This is an extremely important topic because when we talk about God's love, we're actually making a statement about his moral character. So, for example, when Light tells us that God loved Hitler, or once he told us that God even loved Satan, or that God loves all things in this world whether good or evil, he is casting the worst possible dispersion upon God's holy character imaginable! In fact, such statements are blasphemous against God!
Since Jesus taught that only God alone is [inherently] good (Mk 10:18), then how would it logically be possible for this good, holy, righteous and just God to love anything or anyone that is
antithetical to his character? It is no wonder, therefore, that scripture is loaded with passages that tell us that God hates sin and the sinner alike, and that conversely loves that which is good! God must hate the sinner because the fountainhead of sin is in man's evil heart. And Jesus clearly taught that mankind is [inherently] evil (Mat 7:11; 12:34). (This fact accounts for the necessity of the New Covenant promise of a new heart from God, cf. Ezek 36:26).
We know that
biblical/godly love (not to be confused with worldly love) is moral in nature by what scripture teaches. Again, Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments" (Jn 14:15). Notice in this passage that obviously, willingly, joyful obedience flows from the love of God (i.e. godly love in a person's heart!). We see this same logical arrangement in Ex 20:6 and Deut 5:10 wherein these passages teach that God shows love to those who love and keep his commandments. Again, the love of God within a person's heart
compels to willingly and joyfully submit to the Sovereign Lordship of his Creator and Redeemer.
Jesus also taught that upon the two greatest commandments (love for God and love for neighbor) all the Law and the Prophets turn (Mat 7:12; 22:40). One might easily enough understand how the Law of Moses could rest upon these two commandments but wonder about the Writings of the Prophets. But this is easily understood when we recognize that the primary function of the ancient Jewish prophets was to give
moral/spiritual instruction to their wayward, covenant-breaking countrymen.
And Paul taught that "love does no wrong" (Rom 13:10).
Therefore, there is unquestionably a
huge moral component to biblical or godly love, a/k/a "the love of God".
Below is a link to a site that list "10 Things God Loves". Eight of these are quite straightforward and require no comment. However, I disagree with the writer's interpretations of items 2 and 6, which I'll now set out to correct. The writer reached the wrong conclusions on these two items either by sloppy exegesis and/or his biased presuppositions which he brought to bear upon the passages he cited.
https://www.gregoryscottblog.com/kin...ngs-god-loves/
2. The world. John 3:16. (Interesting that so many Christians are trying to escape the planet the Lord loves and wants to transform.)
What Jn 3:16 is
not teaching is that God loves each and every person in the world in a distributive sense, as this would contradict numerous other scriptures. How a pious, Old Covenant Jew would have understood this New Covenant expression of God's relationship with the world would have been through the promise God made to Abraham through the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 13, 15, 17, 22, etc.). The thrust of the
messianic promise to Abraham is that God would bless the gentile nations through him and thereby make Abraham the "father of many nations"; and this would all be accomplished by first making Abraham the Father of a great nation, i.e. Israel! So...there is a spiritual and ethnic side to the promise regarding the "fatherhood" of Abraham. Abraham was literally the ethnic father of the nation Israel and was just as literally the spiritual father of many gentile nations. The Abrahamic Covenant is a huge theme that runs throughout the entire bible; yet nowhere does the bible teach that God promised to make Abraham the [spiritual] father of each and ever person on the planet! And this presents no small problem to those who subscribe to twin heresies of God's supposed unconditional and universal love for each and every person in the world. The problem is that God never made a redemptive Covenant with each and every person on the planet! In order for everyone to be saved and to enter the kingdom of God, God would have had to do this! Yet, when we examine the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and the eternal New Covenant we don't even get a remote hint of universal salvation. The best and biblical way of understanding Jn 3:16, therefore, is by this text:
Rev 7:9
9
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.
NIV
Again, this passage does not teach that each and every person whoever lived stood before the throne of God. Certainly...a "great multitude" but that doesn't mean each and every person. The passage above squares quite nicely with the Genesis chapters I cited above and even with Jn 3:16. God so loved the world (i.e. the gentiles) or God so loved a "great multitude from every nation, tribe, people and language." To a Jewish mind, there were only two kinds of people on the planet: Uncircumcised Gentiles and Circumcised Jews who were God's chosen covenant people.
6. Non-Christians. I John 4:10-11, Romans 5:8. (Surprised?)
Well...at least Mr. Scott is consistent. Sadly, consistently wrong! Of course, it follows logically that if his understanding of Jn 3:16 is correct, then God loved evil unbelievers, i.e. "non-Christians". However the two passages he cites above do not teach that God loved "non-Christians". This is very sloppy exegesis on his part and betrays his ignorance of the bible, as well!
While it is true that Jesus reconciled sinners to himself
in space and time, since He had to leave his eternal abode and enter into our temporal realm to save anyone by his death, burial and resurrection, it does not necessarily follow that God the Father also loved us (i.e. sinners) in space and time. Scott made twi fatal errors here.
First, the "us" in both passages is talking about believers. Neither John or Paul wrote their epistles to the world. They wrote their respective epistles to a specific target audience: John to "my dear children", "dear friends", etc. (1Jn 2:1, 7, etc.) and uses the pronouns we, us and you all throughout the epistle. And Paul wrote his epistle to those in "Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Rom 1:7), and likewise throughout his epistle used the personal pronouns we, us and you.
The fatal logical error to Mr. Scott's conclusion to item 6 is that he certainly appears to be conflating the salvific work of Christ in space and time with the Father's love for sinners, which scripture clearly teaches has its origin in
eternity! In other words, while Christ assuredly reconciled "[unbelieving] sinners" to his Father in temporal reality, this doesn't alter the fact that God sovereignly chose to love those "sinners" by identifying them with Christ in
eternity, so that in God's eyes those "sinners" were
always God's elect saints. God's eternal love, that motivated him to save a people for himself, has it source in eternity, whereas Christ's redemptive work on the cross could only be accomplished in time and space. Therefore, the upshot to all this is that God always loved his elect, not sinners because He chose his elect to be in Christ before the foundation of the world! Here are a few prooftexts:
Rom 8:28-30
29
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
NIV
And God did this "foreknowing" in eternity!
1 Cor 1:26-31
26
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 [b]It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.[/i] 31
Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
NIV
The "him" in v. 30 is God the Father! It is because of Him you saints are Christ. This is because the Father chose them to be his Christ in eternity -- not in space and time.
Eph 2:8
7
in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
NIV
God could love us and express his kindness to us strictly
on the merits of his Son's life and redemptive work on behalf of His elect. The Father expressed his kindness to his elect
in Christ Jesus. In other words, the only way God can love sinners is on the basis of God identifying them with his Son. In fact, God makes Jesus to be the Federal Head of all his elect, just as Adam is the federal head of all who die in him! This is precisely why in Rom 5:14. Adam is called a type of Christ -- a type strictly by contrasts!
2 Tim 1:9-10
9
who has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,
NIV
This is an utterly remarkable passage. Look at this passage very carefully:
"This grace was given us (saints!) in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.... In other words, it was given in ETERNITY! God always loved his people -- long before He created anything. Verse 10, now, makes a contrast starting off with "but". The grace that was given to God's chosen people in eternity was made manifest to God's elect in space and time through Christ's first advent! There is a similar passage along these lines that deals with Jacob and Esau and how God, long before the twins were born and did anything good or bad, had decided their eternal destiny (Rom 9:10-13).
This is where Mr. Scott fumbled the ball badly. In God's eyes, he loved his chosen ones in eternity solely on the merits of Christ's life and redemptive work on the cross on behalf of his Father's elect. God, in a real sense, never viewed them as "sinners", per se. He viewed his chosen ones as his sons and daughters
in Christ.
