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This passage commences with one of the Bible's most quoted verses. It follows the apostle John's report of Nicodemus's low-profile visit with Jesus. It may be a continuing summary of what Jesus tried to get Nicodemus to understand. More likely, it is John's Spirit-inspired commentary on that exchange.

John 3:16-21

1. This section grows out of Jesus statement (vv. 14-15) that the way people would be able to look to Him for eternal life paralleled how snake-bitten people could look for physical recovery at the bronze snake Moses held up. Why were the people of Israel being bitten by poisonous snakes?
2. Why do you think God responded to Moses' prayer by instructing him to make the snake replica instead of causing the snakes to disappear?
3. Have you looked to Jesus in the believing way He told Nicodemus about?
4. The "so" in "God so loved the world" (v. 16) can be understood as expressing either the extent of His love or the manner in which it was expressed. How would you summarize each understanding?
5. What, according to verse 17, motivated this demonstration of divine love?
6. Do you really view this life as an introduction to your eternal destiny?

"Thank God for his Son—a gift too wonderful for words" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18 "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God's light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, this week enlarge my comprehension of, and appreciation for, your self-giving love.

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