Is It Biblical To Say That God Loves Everyone
In this brief clip from our 2017 National Conference, R.C. Sproul answers the question, Is it biblical to say that God loves everyone?
Transcript
“Often I hear the phrase ‘God loves you’ proclaimed to a group of people which may include both Christians and non-Christians. Is this biblical to say that phrase to just anyone?”
When we look at the concept of the love of God in Scripture, we see distinctions that have to be made. Historically and theologically we distinguish among three types of divine love. There is the love of benevolence, where God has a kind spirit to the whole world and His benevolent will, His benevolent love falls on everybody. But there’s also the sense in which in the Bible the love of God is defined in terms of God’s beneficence, that is that’s not just simply what His attitude is towards the world but how He displays that goodness universallythe rain falls upon the just as well as on the unjust. And so that universal dimension of the love of God is manifest but usually when we’re talking about the love of God in popular language, what were really talking about is what we call God’s love of complacency. And that term, the love of complacency, is not used in the way in which we use the term complacency in our age, in our culture. Our term of complacency means smugness, self-satisfaction, that sort of thing.
What Does The Bible Say About Loving Others
We have lost sight of love. No longer do we love others the way we should and this is a huge problem in Christianity. Were afraid to love others. There are many believers who need support from the body of Christ but the body has been blinded by selfishness. We say we want to love like how Christ loved but is it true? Im tired of words because love doesnt come from the mouth, it comes from the heart.
Love is not blind to what is going on. Love sees what other people do not see. God made a way even though He didnt have to make a way. Love moves like God even though it doesnt have to move. Love turns into action!
Love causes you to weep with others, sacrifice for others, forgive others, include others in your activities, etc. One of the most disturbing things that I have noticed in Christian churches today is that we have our own cliques.
Within the church we have made a reflection of the world. Theres the cool crowd and it circle that only wants to associate with certain people which reveals a heart of haughtiness. If this is you, then repent. When you realize Gods love for you, then you want to pour out that love upon others.
A loving heart seeks out those who need love. A loving heart is bold. It doesnt make excuses on why it cant love. If you ask for it God is going to put people in your life who need your love. Its time for a change. Allow the love of God to change you and compel you to make sacrifices.
Therefore We Ought To Love One Another
Ought implies obligation or commandment. That love can be commanded shows that it is not primarily a feeling, but rather an action based on commitment. As I said, love is not devoid of feeling, but it is not based on it. We must love others or we are being disobedient to God.
If everyone were easy to love, we wouldnt need this powerful example of Gods love or this strong exhortation to love one another. The world loves those that love them. But Jesus commands us to love even our enemies .
Implicit in what John is saying here is that we must love those who may not be especially lovable or easy to love. If I may speak hypothetically , you may have a mate that is self-centered and difficult to live with. John says, Beloved, if God so loved you, you also ought to love that difficult mate. There may be people in this church whom you do not like. John says, Beloved, if God so loved you, you also ought to love that difficult person. It is in these difficult situations that Gods amazing love in Christ shines forth in us. If youre having trouble loving someone, remember that God loved you while you were yet a sinner. He sent His Son to a world that is filled with sin. If you are His child through the new birth, then you must be the channel for His love to flow to those who may not be very lovable.
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What Does The Bible Say About Generosity
Sponsored child 11-year-old Rocio receives a package from her sponsor in Colomi, Bolivia.
World Vision helped a Rwandan community build a milk processing plant to buy surplus milk and sell it to the market. But the community decided to take it a step further. They began to generously give free milk to orphans to boost their health. The milk saved lives, including Mosess. Noel brought Moses to the milk center regularly after finding him starving on the side of the road. Today, the little boy is healthy and loved.
Church, community, and World Vision volunteers all generously give their time freely to unload and distribute relief supplies for victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas.
John Nalukobo, 74, is surrounded by the orphaned grandchildren he and his wife raise, plus one of the goats they were given from another family in the community. That family first received goats from a World Vision donor who purchased the animals through the Gift Catalog. Last year, John was also able to donate goats for another family in need. I was really excited because I was also helped, and I needed to help another family.
Fifth-grade teacher Susan Depascale, left, and special education para-educator Marianne Papastavaros hold boxes of school supplies in the World Vision Mobile Teacher Resource Center outside their school in Bridgeport, Conn. Women of Vision distributed school supplies to children at various schools in Bridgeport in October 2015.
You Could Never Earn Or Deserve The Love God Offers You
But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead.
You do not deserve Gods love. No one does. But the amazing news is that He loves you anyway.
This is grace: God loves you so much that He paid the price to offer you the gift of eternal life. None of us deserves it based on our own actions or how religious we think we are. Gods love is a precious gift we should treasure.
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Even When Things Seem Hopeless You Can Hope In God Because He Loves You
I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness His mercies begin afresh each morning.
Even if you are in the midst of a difficult time or are grieving a great loss, there is still reason for hope. Everything around you may feel like its falling apart. Everything inside of you may feel like its falling apart. But Gods love and mercy will never fail you.
Ask God to give you hope because of His never-ending love. Ask Him to fill you with His peace that is more powerful than all of the hard things in your life. Every day is a new opportunity to receive Gods mercy and love.
What Does The Bible Say About Loving Others Unconditionally
Love should be unconditional. These days love is a struggle. We dont love anymore. I abhor the conditional love that I am seeing today. This is one of the main reasons for high divorce rates. Love is superficial. Love is based upon finances, appearance, what can you do for me now, etc. Genuine love never ends. Genuine love will continue to love until death. Jesus love persevered through the hardship.
His love persevered for those who had nothing to offer Him! His love kept going even though His bride was messy. Could you ever picture Jesus saying, Im sorry but I fell out of love with you. I could never picture such a thing. You dont fall out of love. What is our excuse? We are to be imitators of Christ! Love should govern our lives. Is love leading you to go the extra mile like it led Christ to go the extra mile? Love has no stipulations. Examine yourself.
Has your love been conditional? Are you growing in selflessness? Are you growing in forgiveness or bitterness? Love restores a bad relationship. Love heals brokenness. Wasnt it the love of Christ that restored our relationship with the Father? Wasnt it the love of Christ that bandaged our brokenness and gave us an abundance of joy? Lets all learn to love with the love of Christ not expecting anything in return. Love should pursue reconciliation with all our strained relationships. Forgive much because you have been forgiven much.
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Jesus Love Is An Example Of What It Means To Sacrifice And Serve Others Out Of Love
Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him. … So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
On His last night with His disciples before He was crucified, Jesus emphasized loving others. He demonstrated what loving others looks like by washing His disciples feet.
Washing someones dirty feet may seem like a gross enough task today, but during that day, people wore sandals and walked most places. So their feet were much, much dirtier. Washing feet was usually the job of a lowly servant.
Later, one of Jesus final commands to His disciples was to love each other as He had loved them.
This passage begins by telling us Jesus knew He had all of Gods authority and power and would soon return to God in heaven. But He showed His disciples He loved them by stepping down from His position of power to take on the role of a lowly servant.
Loving others often requires being willing to step down from your position of power and serve.
Do You Know These Bible Verses About Loving Others Unconditionally
What does loving-kindness mean in the Bible? The Bible is full of references to Gods loving-kindness, or unconditional love. Not only does the Bible talk about how God loves us unconditionally, it tells us to love others Unconditionally!
John 6:35-37 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
But how do you love others unconditionally? Especially in the Church where we tend to see some of the worst most hypocritical behavior? The writer of Hebrews tells us that loving each other as Christians means living in a community.
Hebrews 10:24-25 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Scripture about loving others unconditionally calls Christians to be in community with each other.
Living in a community is a way to apply these Bible verses about acceptance of others! I found this out when going through a season of Grief.
Read more about what helps when you are grieving at Embracing The Unexpected.
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How To Love Others According To The Bible
The problem in Christianity today is that we dont know how to love. We have reduced love down to something that we say. Saying the words, I love you has become so cliche. Is it genuine? Does it come from the heart? Love is not love if the heart is not in it. We are to love without hypocrisy. Genuine love should lead us to humble ourselves and serve others. Love should lead us to talk to others. Loving others will lead to making sacrifices. Love should compel us to sacrifice time to genuinely get to know others.
Love should compel us to talk to the guy at church standing by himself. Love should compel us to include others in our conversation. Love should compel us to give more. To sum it up, even though love is not action, love will result in actions because a genuine loving heart compels us. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. As believers, we dont have to work for the love of God.
We dont have to work for our salvation. However, genuine faith produces works. Evidence of our faith in Christ alone is that we will obey. Evidence of our love is that we will go out of our way for those that we love. It could be something as simple as encouraging. It could be calling your family members more often and checking on them. It could be visiting your family and friends in the hospital or in jail.
12. Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
Bible Verses About Loving Others
Topics:Bible Verses
Loving others is one of the most prevalent themes in the New Testament, with Jesus proclaiming that the greatest two commandments are to love the Lord and to have love for others. And Bible verses about loving others make it clear that its essential to have love not only for our friends and family, but also for enemies and those we dislike.
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Gods Providential Love Over His Creation
Though the Bible largely refrains from using the word love in this connection, the theme is not hard to find. God creates everything, and before theres a whiff of sin he pronounces all hes made good . This is the product of a loving Creator. Jesus depicts a world in which God clothes the grass of the field with the glory of wildflowers seen by no human, perhaps, but seen by God.
The lion roars and hunts down prey, but God feeds it. The birds of the air find food, and not a sparrow falls apart from the sanction of the Almighty . If this were not a benevolent providence, a loving providence, then the moral lesson Jesus drives homethat this God can be trusted to provide for his peoplewould be incoherent.
Christian Quotes About Loving Others
Dont wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly lead the way!
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.
Love others so radically they wonder why.
We love others best when we love God most.
Be so busy loving God, loving others, and loving your life that you have no time for regret, worry, fear, or drama.
Love people the way Jesus loves you.
Love God and He will enable you to love others even when they disappoint you.
Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor act as if you did. C.S. Lewis
Run after the hurting, go after the broken, the addicted, those that have messed up, that society has written off. Go after them with love, with mercy, with the goodness of God.
Being loving is at the heart of the Christian message, as through loving others, we show our faith.
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God Chose To Adopt You Because He Loves You
God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.
You can have a child by accident, but you cannot adopt a child by accident. When you adopt a child, you choose to love, cherish and care for that child for life. When God adopts you, its not an accident. He chooses to love, cherish and care for you forever. He does it because He loves you and wants an eternal relationship with you.
God loves His children as a proud Father. If you have begun a relationship with Him, you are Gods child and He delights in you.
Take a minute to think about how the God of the entire universe loves you personally and chose you to be His child.
Are Christians Supposed To Love Everyone
Galatians 5:22-23 lists characteristics of genuine Christians. These characteristics are called the fruit of the Spirit, and the first fruit mentioned is love. Furthermore, several of the other fruit of the Spirit longsuffering , kindness, goodness, and gentleness also reflect love.
In regard to the primary question posed by this article, we will address two basic matters:
- Should Christians love people in addition to their family and friends?
- Should Christians love even their enemies?
Should Christians Love People in Addition to their Family and Friends?
First, we will consider what Jesus Christ said about loving others.
Matthew 22:37-40 records Jesus Christs response to the question, hich is the great commandment in the law? In doing so, Jesus paraphrases scriptures from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament, as follows:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
This response by Jesus Christ leaves no doubt that He regards love for other people as second in importance only to love for God.
The Apostle Paul also stressed the importance of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-6, 13, he declares,
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
Should Christians Love Even Their Enemies?
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