Does God Love Everyone? - 1
1. Who are Sinners?
Someone I love dearly made a comment yesterday that got me thinking about this question. The conversation was so brief that I really don’t know exactly what they think about this, so this is really more about me clarifying my own thinking on the matter.
I had made a comment that ugly behavior is to be expected because all people are sinners. The response was that “God loves them all.”
So… does He? Does God love all sinners?
First up, let’s take a look at who exactly sinners are. Paul writes in Romans 3 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A few verses before that he states that “both Jews and Greeks (i.e. all people) are all under sin.” He follows that by quoting a couple of Psalms, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” In John 8 Jesus is recording as telling the Pharisees that unless they believed that He was God (“I AM”) they would die in their sins. In his own letter to the Church, John writes, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."
So who are these sinners? Everyone. You. Me. Every person that ever existed. Sin consists of willful violation of God's commands. Adam introduced sin to the human race when he chose to rebel against his Creator, and the whole race has been enslaved to it ever since. Sin is man's problem - Paul writes that the penalty for sin is death. Jesus - God Himself - became man in order to save us from this eternal death and is the only possible escape from the deserved penalty.
So if all are sinners... does God love everyone?
Someone I love dearly made a comment yesterday that got me thinking about this question. The conversation was so brief that I really don’t know exactly what they think about this, so this is really more about me clarifying my own thinking on the matter.
I had made a comment that ugly behavior is to be expected because all people are sinners. The response was that “God loves them all.”
So… does He? Does God love all sinners?
First up, let’s take a look at who exactly sinners are. Paul writes in Romans 3 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A few verses before that he states that “both Jews and Greeks (i.e. all people) are all under sin.” He follows that by quoting a couple of Psalms, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” In John 8 Jesus is recording as telling the Pharisees that unless they believed that He was God (“I AM”) they would die in their sins. In his own letter to the Church, John writes, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."
So who are these sinners? Everyone. You. Me. Every person that ever existed. Sin consists of willful violation of God's commands. Adam introduced sin to the human race when he chose to rebel against his Creator, and the whole race has been enslaved to it ever since. Sin is man's problem - Paul writes that the penalty for sin is death. Jesus - God Himself - became man in order to save us from this eternal death and is the only possible escape from the deserved penalty.
So if all are sinners... does God love everyone?
Comments
I do not love all women the way I love my wife, and I should not be expected to.
In the same way God has a special love for his elect (Jn 13:1) and even says that while they were still sinner Christ died for them (Rom. 5:6-8).
God does show a general love to all mankind (as I am required to do by Scripture as well - Matt 22:39). In passages like Ps. 145:9 and Matt. 5:45 this is seen clearly. This love, however, is not a saving love and does not hold God in error for punishing sin, as you pointed out in your post.
Just some of my thoughts.
A very mature and healthy theology can help provide answers to these type of intelligent questions. These passages are not here to bewilder us, but to cause us to humbly ask God for clarity.
Jason's answer is good. God's demonstrated common grace. That is he causes the rain to fall on the unjust and the just. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But there is certainly a salvific love for the elect. This is a beautiful and very, very humbling truth. God's heart toward the reprobate well.....a little less lucid for me.