Universal Love

Modern-day evangelicals like to stress the fact the God "loves" everyone. The only verse they can use and I mean misuse is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that...." Don't they know that there are seven meanings to the world or cosmos in the New Testament? In the very next verse, it is obvious that God isn't planning on saving everyone: "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

There are several verses that indicate that God "hates" individuals: Ps. 5:5 and Ps. 11:5 say that God "hates the wicked." In Romans and Malachi, it says that God hated Esau. Now they say that "hate" just means "reject" but if this is so why does God reject those he loves. On the judgment day, Christ will say, "I never knew you, depart from me...." Note that it is not that he used to know them, but that he never knew them. "For whom the Lord foreknew he predestined..." (Rom. 8:29). This word for foreknow means to know in a loving way.

I don't go around telling people that Jesus loves them as if that is the key message because I only believe it confirms them in their sin and they lose respect for God as their judge. "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him" (Psa. 103:11). "I love those who love me..." (Prov. 8:17). If God does indeed love everyone it is only in a very narrow way of "caring" for his creatures as Psa. 145:9 says that God "[is] good to everyone, and takes care of his creation." This is called "common grace" and God does make the rain to fall on the unjust as well as the just as we well know.  Soli Deo Gloria!