The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. – Proverbs 12:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 27, 2025): Proverbs 12

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Most of us have memorized some version of this verse. It is arguably the best-known verse in the Bible. We know the verse, but one question that I keep asking those around me is if we really believe it. Do we actually believe that God loves the world? Sometimes we are challenged to personify the verse. For God so loved (insert your name here) that he gave his one and only Son, that if (insert your name here) believes in him, they shall not perish but have eternal life. However, that is not what the verse says. The verse distinctly says “the world.” Thus, the next question we ask is how we should define “the world.”

Some argue that this verse should really be “For God so loved the Christian community …” Others would refine it even more to say “God so loves the Calvinists, or maybe the Fundamentalists.” However, that is not what the verse says. The verse clearly says “world.”

I admit that I love the story of Jonah. Too often, we limit the story to a prophet and a big fish, but it is so much more. It is a story about God’s love for the world that he had created, and a prophet who didn’t share in that love. And so, the man rebelled against the love of God. But the story closes on a note that explains how far God’s love really goes; the last thought of Jonah’s story is a comment from God to his prophet.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals” (Jonah 4:11)?

The love of God was not limited to people but extended to animals as well. Proverbs insists that the righteous will care for the needs of their animals, while the kindest acts of the wicked are still filled with cruelty. All because God really does love the world; all of the world; not just those who agree with God, not just the righteous, not even just the people, but the whole world and all of creation, which includes even the animals of our planet.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 13