Jesus loves me, this I know. Does the Bible tell me so?

Factual Questions
21

i’d like to further clarify my point, as i feel like something’s been lost.

the op brings up this very succinct song with a very succinct point: jesus loves you. how do you know? because: the bible says it.

ok. where in the bible does it say it?

succinctly, john 3:16. but that’s not exactly what the song says.

ok, then (insert any amount of indirect and absolutely not succinct verses).

i see why one might be confused–but that’s the point of christianity. it’s a Ragu-sauce of answers: “oh it’s in the bible.”

but you practically have to be a theology major with a great many books and translations to make total sense of things.

i still maintain: jesus loves me, this i know, but the bible doesn’t succinctly say that–you have to kind of infer it based on a lot of scriptural interpretations and the over-all pillar of christianity which is that Jesus loved mankind enough to die.

you can stop there, and that’s a fair answer. but if you actually study things, get yourself a dake’s commentary and a mechanical translation of the bible (not some NIV/king james mumbo jumbo) and actually dig in this stuff, you end up with more questions than answers.

so i think the answer the op’s question is “john 3:16 is the basis of the song, but keep in mind it was written by some lady in the 1800s and is just a nursery rhyme for christians.”
it’s not some edict of truth from God’s Holy Mouth. it’s just a song some lady wrote not very long ago…

the be-all-end-all answer to God’s love is that He sent jesus to die. and to believe all that is what it is, you first have to have faith.

22

What does any of your post have to do with what the bible actually says? that was the question. Attacks on the authority of the Bible don’t belong in GQ.

23

don’tbesojumpy, I’m not sure what your problem is. The OP asked where in the Bible does it say Jesus loves us, and several posters provided numerous direct and indirect references to Jesus’ love for the world in the Bible. If you postulate that Jesus=God, which almost all Christians do (and did before 300 CE*), there are many, many more verses that talk directly about God’s love for the world. Why do you insist the song has to be based on John 3:16? Which in any case clearly says “God so loved the world”?

*The Nicene creed was codified at the Council of Nicea, but Trinitarianism goes way back to the earliest church fathers and threads of it are found all over the New Testament. To claim that the church came up with Jesus’ divinity in the fourth century demonstrates an ignorance of the earliest church.

24

Maybe, although my takeaway would be that it’s surprisingly difficult to find a passage in the Bible that clearly states that Jesus loves humankind. He certainly never seems to say it himself.

25

Walk the walk. The Gospels present Jesus doing one loving, compassionate act after another. No he didn’t say ‘‘I love you’’ before ‘‘Take up your bed and walk.’’

26

nothing? which is why i said “but that’s not the point, tho.”

you can’t isolate part of a post like that just to make a point, because you don’t have one.

27

if you go back up to the top of the thread, i posted John 3:16, but the OP was unsatisfied because he wanted something that said “for JESUS so loved the world…” *which doesn’t exist.
*

that’s my point. it doesn’t exist in succinct, explicit terms as the silly little song claims other than John 3:16. there is no verse in the bible that says “for Jesus loved all mankind and wanted to come die.” instead, you have only GOD loved man so much that he sent a rather unwilling Jesus to die, unhappily.

why does the song *have *to be based on john 3:16? It doesn’t HAVE to be. but it IS. because the author drew from that verse when writing the song. it simply is the verse she based it on. look up your hymn history…
you can falsely attribute whatever obscure other verses you want to in order to give it more credence, but that doesn’t change the basis of where she was coming from.
at any rate, it’s an oversimplification for children.
why are you so vehement about defending it? it’s a massively overstated oversimplification.

addressing your*: this is irrelevant to the topic at hand and i regret bringing it up because it’s a sort of high-jack, but no one ever said NO ONE believed Christ was the son of God before Nicaea. it was just established as a standard there as most early churches quarreled on the semantics before this.

the only reason i brought it up is clear; go back to the front of the thread. “does the bible say that, explicitly?” answer: yes, john 3:16. “but that’s GOD, not JESUS.” ‘yeah well you have to buy in to the concept they are the same thing first. once you do, the bible clearly says "jesus (god) loves you.’

which starts getting semantically convoluted the more you dig into it, esp if you’re not already a christian.

**salt and pepper more obscure, indirect Jesus loves so-and-so which i guess means “me too” verses. **

all I’ve been trying to say is i can see why the OP would be confused because the song is succinct in it’s pronouncement but the verse it’s based on causes non-Christians a bit of confusion. heck, it causes Unitarians confusion as well.

so. to kick a dead horse: bible says “God loves you,” succinctly and explicitly. Bible does not any place say “Jesus loves you,” not succinctly and no explicitly.

28

^keep in mind i’m not saying that if the song’s not true then clearly jesus doesn’t love us.

i just think it was massively over-simplified. so it should “jesus loves me, this i know, for the bible tells me so–but you gotta read all of it and buy into the concepts there-in and ultimately you’ll see what i’m trying to say…”

29

exactly.

30

This is the second time you’ve invited us to look it up. Can you provide a cite?

31

How about John 15:9?

32

To whom was he speaking?

33

To his disciples.

34

…so not “us.”

35

i have some much better hymnal history books in my father’s library but i have no access to them at the moment. however, this:

and here’s a few silly tid-bits:

from a site that outlines children’s (i.e. simplified) bible lessons, they say,

and that’s the one.
the *only *one.
the lesson is to teach the song then show the children in the bible where it says jesus loves them. and that’s the cite.

the Psalter Hymn book touches on the oversimplification and criticism there-of:

but i will say i found a few scripture cites that actually *do *touch more on the message of the song:
Eph. 5:2, Jer.31:3, Gal. 2:20

that get us a little closer to the sentiment of the song…a little? yeah?

36

The concept of separation of church and state is not explicitly described in The US Constitution, but has been derived from several oblique references and upheld by the courts.

The concept that “Jesus Loves Me” is not explicitly stated in The Bible, but has been derived from the various writings therein, and not opposed by theologians.

37

John 15:9

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

I have been saved and babtized for just under a year. The greatest experience of my life is Christ. I was reading this link earlier today and this evening while reading my daily 2 chapters of the Old Testament and then 2 chapters of the New I found this. John chapter 14 was exactly where I finished my previous reading. Jesus does love us.

38

Technically Jesus is talking specifically to his disciples in this passage, not about mankind in general. In fact the next few verses make it clear not only that he is restricting this advice to the disciples, but he actually goes on a mini-rant about how “the rest of the world” is not part of the group he loves:

39

"Technically Jesus is talking specifically to his disciples in this passage, not about mankind in general. In fact the next few verses make it clear not only that he is restricting this advice to the disciples, but he actually goes on a mini-rant about how “the rest of the world” is not part of the group he loves:
Quote:
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit …

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. …

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well." "

I am a babe in Christ having only studied the bible this past year but I believe Jesus is talking to all his eventual followers as well as the disciples. He knows this will be in the bible. If you believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive your sins and that he rose back to life after three days and then ascended to Heaven to become the right hand of God, and you love him with all your heart, and you love mankind then you will be loved by him.

40

According to the Psalmist all are gods(Psalm 82 in KJV). Jesus backs this up when accused of Blasphemy when he said," It says in your law, I said you are gods, so why do you accuse me of blasphemy when I call God my father , when your father’s did?"(John !0) To me that is Jesus not proclaiming to be anymore Divine than any one he was speaking to. Jesus is also quoted as telling a woman whio asked him for help, that he only came for the house of Israel.