To condemn the world - Not to judge, or pronounce sentence on mankind. God might justly have sent him for this. Man deserved condemnation, and it would have been right to have pronounced it; but God was willing that there should be an offer of pardon, and the sentence of condemnation was delayed. But, although Jesus did not come then to condemn mankind, yet the time is coming when he will return to judge the living and the dead, Act 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-46.
Related Commentaries of John 3:17
John 3:17
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.