{"id":66523,"date":"2024-02-12T16:21:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=66523"},"modified":"2024-02-12T16:21:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T22:21:00","slug":"reading-past-john-316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reading-past-john-316\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Past John 3:16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Perry Hall<\/p>\n<p>Do we sometimes miss a powerful point because we stop reading? John 3:16 is so well-known that people stop reading. What happens if we keep reading?<\/p>\n<p>Notice these contrasts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>For God loved the world<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:16) vs. &#8220;<em>People loved the darkness<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:19).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>He gave his one and only Son<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:16) vs. &#8220;<em>Their deeds were evil<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:19).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<em>will not perish but have eternal life<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:16) vs &#8220;<em>This is the judgment<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:19).<\/li>\n<li>With God, we have loving the world, which equals giving and sacrificing, while with the world, we have loving equals darkness and evil.<\/li>\n<li>With God, we have eternal life, while with the world, we have judgment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now notice this comparison:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<em>Everyone who believes<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:16) and &#8220;<em>But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:21).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If we are willing to believe, live by, and practice truth, our &#8220;<em>works may be shown to be accomplished by God<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:21 CSB).\u00a0&#8220;Faith only?&#8221; Or is it believing unto eternal life here and now by living the truth and practicing God&#8217;s works? No credit is due because our works are accomplished by God. But it is still not &#8220;faith only.&#8221; Keep reading past John 3:16 and see how the chapter ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him<\/em>&#8221; (John 3:36 NASB).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We are of the world, but by believing, living truth, and obeying the Son with God, we can perform works allowing us to become of God and inherit His eternal life.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Perry Hall Do we sometimes miss a powerful point because we stop reading? John 3:16 is so well-known that people stop reading. What happens if we keep reading? Notice these contrasts: &#8220;For God loved the world&#8221; (John 3:16) vs. &#8220;People loved the darkness&#8221; (John 3:19). &#8220;He gave his one and only Son&#8221; (John 3:16)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[53,1008,959,54],"class_list":["post-66523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith-alone","tag-faith-only","tag-john","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-jesus-not-judge-those-who-believe-if-we-are-all-judged\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":0},"title":"How can Jesus not judge those who believe if we are all judged?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why is it that, even though we are supposed to do God's will to be saved supposedly, why does Jesus say that those who believe will not be judged, even though you were saying we are all judged? In that case, then it's like a paradox because everyone is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67030,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-righteous-judge\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":1},"title":"Jesus, the Righteous Judge","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Jesus is the Creator to whom all are accountable. He has all authority, and He has all the right to judge. The Father \"has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father\" (John 5:22-23). He has \"authority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-divine-temple\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":2},"title":"Jesus the Divine Temple","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer John's gospel begins by affirming that Jesus is the divine logos, the Word through whom all things were made. In Him is life and light. Life comes from Him, and He, the light of the world, came to this earth to overpower the darkness so that all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-father-the-only-true-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":3},"title":"Is the Father the only true God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Do You Believe in Three Gods or One? it is stated: We believe in the one true and living God because the Bible teaches it. Jesus identifies who the \"one true and living God\" is in John 17:3 which states in the King James Version: \"And this is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9026,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-no-salvation-outside-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":4},"title":"Is there no salvation outside the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is there no salvation outside the church? Will those who never heard of Jesus and his gospel be damned because they have not obeyed it? Will people with brain defects like Downs Syndrome be damned because they do not obey the gospel being incapable of doing so? Answer: \"Let\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88786,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":66523,"position":5},"title":"Believe!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson \"Believe\" is the main keyword of the Gospel of John. From the 12th chapter of John, let's see what we can learn about what it means to believe: Many believed (John 12:10-11). A large number of those who witnessed Lazarus' resurrection came to believe in Jesus (John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}