Being Like Jesus

Timothy Joseph, popularly known as Tim Joe in his community, is a noble man, and because of this, he is loved and respected by his people in his community. He is very religious; he never misses the church services. He’s also very generous; he gives out alms, runs scholarship programs and gives his offering and 10 percent; even more of his weekly income to the church. One day, while having a conversation with an old-time friend; Frank Kelvin, he asked him a question, “My very good friend, I’ve been longing to ask you this, I think now is the best time to do so.” “Alright, go ahead. You know it may take another decade to see each other again,” he laughed. “Okay, are you saved? I mean when you die, where would you spend eternity,” he asked. “In heaven of course. Heaven knows that I am a good man,” he replied. “Oh really?” “Yes, that’s what matter a lot.” “I know this may be so surprising. Being good doesn’t matter a lot; being good will never guarantee you of going to heaven.”

For more than a decade, I’ve known how to recite John 3:16 by heart. This single verse is the commonest verse ever quoted easily. But the issue here is, what does it mean? The fact that it is very simple to quote by heart doesn’t mean that it can be interpreted literally: ‘God loves us, and that is why he sent his son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins, so that when we believe on him, we won’t perish in hell.' That’s a nice exegesis, but it goes beyond that. It exposes the Father’s love and man’s eternal salvation. Now, reading this from the KJV, there are commas in each phrase, and these phrases have their own significance. Let’s take the first phrase. For God so loved the world… And we can see a cross-reference in Romans 5:8 and 1 John 4:9 For better understanding, we shall take the pretext, the main text and the post-text. Romans 5:6, 8-11 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in t