God loves the world!

John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

This is an amazing statement for John’s Gospel, which generally operates with a negative view of “the world”, because the world rejects Jesus. How could God love such a world?

The miracle is that God gives the Son "so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." God's motive was love and God's objective is salvation. Those who actually receive eternal life are those who believe in the Son.

It would have been far less costly for God to ignore the world's sins and to allow people to live in darkness, but that would not reflect love, but apathy.

Earthly parents provide an analogy. It is far more costly in time and energy for a parent to supervise a child rather than letting the child run wild. It is much less hard work to allow your child to be brought up and taught by its peers, than being educated and guided by parents.
Some parents see it differently, preferring not to constrain the child, but that which appears to be a gift of freedom instead jeopardizes the child's welfare.
It is not a "hands-off" policy that demonstrates love, but a willingness to make sacrifices to keep the child safe.

God makes the biggest possible sacrifice, his one and only Son, to save the world.
But God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
To save you and me, and our children!