Berean Standard Bible
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
King James Version
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.
About this verse
John 3:16 is the most famous sentence in the Bible — quoted at stadiums, printed on signs, memorized first by children. Familiarity is its biggest enemy. It was originally said quietly, at night, to a religious scholar named Nicodemus who thought he was coming to compare notes with a fellow teacher and instead heard the gospel compressed into one line.
Every clause carries weight. "God so loved the world" — not the deserving, the world. "He gave His one and only Son" — love measured by cost, not sentiment. "Everyone who believes" — the door is faith, not pedigree, which would have startled Nicodemus most. "Shall not perish but have eternal life" — the stakes are real, and so is the rescue.
If you have read this verse a hundred times, try reading it once as Nicodemus heard it: not as a slogan, but as news. It claims that behind the universe is not indifference but a love willing to bleed. Everything else on this site is a footnote to that.
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