Love in the Hebrew Perfect

Sunday, November 7, 2021

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him, would not perish, but have everlasting life." That could be called the greatest sentence. But it's interesting that the greatest sentence in the world is not in the present tense, it's in the past tense, "God loved." Why is that? Why doesn't it say that God loves the world? In Greek, the people who wrote and thought this, wrote and thought in Hebrew Aramaic. In Hebrew there is no real past tense. But what there is, is the perfect tense, and that's what's used as the past tense. So when things are written with what we see as the past tense, it's really in Hebrew perfect tense. It doesn't mean that it is necessarily finished in the past, but what it means is, it is complete, it is done. What does it say? God's love for you, is not unfinished; it's perfect, it's full, it's complete. Don't take away from it, don't add to it, just receive it; for God so loved you, perfect tense.

From Message #664 - The Great Sentence