The Letters in Red

Send us a text

In this episode we continue our examination of John 3:16. We highlight the fact that these verses are written in red and what that means. We read the verse in several different translations to see the richness and depth of the Father's love toward us. 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Learn to Be Loved Podcast.
My name is Shannon.
Thanks for joining with ustoday.
So this is episode two, and Icalled this one Letters in Red.

(00:22):
We are in John 3, 16.
I I'm gonna continue studyingthis verse for the next several
episodes.
This is what's gonna begin ourjourney on learning how to be
loved.
We're gonna start with one ofthe most famous verses about
God's love, one that we havelearned in Sunday school and in

(00:46):
church, and have quoted, you seeon the sides of vans and
semi-trucks going down thefreeway, it's always John 316.
I called this letters in redbecause in some Bibles, these
letters are indeed red.
They're different from the blackletters on the paper.

(01:07):
So the reason for this isbecause these words are the ones
that traditionally andhistorically have been
attributed to Jesus.
Words that Jesus said.
And these are important words.
So Bible...
publishers began printing thesewords that were attributed to

(01:30):
Jesus in red letters.
So here we have Jesus speakingabout the Father's love.
And this is an amazing love giftto the world.
And what's so awesome aboutthis, what's so special, is
Jesus is speaking about himself.

(01:51):
Jesus himself is this gift thatthe father gave to the world now
i wanted to start this off byreading john 3 16 in several
different translations i want todo this because not one
translation fully conveys theheart and the richness of this

(02:18):
love so here's the first onethat many of us that are a
little older may be veryfamiliar with.
The King James was a standardtranslation in America until the
60s.
And so it says, for God so lovedthe world that he gave his only

(02:42):
begotten son that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not
perish but have everlastinglife.
Here's the Lexington Bible inEnglish.
For in this way God loved theworld, so that he gave his one
and only Son, in order thateveryone who believes in him

(03:07):
will not perish, but haveeternal life.
Here's the NLT.
It says, For this is how...
God loved the world.
He gave his one and only son sothat everyone who believes in

(03:27):
him will not perish but haveeternal life.
The NET says, for this is theway God loved the world.
He gave his one and only son sothat everyone who believes in
him will not perish but haveeternal life.

(03:48):
The Amplified says, but haveeternal everlasting life.

(04:21):
The Passion Translation says,for this is how much God loved
the world.
He gave his one and only uniqueson as a gift so that now
everyone who believes in himwill never perish but experience

(04:42):
everlasting life.
The New Testament by JonathanPaul Mitchell reads this way,
For thus God loves, fully giveshimself to, and urges towards
reunion with, the aggregate ofhumanity, the universe, the

(05:03):
ordered arrangement, theorganized system of life and
society, the world, so that hegives his uniquely born creation
only begotten son you see inthis manner god loves the sum
total of created beings as beingthe son he gives the only

(05:28):
begotten one for you see it isin this way that god loves the
aggregate of humanity even as itwere his son he gives the
uniquely born one to the endthat all humanity or everyone
the one habitually believingputting confidence and trusting

(05:54):
in to him would not lose ordestroy itself or cause itself
to fall into ruin, but rathercan continuously have or would
habitually possess and holdIonian life, age-durative life,

(06:15):
with qualities derived from theage, the Messiah, living
existence, or and for the ages.
Now that was a mouthful.
This translation, the JonathanPaul Mitchell translation of the
New Testament, is a superexpanded version.

(06:37):
He basically gives you severaldifferent scenarios how this
verse could be translated in theGreek.
Because translating the Biblefrom an ancient language into a
modern language is a very hard,difficult task.

(06:57):
and tricky process.
That's why we have so manydifferent translations today.
But what we do see is the depthand the richness of God's love.
It was God, or Theos in theGreek, that loved.
It was Theos that gave.

(07:20):
And this God is the Father thatJesus speaks about repeatedly in
the new testament this is hisfather when jesus came from
heaven he came from the fatherhe was in a unique relationship

(07:43):
with the father the son and theholy spirit which is called the
trinity and when jesus came tobe born of a virgin mary he left
that relationship to be a humanhe was fully god and fully man

(08:04):
so here we have the truth ofthis verse that god gave himself
to us so when you read thisverse this week last week i
wanted you to replace the wordworld with your name So this

(08:28):
week, I want you to read thisverse this way.
For God so loved, and put yourname here, that he gave himself
to me.
See, Jesus was not sent by theFather.

(08:50):
Jesus was given to by the fatherthat's so important to
understand because if we say hesent him that's a separation but
if he gave him that means god issacrificing something god fully
gives himself to and urgestowards reunion with you The

(09:20):
Father has made the sacrifice.
in letting his son freely comeinto our world of sin and
disobedience and disease andbrokenness and hurt and he comes
into our world and he gives usand offers us this life this zoe

(09:45):
life this eternal life that onlygod can give This is the power
of this gift.
It's so important for us tounderstand that Jesus didn't
have to come, but Jesus wantedto come.
Jesus longed to come so that hecould redeem and bring us back

(10:11):
into relationship with himselfand with the Father.
So these are the letters in red.
These are letters that Jesus isspeaking about a sacrifice that
he is making at the moment.
He left heaven to come to dwellon earth and he's about to pay

(10:36):
the ultimate sacrifice on thecross.
So this week, I want you toreread this verse.
keep putting your name in therelet this truth heal you let it
bring inner peace andreconciliation in your heart

(10:57):
with your father that loves youso much god i pray right now god
that you would heal our heartsgod use your word and your free
gift of your son God, to healus.
God, to help us to learn how tobe loved by you.

(11:18):
God, we pray right now, if thereis anyone that's broken, if
there's anyone that's hurting,anyone that doesn't know what
it's like to be loved, God, thatyou would reach into their
hearts and let them know thatthey are loved by you.
We pray this in Jesus' name.

(11:40):
Amen.