True Christians know that the God of the Bible is a God of love. Any Christian who does not accept or believe this is simply not familiar with what the Bible teaches on the subject. No one with even a reasonable knowledge of Scripture can deny that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is a God of love. For this reason, God is patient and desires that people be saved.
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (Emphasis added).
The word “world” includes all people and certainly does not exclude sinners. Jesus says precisely this in Mark 2:17:
Mark 2:17: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (See also Matthew 9:12 and Luke 5:31 in this regard.)
The God of the Bible hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and therefore He sends Jesus so that there may be salvation for them:
1 Timothy 2:3–4: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
This love of God, and His patience with sinful humanity, is further confirmed in:
2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”
The God of love desires to bless all people. For this reason He already promised Abraham in
Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.“
Yahweh loves the human beings He created, even though they fell under the power of sin through their disobedience. With endless patience He launched His plan of redemption through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel, so that salvation might be available to all through Jesus Christ. No human being has ever deserved God’s love, yet He loved us first.
1 John 4:10: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:19: “We love him, because he first loved us.”
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Emphasis added).
God does not merely love – He is love. 1 John 4:8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” and 1 John 4:16: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (Emphasis added). Yahweh does nothing that is unloving. All His actions are loving meaning, at least, benevolent. This means willing and doing what is good. Even God’s judgments are benevolent, including toward those who ultimately reject His love. Because He is just, God acts for the good of His entire creation and for those who accept His saving work in Christ and are reconciled to Him. He often acts to prevent people from bringing even greater judgment upon themselves. Pain and suffering in this world are not necessarily God’s punishment; they are most often the consequences of sin—either one’s own sin or the sin of others.
God’s law is therefore love: Leviticus 19:18: “but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (See also Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30-31 and Luke 10:27)
Matthew 22:37–39: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38“This is the first and great commandment. 39“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (see also Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:30–31; Luke 10:27)
This is God’s law – His command – that one must always act in love (care and goodwill) toward God and toward one’s neighbour. Any unloving action toward God or neighbour is a violation of God’s command, His law. One’s neighbour is one’s fellow human being, every person with whom one comes into contact, including one’s enemies. Acting in love (care and goodwill) toward someone means doing everything possible for his or her benefit, and nothing for his or her harm. It is obvious that if all people lived this way, no one would be wronged and God would always be honoured. The motive behind such a law is clearly love. If everyone lived accordingly, the law would be fulfilled and all would flourish.
This love is not a feeling or emotion. It is a choice to show care and goodwill toward someone despite how one feels about them. It includes everyone – strangers as well as enemies. This command confirms the love of God:
Leviticus 19:34: “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself;”
Deuteronomy 10:19: “Therefore love the stranger,”
Matthew 5:44 & Luke 6:27: “Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you.”
Proverbs 25:21: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;”
Romans 12:14: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
1 Peter 3:9: “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;”
There are a few texts in the Bible that may, at first glance, appear to suggest that God hates certain people – for example Malachi 1:2–3: “I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau,”.
The word “hate” here is used in the sense of “I regard one more highly than the other,” or “I prefer one above the other,” and the reason is obvious. God is all-knowing and always knew that Esau would become His enemy. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary, the expression was also used in Old Testament times when a person preferred one wife or child above the other. In such cases it was said: “I love the one and hate the other.”
Another example is Jesus’ statement in Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” The word translated “hate” cannot mean lovelessness, because this is the same Jesus who repeatedly taught that one must love one’s neighbour – even one’s enemy – as oneself. Linguists note that the word can also mean “to regard less,” “to esteem less,” or “to love less.”
It is clear that the God of the Bible loves all people – not because they deserve His love, but because He is love. It is His very nature. When God’s love is persistently rejected, His wrath is indeed stirred. Yet it must be understood that when God commanded the destruction of certain peoples in the Old Testament, it was not because they did not worship Him, but because they posed a threat to His plan of redemption for humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of the Bible is serious about love toward others, and this includes strangers – people of other cultures who live and think differently from oneself. This is further evidence that when God commanded the destruction of certain nations, it was because there was no other option. He loved them and would have preferred to spare them if there had been any hope of salvation for any among them. The God of the Bible says in Ezekiel 18:32:
“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!“
How is a true Christian recognized? Jesus Himself gives the answer in John 13:35:
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.“
But what is sin, and how is it punished and forgiven?