Does God only love Christians?
Does this question even need to be asked? Unfortunately, yes, because there is an impression out there that that He does. I encounter it in innuendo and assumption. I used to encounter it in myself and the attitudes caught from a strongly Pharisaical upbringing, and I have found it to be an attitude that is hard to get rid of.
The way this usually works out is that God doesn’t love anyone I don’t love, and the human inclination is to not love anyone who is not like me. That makes God’s love an extension of myself, instead of the way it should be, with me as an extension of God and His love. I have much to learn about God’s love. God is love; I am not. I am the one who needs to change. I am the one who needs to learn to love like God.
“God is love” (1 John 4:16), says John. God is synonymous with love. How could God not love His entire creation? It is His nature to love.
“God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16).
The tragedy of God’s love is that it is not universally received. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). What a tragedy. Do you think God feels that tragedy? Personally, I think that is why the prophet Isaiah called Him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He wanted to gather everyone up and bring them to Himself, but they would not all come.
How is it that God being God would create a world where His love was limited by the free will of those He created, making Him appear helpless to do anything about those who would reject Him? I honestly do not know how this works, but I do know God feels these feelings because He has expressed them in the inspired scriptures handed down to us.
My point today is not to enter into a theological debate over this, because that is where these discussions often lead, but to capture some of the nature of God in His love for us and suggest that we should at least share in these same attitudes and emotions, primarily that we should be governed more by the tragedy of those who reject God’s love than in their judgment or their wrong doing.
Do we weep or do we condemn? If you ever catch yourself shaking your head in judgment and condemnation, stop. Stop judging and weep instead. That’s what God did, and He even has the right to judge (and will someday). The cross has put that judgment aside so that He can love. Can we do any less?
So if you love like God, you will love and hurt at the same time.
John Fischer The Catch 
Great article, John. Thanks!
Oh, wow — this got me: ” … the human inclination is to not love anyone who is not like me. That makes God’s love an extension of myself, instead of the way it should be, with me as an extension of God and His love. I have much to learn about God’s love. God is love; I am not. I am the one who needs to change. I am the one who needs to learn to love like God.”
So true, and it is something that I needed to hear! Thank you!
You’re welcome.
Still learning (sometimes barely off the ground!)
Thank you very much for this.
I’m not interested, either, in debating what God’s sovereignty means; still not sure what I believe about that, anyway. But I’m very interested in this: “That makes God’s love an extension of myself, instead of the way it should be, with me as an extension of God and His love.” That’s very thought-provoking, John. Like Catherine, that hit home. We ARE supposed to be agents of His love, aren’t we?
Oh yes, the pain of rejection. It tears up our tiny little dusty hearts. Imagine what it must do to His eternal cosmic one. Where I get it wrong is that I feel anger along with the pain of rejection. Mad + sad = smad. It really stinks to be misunderstood, especially by someone you love deeply, who knows you, and probably ought to know better, and my anger leads to judgement. Not good. Rather than using MY words to plead, cajole, explain, resolve or heal this relationship, I’m learning to keep my mouth shut, pray, hold onto Jesus’ hand and wait patiently (I can do this when I hold his hand) for him to make it alright. But we’re both still crying.
Well I’m smad with you!
Thank you very much Mr. John Fischer. Thank you for allowing the LORD to use your vessel very mightily. It truly gives you a moment of pause to meditate on how GOD loves us the way HE does and HE teaches us to love the way HE does. You have given us through, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, a charge to keep and meditate on Love and loving the right way. We have to love in spite of pain, rejection, or hurt. GOD loves us in spite of ourselves, no matter what we have done to HIM, HE continues to loves us and HE expects the same from all of us. Continue to let the LORD use you and continue to trust HIM, even when you don’t always understand what HE is doing. You are truly a inspiration to all of us who follow your Catches. I am inspired every time I read your Catches, when GOD leads me to, and I have followed you for years. You are a great man of GOD; remember that and trust GOD even when it doesn’t make sense.
Excellent.
“…we should be governed more by the tragedy of those who reject God’s love than in their judgment or their wrong doing.”
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