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Dr. Robert A. Morey addresses the question if God does indeed love everyone. He also gives an exposition on how it is not Biblical to say that God “loves the sinner but hates the sin”, which to my knowledge is a saying coined by Mahatma Gandhi and is not found in the Bible at all.
Is there anywhere in the Bible where God specifically said that He loves someone but hates another? Is the concept of election or pre-destination Biblical?
What’s your opinion?
We are all taught that God is love, and that’s all we seem to hear very often nowadays, from the pulpits down to bumper stickers. Yet, very few people remember to remind themselves that above all, God is holy!
Oh, we all get that fuzzy feeling that God loves us despite of all our shortcomings, but that’s a dangerous road because that leads to us continuing to sin while the back of your mind tells you that if you confess, God shall forgive.
Because, top and foremost, God absolutely hates sin because He is holy! And if you cannot grasp this concept, and put it above all the bumper sticker messages of “God is love” or “God loves you”, then you will never ever be able to follow the Apostle Peter’s exhortation to be holy as our God is holy.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:14-16
To start off, do you know how much God hates sin? Let me just give you some examples.
Someone once remarked that it’s harder to hate a person than to love someone.
Because hate requires you to constantly expend energy directing anger and disgust at the subject. When you hate a person, you find ways to make the person’s life miserable, and this can sap your energy that might have been better spent on doing more constructive things for yourself and others around you.
In other words, hate is a destructive form of energy.
Today we find it easy to hate someone or an ideology or a group of people without giving it any second thought, but find it difficult to bring ourselves to lay down that burden that hate is and show them love.
Our human nature tells us to hit back at whoever is hitting us, and to hate with equal force those that have made themselves our enemies.
One of the most asked questions when I used to be a road-side witness with my youth group eons ago was “Huh? You mean it’s so simple!?”.
They were responding to, of course, the fact that it was easy to become a Christian — say a simple prayer admitting that one is a sinner, invite Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and end off with “amen”.
Some people were flabbergasted that it was that easy to become a Christian, and sometimes I feel that it is this ease that cause many to stray or leave the faith just a short while later.
Thoughts on faith and the Christian life of a Calvinist addicted to coffee and who loves to cook on his days off. This blog is rated “R” for REFORMED.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.
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