{"id":621,"date":"2011-10-16T19:34:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T01:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michel2010.name\/blog\/?p=621"},"modified":"2011-10-16T19:34:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T01:34:30","slug":"does-god-love-unbelievers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/2011\/10\/16\/does-god-love-unbelievers\/","title":{"rendered":"Does God Love Unbelievers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have heard from several different people over the past couple years that God only loves people He has saved. My knee jerk reaction was, \u201cThat is ridiculous, God loves every one.\u201d My response was what it was because that is how I’ve been raised. I’ve always been taught that God loves every one. So that begs the question, does the Bible say God only loves believers? Now I admit I cannot remember the verses that were used to back up the assertion that God doesn’t love unbelievers, however I have found a few verses that state He does love those who are not saved.\u00a0 (Yes, it is quite possible that I’m simply biased, and I’m only finding what I was raised\/taught to find.\u00a0 I leave you to be the judge of that.)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, it doesn’t say love, however \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cmercy\u201d are a part of love and those are both applied to all that He has made.<\/span><\/p>\n

Romans 5:8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While we were sinners, Christ died for us, and what did that show? God’s love. While we were sinners Christ died to show God’s love.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 5:43-48 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Part of God’s perfection is loving His enemies. It is something Christ commands us to do, and then holds up God as the example. <\/span><\/p>\n

Luke 19:41-42 And when he [Jesus] drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, \u201cWould that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Again, it doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus loved the people in the city, but you do not weep over those you hate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Luke 23:34 And Jesus said, \u201cFather, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

No it doesn’t say he loved them, but do you make entreaties for those whom you do not love? <\/span><\/p>\n

Anyways those are some of the reasons I believe that God loves every one, including people who do not believe in Him. I would love some feed back. If you think I’ve taken something out of context please let me know. If you know the verses that assert that God doesn’t love unbelievers let me know that as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have heard from several different people over the past couple years that God only loves people He has saved. My knee jerk reaction was, \u201cThat is ridiculous, God loves every one.\u201d My response was what it was because that is how I’ve been raised. I’ve always been taught that God loves every one. So … Continue reading “Does God Love Unbelievers?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.michel2010.name\/eric\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}