If you attend sporting events in the United States (or watch them on television) your eyes have probably been afflicted from time to time with this bannered reference:
I’m sometimes surprised that people don’t always get the reference (an example can be found in this podcast.) It is this:
Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
Or in the translation that has real literary merit:
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.
Shorter: “God says ‘love me or die.'”
Psycopathic stalkers the world over nod their heads in sympathetic agreement.
But the Deathbird is terrifying.
And propaganda is comforting.
Big Sister loves you.
Believe it or not, this verse was the very first one taught to me by the evangelicals at bible school in the town where I grew up. When I learned to recite it without a hitch, I was given a small copy of the new testament for a prize. I was seven years old.
It’s not the only bible verse I know as an adult, but it’s still the only one I know from its citation numbers alone.