Daily Manna · Day 7 · January 7
The Measure
“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.”
Picture a lamp burning late at night, and a visitor who has come to see Jesus in the dark, where no one will notice him.
The most quoted sentence in the Bible was spoken at night. Jesus said it to one nervous leader of the Jews named Nicodemus, and Nicodemus had not asked for it. He opened with a compliment, but Jesus went straight past it to being born again, to the wind, and to the bronze serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness. Then He said, "For God so loved the world." The little word "so" is a measuring word. It means God loved the world this much, and the measure is His own Son. Jesus keeps the other outcome inside the same sentence too: "should not perish." Perishing is where everyone is already headed, and two verses later He says, "he that believeth not is condemned already." The door stands wide open, and still a person has to walk through it.
Nicodemus is worth following, because he appears twice more. First he speaks up for a fair hearing when the council wants a quick verdict: "Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him" (7:51). Later he brings about a hundred pounds of spices to bury the body of Jesus (19:39). The man who first came by night was now willing to be seen with Jesus. It took him years.
Now think of the person you have quietly decided is too far gone. The word "whosoever" covers them too, and remember how long the change took in Nicodemus. Do something ordinary for that person this week, like a ride, a meal, or a kind message with no argument anywhere in it, and trust God with the years.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 7 is Things Above (Colossians 3:2).