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The "so" in "God so loved the world" does not mean "so much" as [some] folk interpretation[s] say. The Greek text says: "just so (in just this way) did God love the world, namely, God sacrificed his own son.
It is not "muchness" that the text expresses, but the radical character of God's action. You and I would be arrested if we did the same with our children.
Letting your own child be killed--for whatever worthy cause--is not only illegal, it is immoral. The radicality of Jesus on the Cross is that to regain us disinherited (bastard?) kids back into the divine family, God "lifts up," as Moses did with the serpent, his one and only non-renegade Son. God incurs the "illegality, the immorality" of son-sacrifice in order to regain sons and daughters who ought themselves perish in just that way. John 3:16 is John's statement of the genuine "scandal" of the Gospel. (by Ed Schroeder from Sabbatheology a journal of The Crossing Community, St Louis, Missouri.)
Whether you agree with Mr. Schroeder or not is irrelevant. In the Greek an article or a verb can change the meaning of the text in such a slight way that it can throw off the whole message.
This is identical to our ability to throw the whole world off our scent of the Gospel by acting in a contrary to our calling as disciples. St. Francis of Asisi taught that we should live our lives preaching to all that we come in contact with - and if necessary use words. The sad thing is that we scandalize God by not acting in a way that shows how thankful we are for his sacrifice of immeasurable love.
The 'further' study implicit in this week's message is the challenge to live your life under the cross. To - as Dr. David Lowes Watson says - "Make sure that everything you do this day be worthy of the death of Christ on the cross."
How might you live out the Gospel today without using words?
What part of your life needs to be placed at the foot of the cross because it is not worthy of our Lord's death?
When will you finally give it up? When will you finally give up resisting the irrestible grace of God?