”世界“是指“被揀選的”嗎？
Obviously, then, the distribution of the notion "world" in our text into "each and every man" in the world, does less than justice to the infinitude of the love of God which it is plainly the object of the text to exalt in our thought. Reacting from the ineptitudes of this interpretation, and determined at all costs to take the conception of the love of God at the height of its idea, men of deeper insight have therefore suggested that it is not the world at large that is in question in the text, but God's people, the chosen of God in the world.
明顯地，把“WORLD"統統解釋成”世界上每一個人“是對神的愛的無限稍欠公正的， 非常簡單，神的愛是我們的思想要要高舉的。 針對對這種解釋的不足， 並基於盡一切力量高舉神的愛的立意的立場， 一些思想深刻的人提出了文中爭議的部分不是籠統地解釋為世界， 而應該是神的子民， 神在世界上的選民。
Surely, it is God's seeking, nay, God's finding love that is celebrated here, they argue—the love which goes out to its object with a vigor which no obstacle can withstand, and, despite every difficulty, brings it safely into the shelter of its arms. The "world" that God so loved that he gave his Son for it—surely that is not the "world" that he loved so little as to leave it to take or leave the Son so given, as its own wayward heart might dictate; but the "world" that he loved enough, after giving his Son for it, powerfully to move upon with his quickening Spirit and graciously to lead into the offered salvation. This is the "world" of believers, in a word, as they are called in the following clause, or, as they are called elsewhere in Scripture, the "world" of God's elect. It was these whom God loved before the foundation of the world with a love beyond all expression great and strong, constant and prevailing, a love which was not and could not be defeated, just because it was love, the very characteristic of which, Paul tells us, is that it suffereth long, is not provoked, taketh no account of evil, beareth all things, endureth all things, yea, never faileth: and therefore was not and could not be satisfied until it had brought its objects home.
他們當然在這裡宣講神的愛的尋找， 而不是愛的發現。 他們認為那種出來帶着能力， 克服障礙， 不顧任何困難的愛會把世界帶回它的膀臂的安全保護里。 神自己深愛並把自己的兒子獻給的那個“世界”肯定不是他並不深愛可以對他的已舍的兒子任意取捨的“世界”。 他深愛的那個世界， 在他舍了自己的兒子後， 充滿能力地與他的使人甦醒的聖靈同行並豐豐富富地奔向那許諾的拯救。 這是信徒的“世界” 用一個詞表示，就是選民。 就像在下面常常用到的， 就像在聖經里常常提到的， 神的選民的世界。 神在創世以前就愛他們， 用那言語無法表達的偉大的， 強烈的， 恆久的和流行的愛來愛他們。 這是不敗和不可能失敗的愛。 就像保羅所講的， 愛是恆久忍耐，又有恩慈。愛是不嫉妒。愛是不自誇。不張狂。愛是永不止息. 如果不把愛的對象帶回來， 愛是不滿足也不會被滿足。
It is very clear that this interpretation has the inestimable advantage over the one formerly suggested, that it penetrates into the heart of the matter and refuses to evacuate the text of its manifest purport. The text is given to enhance in our hearts the conception of the love of God to sinners: to make us to know somewhat of the height and depth and length and breadth of it, though truly it passes knowledge. It will not do, then, as we read it, to throw limitations around this love, as if it could not accomplish that whereto it is set.
相對於前一種， 這種解釋明顯地有難以估量的優勢。 它觸及到了事情的核心， 不會倒空經文的宣告的意味。 這節經文在這裡增強了我們對神對罪人的愛的理解：是我們知道其長闊高深超過我們的認識。 在我們讀它時， 不會對這愛形成限制， 就好像它無法完成它的預定目標似的。
Beyond all question, the love which is celebrated is the saving love of God; and the "world" which is declared to be the object of this love is a "world" that is not merely given an opportunity of salvation, but actually saved. As none but believers—or, if you choose to look at them sub specie aeternitatis, none but the elect—attain salvation, so it seems but an identical proposition to say that it is just the world of believers, or the world of the elect, that is embraced in the love of God here celebrated. When the text declares, therefore, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it, is not what is meant, and what must be meant, just the elect scattered throughout the world?
超越一切的是， 我們所理解的愛是神的救恩的愛。 在這裡宣告的作為愛的對象的“世界“不只是一個有某種被拯救機會的世界， 而是一個確確實實地被拯救的世界。 除了信徒以外（如果你要追究的話， 除了選民以外）， 沒人能夠獲得救恩。 用同樣的意思表達， 神的愛只是擁抱了信徒的世界， 或者選民的世界。 難道真的是， 當聖經將神愛”世界“， 甚至將他的獨生子交出來， 世界不是它的字面意思， 而是散落在世界上的選民？
