"God so loved the world ..." begins one of our best-known scripture verses. God loved the world! He didn’t love only one small corner of the world. He didn’t love only one little race, one tiny tribe in the world. God loved the world! He loved Jews and Gentiles alike. He loved a man and a woman named Joseph and Mary. He loved some shepherds. He loved some Wise Men living way off in the East someplace, nobody knows exactly where. God loved the world, even nasty, murderous, old King Herod, who tried to kill his only-begotten, just-born Son. "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God loved you and me.

God’s love for the world expresses itself chiefly in his strong desire for the salvation o…