Loving the World

John 3:16-21 ESV
(16) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
(17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
(18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
(19) And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
(20) For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
(21) But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."

I think we typically read verse 16 as "For God loved the word so much that He gave..." However, that's not really what the Greek says. It would probably be better to translate it as "For in this way God loved the world that He gave..." The Greek bears this out as does the rest of the passage.

This is something of a hobby horse for my Greek/Hebrew/Old Testament/Hermeneutics professor. Just something to think about.

Notice that the rest of the passage shows us what unregenerate and regenerate hearts look like. It is not saying that by doing good works we somehow merit salvation, though it is sometimes implicitly read that way based on how we use this for evangelism.