In the gospel reading we are assured that God’s love for the world is so deep and so magnanimous that nothing is spared for the world’s salvation, not even God’s only Son. God gave/sent this Son first in the incarnation and again in his saving death. This Son was truly a gift from God. However, the Son had a sacred, all-encompassing mission to perform. The world, though created good, often stands in opposition to God and, consequently, is in need of being saved. It is this sinful world that God loved (v.16); it is into this sinful world that God’s only Son was sent (v.17).