by Robert Robertson

Created on: January 12, 2009

Does God Love everyone equally?

We cannot answer this question without first defining the term god. Two different people may and probably do have a different definition of god. One definition of god may include that fact that god loves everyone equally and another one might claim the opposite. For the purpose of the article we will use the eternal, self-existent God of the Christian and Jewish Scriptures; Yahweh (Exodus 3:4), The Ancient of Days (Daniel 7), the triune God, God the Father, God the Son God the Holy Spirit.

We will not address the definition of love for 2 reasons. 1. We can assume that most people have the same or very similar definitions of the term. 2. We do not have the space here to define the term. Now that we have our definition of God, we can address the question of whether God loves some more than others.

Yes God does love some more than others.

The account of Jacob and Esau in Genesis (Chapters 25-35) gives us our first example of God's love between 2 different individuals. Rebekah was told by God that the older would serve the younger. The prophet Malachi records these words of our Lord, "I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob" (Malachi 1:2 ESV). The apostle Paul tells us "As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:13). There is much debate on the meaning of the word hated. It is usually defined as "hated" or "loved less". Whatever the meaning, it clearly shows that God does love Jacob more than Esau.

What did Christ Jesus have to say on this topic? "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" (Luke 14:26 ESV). Remember the fourth commandment tells us to honor our father and mother. Our Lord's appointed apostle to the Gentiles command a husband and wife to serve each other (Ephesians 5). Jesus is telling us to hate our family members and even our own life. If our Lord and savior is telling us to hate our fathers and mothers, can He, who is God, love everyone equally?

In Leviticus 26:30 God says "and my soul will abhor you." When God abhors you, He cannot love you like he loves others. I submit that he hates you. If you look abhor up in a thesaurus you will find the word hate. The book of Psalms has many references to hate.

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