All interpret according to their beliefs. Try to use an accurate resource and you will get the meaning.
A T Robertson, Reformed scholar
The world (
τον κοσμον — ton kosmon). The whole cosmos of men, including Gentiles, the whole human race. This universal aspect of God‘s love appears also in
2 Corinthians 5:19;
Romans 5:8.
John Calvin
That whosoever believeth on him may not perish. It is a remarkable commendation of faith, that it frees us from everlasting destruction. For he intended expressly to state that, though we appear to have been born to death, undoubted deliverance is offered to us by the faith of Christ; and, therefore, that we ought not to fear death, which otherwise hangs over us. And he has employed the universal term
whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term
World, which he formerly used; for though nothing will be found in
the world that is worthy of the favor of God, yet he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than an entrance into life.
David Brown (part of JFB), Reformed
16. For God so loved, &c.--What proclamation of the Gospel has been so oft on the lips of missionaries and preachers in every age since it was first uttered? What has sent such thrilling sensations through millions of mankind? What has been honored to bring such multitudes to the feet of Christ? What to kindle in the cold and selfish breasts of mortals the fires of self-sacrificing love to mankind, as these words of transparent simplicity, yet overpowering majesty? The picture embraces several distinct compartments: "THE WORLD"--in its widest sense--
ready "
to perish"; the immense "LOVE OF GOD"
to that perishing world, measurable only, and conceivable only, by the gift which it drew forth from Him; THE GIFT itself--"He
so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son," or, in the language of Paul, "
spared not His own Son" (
Rom 8:32 ), or in that addressed to Abraham when ready to offer Isaac on the altar, "
withheld not His Son, His only Son, whom He loved" (
Gen 22:16 ); the FRUIT of this stupendous gift--not only
deliverance from impending "
perdition," but
the bestowal of everlasting life; the MODE in which all takes effect--by "
believing" on the Son. How would Nicodemus' narrow Judaism become invisible in the blaze of this Sun of righteousness seen rising on "the world" with healing in His wings! (
Mal 4:2 ).
