(John 1:29).

`For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son' (John 3:16).

`The Christ, the Saviour of the world' (John 4:42).

`Giveth life unto the world' (John 6:33).

`I am the light of the world' (John 9:5).

These and many more come immediately to the mind, and it is common knowledge with students of the Word

that John's Gospel is pre-eminently the presentation of Christ to the world.

Kosmos (world) occurs in Matthew's Gospel nine times, in Mark three times, in Luke three times, but in John it

occurs about seventy-nine times. Matthew's Gospel tells us concerning the Lord that He was called `Jesus, for He

shall save His people from their sins' (Matt. 1:21). Luke's Gospel records the Lord's instructions to His disciples

that `remission of sins should be preached in His Name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem' (Luke 24:47).

John, however, speaks of `sin', not `sins', `the sin of the world'.

The reader will remember the wide scope in the standpoint of the first epistle of John: `He is the propitiation for

our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world' (1 John 2:2). John's Epistles account for another

twenty-one occurrences of kosmos, so that out of a total of one hundred and eighty-eight occurrences in the whole

New Testament, John's Gospel and Epistles use one hundred of them. If we seek for a message that has the world in

view, can we find one more suitable than this Gospel according to John?

Our next condition was that the matter should be tested not only by the positive address to the world, but by

parallel internal evidence that Jews were definitely not in the writer's mind. Every Jew knew the purpose of the six

water pots at the wedding feast of Cana, but John informs us that they were `after the manner of the Jews' (John

2:6). Every Jew knew the history and import of the Passover, but John writes: `The Jew's Passover was at hand';

`the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh'; `the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand' (John 2:13; 6:4; 11:55). Added

to these are the further informative statements: `There was a feast of the Jews' (5:1), `the Jews' feast of tabernacles'

(7:2). Again, note John 10:22: `It was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter', which is as

though we should write, `It was Christmas day in London, and it was winter'.

Further, what Jewish reader of John's Gospel, though he lived at the ends of the earth, would need the

explanation given in 4:9: `for Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans'? Would a Jewish reader need the added

interpretation given to the name of the pool of Siloam -'which is by interpretation, Sent' (John 9:7)? Would they not

know too, the meaning of the name Cephas, `stone'? (John 1:42).

We have abundant evidence therefore that John wrote his Gospel with the world of non-Jewish readers specially

in view.

The message that fits the wider circle of believers during the present time must recognize the fact that the Lord

was rejected by His own people. This we find at the very forefront of the Gospel by John: `He came unto His own,

and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him ...' (John 1:11,12). Here it is evident that the `many'

who received Him are a different company from `His Own' who received Him not. Matthew's Gospel waits until

the twelfth chapter before rejection is reached, but John opens with it. There is a foreshadowing of Acts 28 at the

close of John 9: `For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see

might be made blind'. The critical passage (Isa 6:10) is quoted immediately after the warning to walk while the

light lasts, lest darkness came upon them, and towards the close of the passage came the solemn words: `He that

rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him' (John 12:48).

It will be remembered that where Matthew quotes Isaiah 6:10, we find the parables of the kingdom of heaven,

which, while revealing the interval of failure and corruption, nevertheless look forward to the day when, under the

new covenant, the word of the kingdom shall be received in an honest and good heart (Jer. 31:27-33). The quotation