Dear Friends,

It’s time to call this series what it (hopefully) is: A manifesto of God’s free, amazing grace.

It is at once sobering and exciting to take up the challenge of presenting this awesome topic to you. May the Lord help me in this endeavor.

Series Outline:

• Part 1: John 3:16 might not mean what you’ve been told
• Part 2: John 3:16 cannot mean what you’ve been told
• Part 3:John 3:16 shows that you can live a victorious life now, that you can overcome those things that are gnawing away at your soul as you read this

Part 2 Outline:

• Part 2: John 3:16 cannot mean what you’ve been told
  • Part 2a (the previous post): John 3:16 cannot mean that God loves every serial killer who ever picked up a butcher knife
    • The dynamic duo
    • Yes, you are correct…there are different kinds of “hate” in the Bible
    • The dynamic duo, take 2
    • Dear child of God, don’t back yourself into a corner
    • Do you have tons of questions now? Good!!!
  • Part 2b (today): John 3:16 cannot mean that God loves every serial killer who ever picked up a butcher knife…not even an eensy weensy bit
    • Don’t cheapen God’s love
    • Not one single verse
    • Examining the case for the two loves
    • The little showdown
    • The big showdown
    • Don’t forget your integration testing!
    • The Children of the Highest
    • Long before you started getting your act together
    • Conclusion
  • Part 2c (a later post): John 3:16 cannot mean that dead people are supposed to “believe” anything
  • Part 2d (a later post): John 3:16 cannot mean that God has 4 ways of saving people

Part 2b: John 3:16 cannot mean that God loves every serial killer who ever picked up a butcher knife…not even an eensy weensy bit

You may think it’s strange that today’s post, and the previous one, have been about how God doesn’t love everybody. You might think such a disturbing topic should be moved more towards the end. I have two things to say in response: First of all, I have talked about God’s love for his chosen people in several posts on this blog already (Doves’ eyes, 3….2….1..blastoff! and Relax. Judgment day is coming).

Secondly, I will simply mention that I am following the order of John 3:16. The verse starts with “For God so loved the world”, and I am trying to show all the Biblical reasons that those six words cannot mean that God loves every single human being who ever lived. I aim to first clear away the popular but false interpretations of this verse, and then in Part 3 propose an alternative interpretation.

Don’t cheapen God’s love

In the last post, I tried to use the concept of hell to prove that God most certainly does NOT love every human being who ever lived.

But I think today I need to confront another concept of God’s love: The idea that God has a special, everlasting love for his chosen people (“the elect”), but a temporal love for all humans that expires on judgment day. There are some who agree that God does not love people in hell, but they claim that he loves them before they go to hell. This can be called the “Two Aspects of God’s Love” for short.

I heartily agree with the concept that God has a special, everlasting love for his elect. But I heartily disagree that God has a temporary love for every human being who has ever lived.

I know what some of you are thinking: “This is a hairsplit! Why are we going to spend time parsing God’s love so finely? What’s the point?”

It’s because Jesus Christ is my best friend, he loves me very much, and I don’t like seeing his earth-shaking love unbiblically cheapened in any way, shape or form. When we dilute his hatred for wicked people, we accidentally dilute both his holiness and his love. And I think that is a crying shame.

Not one single verse

That’s right, there is not one single verse that clearly teaches that God loves every single human being who ever lived. This section is a little bit of a rehash from last time, but it’s crucially important to get this concept.

True, there are several verses that could be interpreted to mean that God loves every human being who ever lived, if you did not carefully reconcile them with other Scriptures.

Yes, the Bible talks about God loving the world.

Yes, it talks about the free gift coming “upon all men unto justification of life.” (Romans 5:18)

Jesus said he would “draw all men unto” him (John 12:32)

Paul said that “in Christ shall all be made alive.” I Corinthians (15:22)

But, as I showed in my last post, the word “world” obviously means many different things in Biblical usage (just as it does in common everyday usage!). All I did was search the New Testament for the word “world” and ask the reader if it was possible for each usage to mean “every human being who ever lived”.

You can easily do it too! Go to blueletterbible.org and search for “all men”. You will very quickly realize it does NOT necessarily refer to every single human being that ever lived. It’s also worth noting that even if you take “all men” in it’s most literal, exact form, it STILL does not refer to every human being who ever lived. All women and children would be excluded. Yikes.

And the same principle applies when you see the word “all” without a noun following it, as in I Corinthians 15:22. You have to figure out what the “all” means! You can’t make quick assumptions about what it means. You need the context.

Examining the case for the two loves

Whereas the last post dealt with the more “Arminian” concept that God loves everybody equally, and still loves people even in hell, we are talking today about an idea more popular in “Reformed” or “Calvinist” circles. This is the idea that God loves everybody generally, and loves the elect specially, and the general love stops at judgment day. Per this view, God’s love manifests itself in two overall aspects.

So why do some people believe in said Two Aspects of God’s Love? Why would we think God loves people one day, and then stops loving them the next (if the next day is judgment day)? You can go to different places, but I have been examining this blog post:

https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B160610/the-nature-of-gods-love-john-macarthur-on-gods-love-defined-biblically

I think it’s worth looking at this blog post because it is associated with John MacArthur’s ministry. John MacArthur might actually be the most well-known proponent of the two loves. He pastors a massive church, he’s written many books, and he’s appeared on Larry King. I’m sure I’m leaving out some important details, but anyway, he’s a highly respected, very well-studied Christian minister.

Let’s get some disclaimers out of the way before we go any further. I have never met him, and I’m not going to attack him or anyone else. I’m not claiming to be a better Christian than MacArthur or the author of the linked post (Cameron Buettel). I assume they are both good people who love God. I actually went to a MacArthur-affiliated Bible study during my college years and am still in contact with them. Aside: being in a Bible study is a GREAT idea for college students! Especially if it is on Friday night. What better way to enjoy the Lord and stay out of trouble?

So, here’s a direct quote from Buettel’s blog post:

There is a universal aspect to God’s love. This general love of God for all people is most evident in the fact that He delays His wrath upon unrepentant sinners (Genesis 15:16; Acts 17:30–31; Romans 3:25). And while God’s saving love is exclusively bestowed on His elect, He powerfully displays His love for the whole world by offering the gospel to all people (Matthew 28:19).

But that general love of God is temporary—it extends no further than the Day of Judgment.

Let’s look at each passage cited. Remember, dear child of God: if you are a follower of Jesus, you should be very exacting when someone presents anything to you under the mantle of Bible truth. We are all called to search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. This is the book that we claim is the inspired word of God, the only rule of faith and practice. So, in order to live out our claims, we need to take this pretty seriously. The upside is that by carefully studying God’s word, we can gain crucial insights into the mind of God, and the nature of reality, and many of the big questions. Armed with a more perfect of understanding of our Lord and Savior, we can live more victorious lives! OK let’s do this (with God’s help)!

[Genesis 15:13-16 KJV] And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

True, we see from this passage that God is delaying his wrath on the Amorites. But where does the passage indicate that God’s motive for this delay is love? I don’t see it. I’ll suggest a different motive later.

[Acts 17:30-31 KJV] And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Commanding people to repent is not the same as loving them. When a police officer commands a suspect to lie down on the ground, that is not primarily motivated by love for the suspect. I’m not saying that issuing such a command is mean. But I’m saying that a police officer could logically issue such a command out of love for other people that he is trying to protect, without feeling ANY love for the suspect.

[Romans 3:25 KJV] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 

Yes, God has set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood…but propitiation for whom? Where is the evidence that this propitiation is intended for every single human being? Where is the evidence that the forbearance under consideration in this passage applies to all human beings?

[Matthew 28:19 KJV] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

We’ve already discussed how “world” and “all men” do not necessarily refer to every single human being. It should not be a stretch at all to also point out that “all nations” does not necessarily refer to every single human being. This verse falls short of proving that God has a temporal love for every human being, because “all nations” might refer to Jews in all nations, or more likely to the Gentiles, or (even more likely) BOTH groups. It’s a command to go preach everywhere, to all groups. Philip preached to an Ethiopian in Acts 8, and then Peter preached to the Roman Gentile Cornelius in Acts 10.

In Part 2c, I will discuss more reasons why I think Buettel is wrong to say that God shows his love by offering the gospel to all of humanity.

Now, I want to look at one more excerpt from Buettel’s post:

God’s love is also on display in the perfect world He created for us. The creation account repeatedly features the phrase, “and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10, 18, 21, 25; cf. 1:4, 31). And in His immense love, He created mankind as the capstone of His very good creation (Genesis 1:27–28). That theme continues throughout Scripture. The earth is full of God’s lovingkindness (Psalm 119:64). “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9). “He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).

As far as all the Genesis 1 references, not a single one proves that God loves every human being that ever lived. Those verses simply prove that God loved Adam and Eve and created a paradise for them and their descendants to enjoy.

[Psalm 119:64 KJV] The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.

Again, this by no means proves that God loves everybody who ever lived. Granted, this verse does not contradict the idea that God loves Ted Bundy….but it certainly does not prove it! You have to come up with stronger evidence if you are trying to prove that God loves everybody.

The next two passages cited by Buettel are a little stronger. Granted, one easy interpretation is that God loves everybody…until you find out that the Bible explicitly provides us with multiple different explanations!

[Psalm 145:9 KJV] The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

[Acts 14:17 KJV] Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

And, because I want to be fair, I will add two more passages that might initially seem like they help Buettel’s argument.

[Matthew 5:43-48 KJV] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 

[Luke 6:32-36 KJV] For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

In light of those verses, we now segue into…

The little showdown

So, why does God allow wicked people to enjoy so many blessings? Why does he show kindness to them? Why does he send “rain on the just and the unjust”? Remember that he inflicted darkness on the Egyptians as one of the ten plagues, but the Israelites next door were not affected. He could do the same thing with rain if he wanted.

Does God let the wicked have rain because he has a temporary love for them? Let’s look at the case of Pharaoh. Good news: we don’t have to wonder! The Bible tells us God’s motivation with regard to Pharaoh.

[Romans 9:17 KJV] For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Did you see it? Whatever God did to raise Pharaoh up, it certainly wasn’t motivated by love for Pharaoh. Rather, it was because he wanted to very clearly demonstrate his power to his people and the world in general. God wanted to “show” his power by casting Pharaoh “down” into the sea. Get it? A “showdown”!

So let’s go back to the rain and the sunshine. I don’t know what exactly God meant by raising Pharaoh up, but I think we can agree part of raising Pharaoh up includes allowing Pharaoh to enjoy the same benefits that we all get from rain and sunshine. For example, food. But do you see how God allowing Pharaoh to reap those benefits did NOT mean that God loved Pharaoh?

What God was actually doing with Pharaoh was giving everybody else an object lesson in theology.

The lesson for the Egyptians:

[Exodus 7:5 KJV] And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

The lesson for the Israelites:

[Exodus 10:2 KJV] And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.

And did you know that some of the Egyptians actually got a clue at some point?

[Exodus 9:20 KJV] He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses: 

I’ll go one more layer down with you. Some may be asking, “Hey, why is God so obsessed with showing his power to everybody? What kind of egotistical maniac is he?”

Maybe it’s not egotism…maybe the idea is that if we get how powerful and wise he is, we will listen when he tells us not to sacrifice our children to a false god (and many other useful admonitions):

[Leviticus 18:21 KJV] And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

By the way, a false god does not have to be a physical statue.

So, yes, God could have vaporized Pharaoh as soon as he was born…but then there would have been no object lesson for the Egyptians, the Israelites, and us. The fact that God did not instantly vaporize baby Pharaoh does not prove that God ever loved Pharaoh.

I suggest that in light of the above passages, we abandon this concept of God’s temporary love, and use the Bible’s own testimony to determine his motivations for letting wicked people enjoy natural blessings for a season.

But there’s more.

The big showdown

Did you already figure out that the big showdown is judgment day? Good work!  🙂

We need to realize, my friends, that although God does not follow opinion polls, he actually does care about his reputation.

He does not appreciate being gossiped about, and it makes him angry. Can you relate? Hey, you actually have something in common with God then! Check out Numbers 11 and Numbers 21:4-9 for examples of this.

He also appreciates getting a “thank you”:

[Luke 17:15-18 KJV] And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

Isn’t that interesting? God is mysterious, but he is not quite as inscrutable as some people think.

OK, so God cares about his reputation, but what does this have to do with judgment day?

Well, the testimony of Scripture tells me that God is currently making sure that on that final day, in that final confrontation between God and the wicked, the latter will have NO CASE. God will be justified in the sight of all.

God is NOT loving the wicked temporally. He IS building a case against them. Before I go into more detail on that, I also want to point out that he is also building a case in favor of himself, i.e., he is intent on manifesting, for all to see, his eternal kindness and mercy towards his chosen people:

[Ephesians 2:7 KJV] That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Just wanted you to see the parallel there. Now, let’s get back to the wicked. Remember all those verses about God sending rain and sunshine on the wicked? It’s not because he loves them, as Buettel claims. It is rather to prevent the wicked from shaking their fists at God on judgment day and accusing him of never giving them anything. Or at least, if they try this approach, God can justly thunder them into silence. Every day, more evidence is accumulating in support of this verse:

[Isaiah 26:10 KJV] Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 

Buettel also used God’s forbearance of the wicked as evidence that God loves them. But I disagree.

Again, God is building a case, my friends. It’s kind of like how detectives and DAs may suffer a suspect to get away with certain crimes while they build their case. The evil that is committed is not chargeable to the detective or the DA. It still falls on the perpetrator.

Why did Jesus allow wicked, unregenerate people to hear his preaching and see his miracles? I’m talking about people that God never loved, that he decided to leave to their own devices. Did he allow them to observe his incredible ministry because he had a love for them? Don’t answer that before you read this:

[Luke 11:31 KJV] The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Jesus is referencing I Kings 10. To paraphrase, he is saying that the queen of Sheba traveled a long way just to hear wisdom from a mere mortal king named Solomon. By contrast, Jesus is right there in the midst of his kindred, i.e., God himself is coming to them, and he is casting out demons, and some of them have the audacity to claim that Jesus is actually in league with the demons.

Again, do you see a case being built against wicked people who hated Jesus Christ? Couldn’t this explain why Jesus even allowed them to hear him and watch his miracles? When I look at the Bible’s explanation for why Jesus would allow them to see the miracles and hear the gospel, I can honestly say I’m not “feeling the love”.

Speaking of being in league with the demons, look at what Jesus has to say about the people who accused him of such.

[Matthew 12:24, 28, 31-32 KJV] But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. … Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

What’s the point? God doesn’t love wicked, evil, depraved people! Not now, not then, not ever again! (thanks Dr. Seuss). He just said he’s not EVER going to forgive the people who stood there and watched him work a divine, healing miracle in someone’s life, and then accused him of working with Satan.

Whoa.

I just read some more of that chapter, this is getting even more explicit, my friends! I really feel like I almost don’t even have to say anything!

[Luke 11:49-51 KJV] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

I don’t think it could be much clearer. He just explained WHY he sent his messages to wicked people. It was NOT because he loved them. He was building a case (“That the blood of all the prophets….may be required of this generation”). And by the way, in the very next verse, he says “Woe unto you lawyers!” So, I think his audience could easily understand the concept of building a case!

So, yes, we hate how the Ted Bundys of the world are suffered to run around this world, inflicting untold agony on God’s sheep. God hates it too, which is why the words “endured” and “much longsuffering” appear in the following verse:

[Romans 9:22 KJV] What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Notice that this verse is a few verses after the verse I quoted earlier about Pharaoh. So the immediate context is the little showdown. But the broader context is the big showdown.

Remember that the end is coming. No evil deed committed by wicked people has gone unnoticed. Oh, my friends, when we stand there on God’s right hand, and the following passage is enacted before our eyes,  we will no longer question God’s decision to suffer the wicked as long as he did.

[Revelation 20:11-15 KJV] And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

I hope you saw it. The books will be opened. And God will take vengeance on the wicked for every evil that he suffered them to commit. The Adolf Hitlers of the world will be presented with a line item for every life they took. They will have NO CASE. And then God will hand down his divine and terrible sentence.

The sins of the sheep were already paid for by Jesus. The wicked will spend eternity paying for their sins. And that is God’s solution to the “problem of evil”.

As an aside to my atheist friends: Do you believe you would have come up with a better approach? Or are you willing to submit your (a mere mortal’s) ideas to God’s ideas?

Don’t forget your integration testing!

I also need to address Jesus’s command to “love your enemies”. I pasted them in earlier, but here again are two instances of this command:

[Matthew 5:43-48 KJV] Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 

[Luke 6:32-36 KJV] For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But LOVE YE YOUR ENEMIES, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

I could see somebody arguing that the passage tells us to love our enemies so that we can be like God (“the children of the Highest”), and so therefore God must love all his enemies. So God loves everybody that ever lived.

Dear friends, the reason I cannot accept this line of reasoning is because it contradicts many other verses in the Bible. I remember reading years ago that the initial problems with the Affordable Care Act website were due to a lack of integration testing. The various widgets and doohickeys that comprised the site had been tested individually, but the team had not spent enough time ensuring that those components would work together before the site went live.

So, I don’t accept the idea that God loves everybody (even temporally) because it doesn’t pass integration testing. Consider this verse:

[Psalm 7:11 KJV] God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

“Angry” not a strong enough word for you? Try this one:

[Psalm 11:5 KJV] The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

This is not a prophecy of hell or heaven. This is not about judgment day. It’s about the here and now. How do I know? Because it says he “trieth the righteous”. If we believe that when we are in heaven we will have no more trials, then the “trieth” refers to life here on earth. Similarly, the hatred that this verse mentions (directed at “the wicked” and him that loveth violence) is a temporal hatred. Oh just noticed this too…it’s God’s soul that hates the wicked. It’s like how we sometimes say “with every fiber of my being!” This ain’t no casual dislike, folks.

The Children of the Highest

Instead of making the Luke and Matthew passages say that God loves everybody ever, may I suggest some other interpretations, based on other passages? I won’t pretend that I know exactly which one was intended by Jesus…maybe all of them were. But what the following ideas have going for them is that other verses support them rather than contradicting them.

If we are faced with various possible interpretations of the passage, shouldn’t we choose among the set of intepretations that don’t contradict other scriptures?

Let’s first define “love”. Yeah, that’s a tall order, but I have the Bible at my side!

I just reread I Corinthians 13, the chapter about charity (which comes from a Greek word which is usually translated “love” in the New Testament), with fresh eyes. I found out the coolest thing!!!! Love is characterized by both actions AND feelings. Pop songs seem to overemphasize the emotional aspect of love. And sometimes Christians seem to overemphasize the behavioral aspect of love. Now, I do agree that actions are better than words when it comes to showing love for someone (I John 3:18). In any case, I challenge you to read I Corinthians 13 and see if you can’t find examples of behavioral AND mental/emotional aspects of love.

Soooo….when WE do good to our enemies, we can be said to love them, because we can truly want the best for them, and we are carrying out that desire on them. We have the positive deeds and the positive emotions. We don’t always know who is a child of God and who is not, but we can assume that the enemy we are loving is a child of God and we can actually pray for the best for them. But it’s different with God. He sees all. He can always tell the difference between a lost sheep and a goat.

Watch this appeal to the lost sheep:

[John 7:37 KJV] In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

And watch this very different statement to some goats:

[John 10:26 KJV] But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

So, when God does good to the wicked, that doesn’t rise to the level of “love” because he does not have goodwill, positive emotions or wonderful plans for their lives. As I said earlier in this post, he is building a case.

I will say it again, hopefully more clearly:

When we do good to our enemies, it can be called love because we can hope that they are children of God, and so we pray for the best for them. We can have goodwill towards them and do things for them. That’s love.

But when God does good to the unjust, that is not necessarily love, because when it comes to the wicked, he does NOT have goodwill towards them. Yes, he sends rain and sunshine on them, but it’s not because of love, and if you look at the two long Bible passages again, you will see that it does not mention God’s motive for blessing them at all. We have to go elsewhere for that, and we already did. The case of Pharaoh is a great example of God’s building a case through blessings.

But, yes, God sends rain and sunshine on the unjust…and so when we do good to our enemies, we are being Children of the Highest.

Long before you started getting your act together

One last idea about the Matthew and Luke passages that should be preferred over the “God loves everybody” explanation because it doesn’t contradict the verses that have already been discussed in this post, and because it actually finds support in other verses.

I tried to show in the previous section that we and God can both do good to our enemies, and for us it is an expression of love whereas for God it is not an expression of love, but rather God just being a good prosecutor.

Now, I want to talk about the sense in which God does love his enemies, from Scripture. But I will tell you right now: it does not involve God loving every person ever, not even for one nanosecond.

[Colossians 1:21-22 KJV] And you, that were sometime alienated and ENEMIES in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

OK, so clearly God is loving his enemies here…but does that include every single one of his enemies? No. Look who the letter is addressed to:

[Colossians 1:2, KJV] To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

OK, so those are the people that were enemies in the past, but God loved them and reconciled them. This is obviously not talking about every human being.

Again, from Romans this time:

[Romans 5:6-10 KJV] For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were ENEMIES, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Who is the “we”? Is it everybody who ever lived? No, read the salutation for the book of Romans:

[Romans 1:1-7 KJV] Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Doesn’t sound very universal to me.

We see God loving his enemies here, in the most powerful way imaginable. He condescended to be murdered by them. But nowhere in the passage does it say that God loves ALL his enemies. He loves a lot of people, including a whole host of non-Christians…but not every single person who ever lived.

To flesh out this idea of God loving people while they were his enemies, I want to present a little more detail on our condition before God sovereignly decided to regenerate (with no help from a tract or a preacher) us.

[Titus 3:3-5 KJV] For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

See the point? God showed love to his people by giving them new hearts, and he did it before they showed any love for God. Long before they cared a whit about getting their act together.

So yes, I’m a big believer in God truly, majestically loving his enemies, and we should follow his example. But by explicitly pasting in some verses about this topic, I hope I have shown that there is NO evidence that this loving of his enemies applies to ALL his enemies. It’s just not there in the passages. How does he decide which enemies to have mercy on and regenerate? Here is one verse to point you in the right direction:

[Ephesians 1:11 KJV] In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL:

So, the answer is, I don’t know. God allows some people to just stay in their natural, evil condition, and the rest of us he sovereignly decides to have mercy on and gives us new hearts that hunger for God. There are hungry hearts all over the world…in Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, et al. communities. God has a people everywhere.

Conclusion

God’s love is big and powerful and bold and everlasting,. It crosses cultural, chronological, religious and family boundaries.

But God hates the wicked always and forever, and I hopefully have shown that today.

I presented many different verses today, hopefully showing that:

• There are some verses that might suggest God loves every single person who ever lived, at least temporally
• But there are several verses which contradict that idea
• There are also several verses which give us additional insight into the original set of verses
  • The additional insight shows how we can extract important truths from that original set of verses WITHOUT concluding that God loves everybody temporally

Honestly, my friends…I have never believed that God loves everybody…but after doing this study, I am even more opposed to the idea! “Confirmation bias!” you say. Fine…go look at the verses yourself and tell me what you think! 🙂  Also, please check out my Relax. Judgment day is coming post and read about something I DID change my mind on.

In eternity, and in time, God hates wicked people.

I’m so happy that his love for his precious little sheep works the same way…aren’t you?

God Bless.