{"id":2197,"date":"2018-09-20T00:02:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T04:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2018-09-20T00:02:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T04:02:40","slug":"does-god-love-everyone-or-only-believers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/does-god-love-everyone-or-only-believers\/","title":{"rendered":"Does God Love Everyone, or Only Believers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Have you ever been asked a question like “Does God really love everyone?\u00a0 What about people that don’t believe in him?\u00a0 Does he love them too?”<\/p>\n

Just a few days ago, someone emailed me a very similar question.\u00a0 As I was writing my reply, I thought it would be good to have something on my site that would be easy to point people to.\u00a0 So, here is my answer to the question “Does God love everyone, or does he just love believers?”<\/p>\n

The Bible’s Most Famous and Most Radical Verse<\/h2>\n

Possibly the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16.\u00a0 In my opinion, it is also the most radical\u00a0 It reads as follows:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This simple statement is so profound, and so radical.\u00a0 It tells something about God that is so wonderful.<\/p>\n

The Bible says that God loved the world.\u00a0 It does not say that God loved the church, or that God loved the Christians, or that God loved the believers.\u00a0 It says that God loved the WORLD.\u00a0 And because of this love he has for the world, Jesus came to earth to on a rescue mission.<\/p>\n

God loves all people, and he made it extremely easy for everyone to be saved and rescued.\u00a0 All we have to do is receive Jesus…to believe in his name (John 1:12).\u00a0\u00a0 This is something that anyone can do.\u00a0 It does not require any money, or skill, or connections, or hard work, or any other thing.\u00a0 All you have to do is believe and receive.<\/p>\n

Any statement or doctrine that says God only loves the believers is false.\u00a0 It directly contradicts John 3:16.<\/p>\n

It also contradicts Ephesians 2:4-5<\/p>\n

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ \u2013 by grace you are saved!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It also contradicts Romans 5:8<\/p>\n

But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I could continue listing verses, but that is enough to make the point.\u00a0 God loves all people, even those that don’t believe.\u00a0 That does not mean that everyone receives salvation and eternal life.\u00a0 It just means that God loves people even if they reject him.<\/p>\n

But What About Romans 9?<\/h2>\n

In Romans 9, we have the following passage:<\/p>\n

Romans 9:13\u00a0 As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People will quote that to try and show that God loves believers and hates unbelievers.\u00a0 People with this opinion are often thinking of Jacob as a symbolizing “believers” and Esau as symbolizing “unbelievers.”<\/p>\n

There are many problems with this.\u00a0 One of the problems is that Jacob and Esau are not representatives of believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 Paul, the author of Romans, is quoting from Malachi chapter 1.\u00a0 And when you read Malachi, you see that Jacob and Esau are symbolic representatives of two nations (Israel and Edom) that have made many terrible choices.\u00a0 But God chose to use Israel (Jacob) as his means for expressing himself to the world.\u00a0 And God continued in this for a very long time, even though Israel as a whole was not cooperating.\u00a0 This is not talking about believers vs unbelievers, or saved vs unsaved.\u00a0 So that is the first problem.\u00a0 (There is much more to this, but that is for another post).<\/em><\/p>\n

But the main issue with using Romans 9:13 to prove that “God only loves believers” is this:\u00a0 the writers of the Bible often use hyperbole to communicate strong thoughts.\u00a0 It was very much a part of the culture.\u00a0 Consider this statement from Jesus:<\/p>\n

Luke 14:26\u00a0 Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is Jesus really teaching us to hate our parents, our spouse, our children, and our siblings?\u00a0 Or is he using hyperbole to make a point?\u00a0 Jesus would not contradict himself.\u00a0 He said to love your neighbor as yourself.\u00a0 We are to love others as Christ has loved us.\u00a0 We are not supposed to hate people.\u00a0 This is simply hyperbole which was part of the culture when the Bible was written.\u00a0 It is not intended to be taken literally to mean “God wants you to hate your parents.”<\/p>\n

Or how about this one:<\/p>\n

Mark 9:43-47\u00a0 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.\u00a0 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.\u00a0 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is Jesus really teaching self-mutilation?\u00a0 Or is he using hyperbole to make a point?\u00a0 I believe the Bible is God’s word, and that God is not confused.\u00a0 If the Bible tells us that our bodies are the temple of the Lord.\u00a0 then we are supposed to care for ourselves, not mutilate ourselves.\u00a0 Jesus is simply using hyperbole because that was understood by everyone as a part of the culture.\u00a0 Nobody listening to Jesus as he taught this lesson would go away thinking they were supposed to cut off parts of their body.<\/p>\n

Romans 9 cannot be used to imply that God hates certain people.\u00a0 It is simply biblical, cultural hyperbole that is used to make a strong point.<\/p>\n

Two Parables<\/h2>\n

As I conclude this article, consider these two short parables:<\/p>\n

Parable 1 – There was a young man who was interested in marrying a young woman.\u00a0 He promised that if she would marry him, he would love her unconditionally, and never forsake her.\u00a0 But if she would not accept his offer, he vowed to to hate her forever.<\/p>\n

Parable 2 – There was a young man who was interested in marrying a young woman.\u00a0 He told her that if she would marry him, he would love her unconditionally, and never forsake her.\u00a0 He also told her that even if she did not want to marry him, then he would honor her choice, but he would still love her no matter what.\u00a0 Even if she continually rejected him her entire life, he would still love her and never stop, even to the day she died, even if it cost him his life.<\/p>\n

Which of these sounds more like Jesus?\u00a0 Which one sounds like a more godly kind of love?\u00a0 Which one represents God’s character more accurately?<\/p>\n

Even when Jesus was being killed by people that hated him and mocked him and rejected him, he said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”\u00a0 Jesus loves people whether they respond to his love or not.\u00a0 And God is exactly like Jesus (Hebrews 1:3).\u00a0 God loves everyone, not just believers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been asked a question like “Does God really love everyone?\u00a0 What about people that don’t believe in him?\u00a0 Does he love them too?” Just a few days ago, someone emailed me a very similar question.\u00a0 As I was writing my reply, I thought it would be good to have something on my site that would be easy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[19,20],"class_list":["post-2197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-gospel","tag-gospel","tag-grace"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4j58Y-zr","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions\/2217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}