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Question

There are some who teach that God loves only His elect and hates the non-elect. Please comment.

Answer

The fact that some sinners are not elected to salvation is no proof that God’s attitude toward them is utterly devoid of sincere love. We know from Scripture that God is compassionate, kind, generous, and good even to the most stubborn sinners. Who can deny that these mercies flow out of God’s boundless love? Yet it is evident that they are showered even on unrepentant sinners.

I want to acknowledge, however, that explaining God’s love toward the reprobate is not as simple as most modern evangelicals want to make it. Clearly there is a sense in which the psalmist’s expression, “I hate the assembly of evildoers” (Ps. 26:5) is a reflection of the mind of God. “Do I not hate those who hate Thee, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against Thee? I hate them with the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22). Such hatred as the psalmist expressed is a virtue, and we have every reason to conclude that it is a hatred God Himself shares. After all, He did say, “I have hated Esau” (Mal. 1:3; Rom. 9:13). The context reveals God was speaking of a whole race of wicked people. So there is a true and real sense in which Scripture teaches that God hates the wicked.

So an important distinction must be made. God loves believers with a particular love. It is a family love, the ultimate love of an eternal Father for His children. It is the consummate love of a Bridegroom for His bride. It is an eternal love that guarantees their salvation from sin and its ghastly penalty. That special love is reserved for believers alone.

However, limiting this saving, everlasting love to His chosen ones does not render God’s compassion, mercy, goodness, and love for the rest of mankind insincere or meaningless. When God invites sinners to repent and receive forgiveness (Isa. 1:18; Matt. 11:28-30), His pleading is from a sincere heart of genuine love. “‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezek. 33:11). Clearly God does love even those who spurn His tender mercy, but it is a different quality of love, and different in degree from His love for His own.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

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From Amazon.com:

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

If this is how God loves...., December 8, 2003

Reviewer:

Seth Aaron Lowry (Olean, NY United States) - See all my reviews

then God is not omni benevolent. This book is nothing more than MacArthur's attempt to have his cake and eat it too. On the one hand he wants to uphold the traditional Reformed idea that God has an elected people that He loves with a special and unconditional love. Yet, on the other hand MacArthur wants to believe that God loves the non-elect as well. MacArthur argues for this by saying that God possesses two types of love: a general and non-saving love, which he gives to all, and a special and saving love He displays only towards the elect. In my opinion there seems to be a disturbing trend taking place in Reformed apologetics these days. Since they can't conform all of Scripture to their teachings, they invent new ideas and doctrines to attempt to compensate for those deficiencies and weaknesses. First, many have begun to argue for the concept that God has two wills, and that God's desire to save all men only pertains to God's first will, which is really not salvific at all. This has been in direct response to criticisms that have demonstrated that the usual Calvinist approach of saying all men means all types of men is not satisfactory and does not make sense of all the Scriptures.

Now MacArthur has added another element to the argument by saying that God has two types of love. Does anyone else see the pattern here? First God has two wills and now he commands two types of love as well. I can understand MacArthur's reasoning for writing this book since he desires to stem the tide of young and zealous Reformed initiates who argue that God does not love the reprobate, but in fact hates them. They argue for this from Scripture passages such as Romans 9:13, which they believe validates the idea that God hates the non-elect. Yet, instead of accepting the obvious MacArthur has chosen to develop his own unique and unhistorical idea. When the Scripture speaks of God's love for all mankind it always uses the Greek word agape and never gives any hint of a differentiation. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus loved the rich young ruler even though he didn't accept Christ's message. Are we honestly supposed to believe that the agape spoken of there is some ulterior form of love? I and many others do not believe that to be the case. Moreover, Jesus commands us to love our enemies and do well to those who hate and despise us. Is God calling us to do something that He Himself will not do? Again, I seriously doubt this is the case

Finally, I found many of MacArthur's arguments to be unconvincing. He says that he is willing to accept God's love for the non-elect as a love that is calling them to repentance, giving them sufficient grace, and showering them with earthly blessings, but his argument breaks down when one examines his beliefs. Since MarArthur holds to the traditional Reformed idea of Total Depravity, he believes men are corpses are sin, completely unresponsive, oblivious to the things of God, and unable to do a thing. Now, I wouldn't walk up to a corpse tell him I love him and plead with him to repent because that is just ludicrous. Therefore, I doubt the all-wise omnipotent ruler of the universe would do the same to men that are dead in sin since He is infinitely smarter than humans and knows this will accomplish nothing. MacArthur's view of total depravity completely undercuts his arguments for God's love. If you are really serious about studying and understanding God's love for all of us, then read the Bible and only pick up this book after previous study.