经常看到网上为John 3:16中的"世人"争论，到底是指选民，还是全体人。其实，这段经文重点并不在选民还是全体人员。
Lee Gatiss认为（ Director of Church Society and Editor of The NIV Proclamation Bible (Hodder). Lee is also Review Editor of the journal Churchman, and Series Editor of The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Library.
He has studied history and theology at Oxford, Cambridge, and
Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), and trained for
Anglican ministry at Oak Hill (London).）
I don’t think John 3:16 says anything about the extent or intent of the
atonement. I don’t think that John, when he wrote that verse (or Jesus
when he spoke it), was intending to teach us something about the topic
of limited atonement as defined by theologians since the 17th century.
But it is too easy for us today to read 1st century texts with 17th (or
21st) century spectacles. Why do we ignore the Jew-Gentile division
background to 1 John 2:2, and the proto-Gnosticism of John’s opponents,
when interpreting that verse for example? Why is it quoted so often as
if it just settled a 17th century question in a line (and as if Reformed
theologians had forgotten to read 1 John)? I think we need to be
careful to understand the plain meaning of a text in its own context,
rather than what it might mean if it was spoken by one of us today in
an entirely different context and with different presuppositions about
what the words might signify.
也就是说John 3:16 根本不是指救赎的extent和intent，Dr. Carson
在On Distorting the Love of
God一文中解释John3:16中神的爱如下：第三，神对堕落世界的救赎之心。神爱世人，甚至赐下祂的儿子(约三16)。有学者尝试将世人
(kosmos)解释成选民，实在不通，因为根据约翰福音的用法，证据不利此一提议。事实上，「世人」或「世界」在约翰福音，与其说指涉其大，不如说指涉
其坏的程度。约翰用这字主要指道德秩序上，因故意犯罪而背叛神。约翰福音三章16节，神赐下主耶稣，令人赞叹其爱心，并非因为救恩及于全世界，而是因为祂
拯救的对象这般坏；重点不在祂要救许多人，而是祂愿意救如此邪恶的罪人。然而，约翰曾在别处使用「全世界」(约壹二2)一词，结合这字大而坏的含意。更重
要的，约翰说到门徒曾经属这「世界」，却被「世界」恨恶(参约十五19)。从这点来看，神对世人的爱，不可能解成神对选民的爱。
Carson
并非否定圣经中有神对选民特殊的爱（至少在救赎论上，Carson是一个加尔文主义者），他只是说明约3:16不是在谈这种特殊、拣选的爱。顺便说一句，
这样的解释并非Carson原创。实际上，一百年前的B. B. Warfield就有这样的教导，而Kuiper在其God Centered
Evangelism一书中同样强调这一点。
我个人认为，这是在作对比，人都坏透了，而上帝竟然还爱我们。如果以经解经的话：诗篇8：4是最好的解释。
人算什么，你竟顾念他？世人算什么，你竟眷顾他？
