http://www.opc.org/nh.html?article_id=160

GOD'S IMMEASURABLE LOVE

神的无法测度的爱

B. B. Warfield

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."

约翰福音三章十六节，”神爱世人（界），甚至将他的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信他的，不至灭亡，反得永生。

To whom we owe this great declaration of the love of God, it is somewhat difficult to determine: whether to our Lord himself, or to that disciple who had lain upon his bosom and had imbibed so much of his spirit that he thenceforth spoke with his Master's voice and in his Master's words. Happily, it is a matter of no substantial importance. For what difference does it make to you and me whether the Lord speaks to us through his own lips, or through those of his servant, the apostle, to whom he had promised, and to whom he had given, his Holy Spirit to teach him all the truth (John 16:13)?

要确定把这段对神的爱的伟大的宣告归功于那个人是有一点困难：有可能是我们的主自己， 也有可能是那个曾经依在主的怀里， 与主交谈并从主的声音和话里浸润了他的灵的那个门徒。 幸运的是， 这是一件无足轻重的事情。对于你我而言， 主用他自己的口讲话或者通过承受他的应许和获得他的圣灵去教导他的真理的仆人的口讲话有什么区别？

What concerns us is not the instrumentality through which the message comes, but the message itself. And what a great message it is—the message of the greatness of the love of God! Let us see to it that, as the words sound in our ears, it is this great revelation that fills our hearts, fills them so full as to flood all their being and wash into all their recesses. The greatness of the love of God, the immeasurable greatness of the love of God!

  我们所关心的不是这信息发出的具体形式， 而是信息本身。 这是一个多么伟大的信息--关于神的爱的伟大的信息。 就像声音环绕充满我们的双耳，这个伟大的启示充满了我们的心： 像洪水一样充满了我们的每一处， 洗刷到每一个角落。 神的爱的伟大， 神的爱的 无法测度的伟大。

Does "the World" Mean "All without Exception"?

“世界“意味着“没有例外的全部”吗？

This exhortation is not altogether superfluous. Strange as it may sound, it is true, that many—perhaps the majority—of those who feed their souls on this great declaration, seem to have trained themselves to think, when it falls upon their ears, in the first instance at least, not so much of how great—how immeasurably great—God's love is, but rather of how great the world is. It is the world that God loves, they say, the world. And forthwith they fall to thinking how great the world is, and how, nevertheless, God loves it all. Think, they cry, of the multitudes of men who swarm over the face of the earth, and have swarmed over it through all the countless generations from the beginning, and will swarm over it in ever-increasing numbers through perhaps even more countless generations yet to come, until the end. And God loves them all, each and every one of them, from the least to the greatest; so loves them that he has given his only begotten Son to die for them, for each and every one of them. And for each and every one of them with the same intent—the intent, namely, that he may be saved. O, how great the love of God must be to embrace in its compass these uncounted multitudes of men. And so to embrace them that every individual that enters as a constituent unit into the mass of mankind receives his full share of it, or rather is inundated by its undivided and undiminished flood!

这解释并不完全是多余的。尽管听起来有些奇怪， 但这是确确实实的： 许多（也许是大多数）灵魂里接受了这种伟大声言的人， 当这句话落进他们的耳中时，起码是第一次听到时， 不去思想神的爱的不可测度的伟大， 而是世界是多么伟大。 他们坚持说那是讲神爱的世界， 那世界。 马上他们就坠入思寻世界是多么伟大和神又是如何爱它的全部。他们哭泣地想到现在，从创世以来世世代代和在末世到来以前不断增加的拥挤在地球上的人的众多。 神爱他们所有的人，每一个人， 从最卑贱的到最伟大的； 爱他们的每一个人， 甚至让他的独生子位他们而死。 对于我们的每一个人的目的也是一样， 那就是让他得救。 啊， 那拥抱和涵盖着无数的人的爱是多么伟大！  把每一个人当成单独的全人类的构成单元接受他所受的所有爱，或者被不分割的和不消失的（爱的）洪水淹没！

Certainly this is a great conception. But it is just as certainly not a great enough conception to meet the requirements of our text. For, look, will you measure the immeasurable greatness of God's love by the measure of man? All these multitudes of men who have lived, do live, or shall live, from the beginning to the end of the world's entire span—what is their finite sum to the infinitude of God? Lo, the world, and all that is in the world—and all that has ever been in the world or can ever be in the world—lies as nothing in the sight of the Infinite One, floats as an evanescent particle in his eternal vision. How can we exalt our conception of the greatness of the divine love by thinking of it as great enough to embrace all this? Can we praise the blacksmith's brawn by declaring him capable of supporting a mustard seed on his outstretched palm? This standard is too small! We cannot compute such masses in terms of it. Conceive the world as vastly as you may, it remains ever incommensurate with the immeasurable love of God.

这当然是一个了不起的立意。 但是同样当然的是它还不够了不起来满足我们这里经文的要求。 因此请注意， 你是通过人的测度来测量神的的爱的不可测度的伟大？ 在从创世到末世的整个时间里， 过去， 现在和将来的所有的人加在一起， 其有限与神的无限相比算什么？ 世界，世界上的一切， 一切过去存在的和将来可能存在的，在那位无限者眼里什么都不是。 在他永恒的视野里， 就像一颗瞬息即逝的粒子。 我们能够把我们对包含着我们一切的伟大的理解来高举那神圣爱的伟大？ 当我们赞美一个铁匠时， 我们能用他掌上的一粒芝麻作为例子来证明他的膀臂的力量？ 这标准太低了吧。 我们无法根据人的理解来算计神的度量 不管你理解的世界有多么广大， 它都无法与神的不可测度的爱相提并论。

And what warrant does the text offer for conceiving so greatly of the world, or indeed for thinking of it at all under the category of extension, as if it were its size that was oppressing the imagination of the speaker, and its parts—down to the last analysis—that were engaging his wondering attention? Evidently the text envisages the world, of which it speaks in the concrete, as a whole. This world is made up of parts, no doubt, and the differing destinies that await the individuals which compose it are adverted to. But the emphasis does not fall upon its component elements, as if their number, for example, could form the ground of the divine love, or explain the wonder of its greatness. Distribution of it into its elements and engagement with the individuals which compose it is merely the result of the false start made when the mind falls away from contemplating the immensity of the love of God with which the text is freighted, to absorb itself rather in wonder over the greatness of the world which is loved.

这篇经文对于认识世界的伟大， 或者是极尽所有种类的延伸的意义上的认识提供了什么保证？ 似乎它的太小一直与讲话者的想象作对， 它的组成部分（在刚才的分析里）也与吸引了他的惊奇的注意力。 明显地经文里具体地把世界看成一个整体。 毫无疑问， 这个世界有不同部分组成， 并有不同的归属。 这个世界的组成部分会归向其不同的归属。 但是重点不是在这些组成元素上 （例如， 就像这些元素的数量决定了神圣的爱的伟大或者解释了伟大的神奇） . 把伟大归结于这个世界的组成元素和专注与组成这个世界的个人上是一个错误起点的结果： 人的思想不再思索就经文所提供的神的爱的伟大的无限性， 而是沉浸于对神所爱的这个世界的伟大的惊奇。

And having begun with this false step, it is not surprising if the wandering mind finds itself shortly lost in admiration not even of the greatness of the world, but rather of the greatness of the individual soul. These souls of men, each and every one of which God loves so deeply that he has given his Son to die for it—what great, what noble, what glorious things they must be! O what value each of us should place upon this precious soul of ours that God so highly esteemed as to give his Son to die for it! A great and inspiring thought, again, beyond all doubt; but, again, obviously not great enough to be the thought of the text. Clearly, what the text invites us to think of is the greatness of the love of God, not the greatness of the human soul.

开始了这错误的第一步， 下面的后果就不奇怪了   人的游离不定的思维在对世界伟大的赞美不会停留很久， 就会转到对个人灵魂的伟大的赞美上来。 神所爱的这些人的灵魂啊， 是多么伟大， 多么高贵， 多么荣耀啊！ 连神都让自己的儿子为他们死。 神既然把他的独生子献给我们并为我们死， 我们的灵魂该有多么珍贵呀！ 这种伟大的令人振奋的思想， 没有怀疑； 但是再伟大， 也不足以和经文的意思一样。 经文是让我们思考神的爱的伟大 而不是人的灵魂的伟大。