Does God Love Everyone The Same?

Does God love everyone the same? Is God’s love universal, unconditional or all encompassing? What does it mean that “God is love”? These are questions that we hear all the time. The statement that “God is love” seems to be a platform for just about anything. We have rappers who sing some of the most vulgar and God hating lyrics but in the credits of their CD they say “they love God”. We have others who live a life in total opposition to what God demands but then they say “you can’t judge me because God is love”. You have others, who reject the Son of God, believe all paths lead to God as long as you are a good person and that there is no way God will judge them because “God is love”. Finally you have a group of individuals who actually profess Christ, who actually live semi-righteous lives but they believe because “God is love” that God is going to restore everything so, everyone will get eternal life because of God’s love. I will attempt to show you that none of that is based on scripture. It is a gross misrepresentation of the Gospel and what Christ accomplished, it is rooted in secular humanism, religious tolerance and false religion. It is nothing less than a ploy of Satan to keep the blind, blind and the deaf, deaf so that the Gospel falls on the way side, stony soil and weed infested soil instead of the “good soil” that bears fruit (Matthew 13:1-23)

God’s Love is Rooted In the Sacrifice Of His Son

Most people love to quote the verse “God is love”, most don’t have a clue where that verse is, who wrote it, why he said it nor what the context is that surrounds those verses.  Most hear from soupy preachers who love to tickle the ears of people so that they may draw disciples after themselves and not the Lord Jesus Christ. This type of preaching fattens pockets, make men popular and projects a false view of who God is and what God demands and how He put this love on display for the world to see.

This phrase “God is love” is found in 1 John 4: 7-21. In this section. The Apostle John is calling “Christians” to love one another because God is love. In Chapter 3 of 1 John we see what that love looks like practically. So we really need to go back to 1 John3:11-4:21 to really get the context of this phrase “God is love”. God is love how, should be the question. Or better yet, how does God show His love and then that would bring context to both why we are called to love one another and what it means when the writer says “God is love”.

We also must remember that John wrote John 3:16-17. In this verse John uses the same language he does when explaining God is love, or better yet he shows “how” God loves in both John 3 and 1 John 4. God’s love is put on display by “giving His only begotten Son”. He gave His Son for a reason. He didn’t just give His Son, it was necessary for the Son to come in order for God’s wrath to be satisfied, John writes “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10) . The next question that comes up is what exactly is “propitiation”. To propitiate (verb) means to appease. In the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement, there were two goats offered (and a bull for so that the High Priest could even enter the holy of hollies) (Leviticus 16:1-34).  Lots were to be casted (much life for Jesus’ garments) one goat was to be killed and his blood poured on the Mercy Seat, the other goat was to have Israel’s sin confessed over it and then sent away (to take away the sins of Israel). This would satisfy or “propitiate” God’s wrath. Jesus becomes our “propitiation” (noun) by dying on the cross and bearing our sin.

God CAN NOT allow anyone to be justified (declared not guilty) apart from Jesus Christ. So the because God “is love” He sent His Son to be a sacrifice. We may not think that is very loving. God poured His wrath out on His Son in order for Him to stand in our place. God just doesn’t love us unconditionally. The condition is someone else is punished (which we should be) for our sin. So God hates sin but because He loves His creation He will restore it but only by the blood of Christ. 

God’s Love Is Conditional

1 John 4 also says :

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him

We now see that God’s love is conditional. It is based on the condition that we believe the testimony (1 John 4:1-6) about God’s Son. If we don’t believe the testimony we make God out to be a liar and His love does not abide in us and we do not abide in His love. So here we see a limited scope of God’s love. God’s love is predicated on us believing the Gospel message. Here is how John the Baptist put it in John 3

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Here, we hear of God’s wrath. God’s wrath will  be the punishment, spoken often in the New Testament with picture of it in the Old Testament, He will inflict when Jesus returns (2 Thessalonians 1 and 2 Peter 3). God will seek vengeance on all who do not trust the Gospel and have not had their sins forgiven through His Son. As of today, if you have not trusted the Christ through the Gospel message, God’s wrath is “on you” and when the day of Judgment comes, you will pay the full cost of your sin. However, those who have trusted the Son “abides in God’s LOVE”. Thus God’s love also is very conditional and there is only one way to receive this love and that is through the testimony (bible today) God’s redeeming work in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Elected Love vs Non Elect Love

This has nothing to do with how you believe God’s saves. This is more about the saved versus the unsaved. God’s special people in the New Covenant versus the “heathen”. Regardless of how God chooses (peaking down into the corridors of time or electing from the foundation of the earth) we know that God has a chosen people. These chosen people are all who have and will trust Christ. These people are called “the beloved” of God (Colossians 3:12 and 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

These individuals have a love that will never allow separation from God (Romans 8:35). This love promises us security in Christ, a peace that surpasses all understanding, intimate fellowship and immortality put on display by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Him being the “firstfruit” (1 Corinthians 15). However, this same God calls us to love others, even our enemies. So how does that work. If God calls us to love our enemies, how does He “punish” or how does His “wrath remain upon” His enemies. I think the best way to explain is using the analogy Paul uses in Ephesians 5. In Ephesians 5 Paul commands us to become one flesh with our wives. Paul goes back to Adam and Eve and then gives us a revelation into just how important we are to Christ. He says “as Christ gave Himself up” and then He calls us Christ’s bride. So even though God calls us to love our enemies we know that there is a special love we have for our wives. This love causes us to pursue “one fleshness”. Well God also loves His enemies but He has a “special” or “everlasting love” for His elect in Christ. God loves us like He loves His Son because we are “in” His Son and we are the “bride”, “body”, “family” and “temple” of His Son.

So, God’s love is conditional, particular, has scope and will end for all who are not in Christ. We must be very careful not confuse God’s special love with His general love. God loves by “raining on the just and the unjust alike”, by allowing others to experience romance, joy, children, eyesight, have jobs , laugh and so forth; however, that love will end one day as those same individuals are “under” God’s wrath.