.  In a later letter, known as the first letter of John, there is another key verse – interestingly, also recorded as chapter 3, verse 16:

 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1st Jn 3:16)

 

If John 3:16 is the Gospel in a nutshell, then 1^st John 3:16 is our response to the Gospel in a nutshell.  In two short sentences, both our reaction to the Gospel, and the reasoning for it, are laid out with great clarity.  Jesus willingly laid down his life for us; we should willingly lay down our lives for others.

 Why?

Because that’s what love does.

For all of the poets, philosophers, storytellers and songwriters of history, who have written and sung of love’s immeasurable quality, love’s indefinable attributes, and love’s incomprehensible vastness, here we have a very simple explanation of what real love looks like.

How do you know if you truly love someone?

When you lay down your own life for their sake.

Jesus did it for us, and calls us to do it for others.  What does it mean to lay down our lives for another?  While there are a variety of answers, the nature of it is this: whatever it practically looks like, it calls for a selflessness and a devotion to others’ well-being that is so radical that it can be likened to metaphorically dying for them.  It means, in every sense, that you come first over me – and that I am happy to do so – because I love you.   

Jesus’ love meant dying for us.  When we are willing to lay down our own agendas, desires, plans, and needs for the sake of others, then we are walking just like He did (1Jn 2:6).