Does God Love Everybody?
Modern Evangelical Christian belief is full of teachings and assumptions that God loves every individual. “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin” we are told. But is this idea biblical? Is it true that God loves every individual on earth today? Or every individual who has ever existed in history? Is God merely disappointed that some reject him even in the face of his love for them?
Yes and No
The short answer to the question, “Does God love everyone?” is an emphatic “Yes and no.” As far as the “yes,” the Bible is clear that God’s common grace extends to everyone. “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). “Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). The Psalmist is perhaps most explicit when he writes “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made” (Ps 145:9).
Does this “mercy” that God has for all his creation constitute what we moderns understand to be love? In other words, does God love those that exist in consistent and perpetual denial and hatred of him in the same way that he loves those that turn to him and repent? The biblical answer to that question must be '“no.”
All it would take to establish this truth (that God does not love everyone) is to show one counterexample in scripture. If God doesn’t love (or hates) even one individual, then he doesn’t and can’t love everyone as is commonly assumed. Luckily, we don’t have to depend on one obscure scriptural text to establish such an example, as there are several.
Malachi 1 and Romans 9
The first such example comes first from the Old Testament book of Malachi. In establishing God’s particular love for the nation of Israel, the prophet Malachi notes that Jacob (the father of all Israel) and Esau were brothers, yet it was Jacob that God loved and not Esau. “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated” (Mal 1:2-3). Paul takes up this argument in the New Testament as he is discussing his lament that some individual Israelites persisted in unrepentance while some Gentiles were repenting and believing. How could this be so at an individual level? Well, it is apparent that some individuals are chosen, and some are not. But they are not chosen based on anything they do. “Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad - in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls - she (Jacob and Esau’s mother, Rebekah) was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated’” (Rom 9:11-13). (To stress the point that Paul’s intent is to show God’s sovereign election and love (and hatred) of certain individuals and not just nations, he goes on to discuss the individual of Pharaoh and how God raised him to destroy him and make his glory known.)
Thus, here we have an example of one (or possibly two, if we include Pharaoh) individual who God “hates.” Some, noticing that such hatred does not fit with the popular narrative in evangelicalism today, have posited that this is not true hatred, but rather just a “loving less.” In other words, when God says he “hates Esau,” he really means that he just loved Esau less than Jacob. This, they argue, is akin to Jesus saying, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26). Of course, Jesus cannot contradict the Word of God which explicitly states one must honor one’s mother and father, so this “hatred” must be relative hyperbole. Therefore, God must “hate” Esau in the same way. And, if this were our only example of God’s hatred toward individuals, that might be where we would feel compelled to land. But that’s not all the Bible has to say.
Psalms 5 and 11
Two of the more explicit passages that help answer our question come from the Psalms. In Psalm 5 we read, “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Ps 5:5). Furthermore, Psalm 11 says, “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Ps 11:5). This is unambiguous language that destroys the notion that “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” No. Emphatically, No. God hates sinners. He abhors them. They are objects of his wrath.
In fact, we were all once in this position. “We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:3). All of us has sinned. All of us has gone astray (Eccl 7:20; Rom 3:23; 1 Jn 1:8). As sinners, we were all objects of God’s wrath, just like everyone else. This is actually a very important point in the gospel. The Apostle Paul pointed out that a person might dare to die for a righteous and good person, but Christ did something radically different. “God shows his love for us (believers) in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In a very real sense, Christ did not die for those he loved. He died for his enemies, objects of his wrath. This is powerful stuff.
As a side note, it’s also logically necessary that God hates sinners. He is perfectly righteous and just. He cannot simply turn the other way when someone commits evil. He must execute justice, and justice is not executed against a crime, but a criminal. It is the individual who is subject to wrath and retribution, not the individual’s actions. This is why the person of Christ has to suffer and be crucified. It makes no sense to say that only Christ’s sin was crucified and not his person. In the same way, it makes no sense to say that God loves the sinner, but hates merely the sin.
Israel and the Church
The truth of scripture is that, every time God is said to “love” or “know” a person or a people group, he is loving or knowing either Israel in the Old Testament or the Church in the New. God says to Israel, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). Does this mean that God isn’t aware or know of the Egyptians or other foreign nations and individuals of that time? Of course not! Such “knowing” refers to being loved in a particular way by God. In the same way, Paul notes that “those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). And the time will come when some will approach Jesus who are not known by him: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matt 7:22-23).
Those who are known in this way are loved by God. Those who are not, are not.
But aren’t we supposed to love our enemies?
Absolutely! We are commanded by our Lord repeatedly to love our enemies to do good to those who hate us (Matt 5:43-48; Lk 6:27). We are to pray for our enemies and turn the other cheek. But does this necessarily mean that God loves those enemies? Once again, Paul gives us a peek behind the curtain of how God uses our love for our enemies. It may be that our persistent loving kindness leads some to repentance, which is of course a wonderful thing! But in the event that they persist in unrepentance, Paul paints a different picture: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head" (Rom 12:20). In other words, in God’s providence, there are times when us loving our enemies is God’s way of maximizing the wrath they will ultimately receive, thereby maximizing his own glory.