Sunday, November 1, 2015

God may not love everyone in the world

Jacob I loved but Esau I hated
Romans 9.13 
A common interpretation of this verse goes like this:
Jacob I chose and Esau I rejected. 
This interpretation seems reasonable except for the very powerful language it uses. Also keep in mind what the Apostle Paul goes on to say about this passage, and the other story he uses to illustrate the verse.
Pharoah, Paul says, was specifically chosen to demonstrate God's power. Pharoah's heart was hardened so that God would show His wrath on the unbeliever and the world would know who He was. Does this sound like God loved Pharoah equally to the Israelites? Does this sound like the mere difference between "chosen" and "rejected"?
He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
Maybe God did hate Esau.
For God so loved the world... 
But does God love everyone in the world?
He didn't love Esau. If there is one exception to any universal rule, the rule is not universal.
Let's assume God did love everyone in the world. We also know that men are powerless in their sins and cannot choose to believe in God. If anyone will be saved, it will be God who saves them and it will be God who chooses whom to save. If God loves everyone, why doesn't He save everyone? Why didn't He save Pharoah? Why did He harden Pharoah's heart and make him an "object of wrath, prepared for destruction" (Romans 9.22)? Does anyone else see a contradiction between simultaneously declaring love for someone and then determining their destruction?
Let's put that aside and examine our present state in the form of a simple statement:
God loves all men equally.
Or another way:
God loves me as much as He loved Adolf Hitler.
Maybe to you it's OK that God loves the atheists and the pagans and the Christian-beheaders and the God-haters as much as He loves you. Maybe to you that's noble and that's what the Apostle John meant when he said, "God is love."
My Father loves every child in the neighborhood as much as He loves me.
Every child that you don't know, every child that barely knows Him, every child that steals your stuff and bullies you at school--your Father loves them every bit as much as He loves you. Are you still OK with this?
My husband loves every woman He meets as much as He loves me.
You should not be OK with this. Yes, God is love, but love only has meaning when it takes place within the bounds of a relationship. Anything less is dysfunction and adultery.
I do not believe that God loves everyone in the world. I believe that God loves the world, and within the world He loves the people that love Him, those that He has chosen and redeemed to be His own.

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