God Loves the World So Much

God loves the world so much
That He gave His only Son
So all who believe in Him
Will not die,
But have life everlasting.
Yes, God loves the world so much
That He gave His only Son.

God did not send His Son
To condemn the world,
But that the world through Him
Might be saved.
Yes, God loves the world so much
That He gave His only Son.

About This Song:

“God Loves the World So Much” was the second song I ever wrote–sometime in the latter 1960s. The lyrics come from John 3:16-17, Bible verses familiar to every Christian and undoubtedly our most beloved Scripture.

If you’re like me, you memorized the King James Version translation:

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
¹⁷For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

A few years ago I bought an album that contains the very familiar John Stainer arrangement of that Scripture. Even though I’m not fond of the Early Modern English the King James version of the Bible was written in, it sounds beautiful in the Stainer choral arrangement.

As I always do when writing songs based on Scripture, I reword them my own way, making every effort to remain true to the intent of the original. However, one choice I consciously made with this song was to say “God loves”–present tense–instead of “God loved.”

While God sent Jesus in human form only one time, His love is past, present, and future. Hence my preference for “God loves.”

Non-Christians often question how a loving God can “condemn the world.” That’s the result of sin, something that happened because God wanted human beings to have free will, and every one of us sins. Nobody is “good enough” to meet God’s standards. Not on his own.

You may listen to this song here. The lead sheet is available here.

I’ll be back again next Wednesday. Please join me then. Better still, sign up to receive these weekly posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

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About Roger E. Bruner

Seventy-five-year-old Roger E. Bruner is the author and publisher of twenty Christian novels and the writer of more than two hundred Christian songs and choruses, a handful of musical dramas, and a number of shorter works. He sings, plays guitar and bass, and records his original songs in his home studio. He is active in his church's nursing home ministry He also plays bass guitar on the church raise team. Married for seventeen years to Kathleen, he has one grown daughter. Kathleen has two. Roger enjoys reading, moderate exercise, photography and book cover design (he's done all of his own except for Rosa No-Name), playing Snood, making walking sticks, and complaining about the state of the nation while continuing to pray for it.

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