John 3:16.

It’s everywhere.

You even see it on placards at football games:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Then there’s John 3:17, which sounds pretty good too:

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

However, in John 3:18 the hammer falls:

He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

In three short verses, the God who so loved the world turns around and condemns everyone who doesn’t believe in his Son. And that means most of the people in the world are going straight to hell.

At least, so say many Christians.

Apparently these Christians haven’t bothered to read what comes before and after John 3:16–18. And they haven’t even carefully read what John 3:18 itself says.

The fact is, John 3:18 does not say all non-Christians go to hell. And if we read it as part of Jesus’ whole teaching in John 3:1–21, it says something very different from what these Christians preach.

These “Christians” have strayed very far from Jesus Christ. Instead of showing love and compassion to all different types of people, healing the sick and serving the poor and needy, these “Christians” consider themselves better than everyone else. They condemn billions of good people to eternal torture just for believing the wrong thing.

But it is these “Christians” who believe the wrong thing.

Read on to learn what these words from John 3 really mean in the original Greek, and in the context of the whole story.

For more on John 3:18, please click here to read on.