John 3 v16 Greatest Population

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life"     John 3 v16

3)   The greatest population ever addressed

We now focus on the audience being addressed, which is the greatest it can ever be, the sum total of every living human being at any one time.  The word for world, which is a common word in John's writing, is the Greek cosmos which refers to an ordered arrangement of things, whether of the material world and the laws of physics which govern it, or the moral world and the laws which govern civilised society.  This is the opposite to chaos which is a disorder of anything.  This then is spoken to the greatest number of people without partisanship or partiality.  He speaks to Israel, to the Gentiles, to the isles, that is those living in the remotest part of the world.  Jesus was actually speaking here to Nicodemus, a prominent Jew, but His message was intended for the whole world of His day, for our day, and for every day.  The phrase recurring in the bible to describe the various parts of the world is "peoples, tongues, kindreds and nations", or some variation of it.  This occurs many times in the bible, notably in the book of Revelation in chapter 5 v7, 7 v9, 10 v11, 11 v9, 13 v7, 14 v6 and 17 v15.  No group of people will be untouched or unaffected in some way by this declaration whether for good or bad.  
There is, however another aspect of the "cosmos", which is the mystical world, that is the world as God sees it, as is seen in the usage of the word in John.  There are many wonderful features of the world in terms of the great talents and achievements and potential of it's people, but we can be sure that God's view of the world is the right one.  As we read the references we find that the world is used in the sense of the evil world, systematically in opposition to God;  so in Chapter 1 v10 we read, "the world knew Him not", that is they didn't recognise Jesus for who He was; 1 v29 Jesus came to "take away the sin of the world"; chapter 4 v42 the world that needed to be saved; chapter 8 v12 the world in spiritual darkness needing the light of truth; chapter 12 v31 the world ruled by the prince of darkness; chapter 15 v19 the world that hated Christ and hates Christians; chapter 16 v8 the world being convicted by the Spirit, concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;  chapter 17 v14 and 18 v36 Christ not of this world nor is His kingdom of this world; and finally in 1st John 2 v15-16 "All that is in the world, the lust(craving) of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life".  This is the world as God sees it, perfect as He created it but wasted by sin.  Nevertheless this is the world that God loves, the world He feeds, the world He passionately cares about, the world for whom He was prepared to give His all, (as we shall consider later), the world He wants to save without exception, whether of nation or people or kindred or tongue or individual.  This is the God who wants "All men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".