Q and A
Does God really love everybody?
Since “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), then every single person is on the receiving end of that love, even in our sinfulness. As Romans 5:8 proclaims, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
Love is so characteristic of God that 1 John 4:8 even declares that “God is love.” Unfortunately, many people twist this to mean “God should fit my definition of love.” So if we define love as “making sure nothing bad happens,” and then we see others endure horrendous suffering, we start to wonder if God really loves everybody. Or if we define love as “causing all the consequences of my bad choices to evaporate,” then when we hear the biblical truth about the eternal consequences of rejecting Jesus, again we’ll question God’s love.
Perhaps we’ve been fooled by the popular phrase “unconditional love” into thinking that if God really loved us, then the condition of our relationship with God wouldn’t matter. But, that’s not so. Because God cares deeply about us, He cares deeply about the condition of our relationship with Him. God does not say, “I don’t care if you ruin your life through sin, I love you anyway.” Rather, God says, “I do care if you sin – it hurts me deeply, it angers me tremendously – but I love you anyway.” Toward a sinful, rebellious world, God’s love is fierce and jealous – and also full of grace and mercy.
David Landegent is a pastor of Central Park Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan.
This article was originally printed in the fall 2011 issue of RCA Today. Used with permission.