It’s easy to reflect upon the popular cultures understanding of God as Love and find it hard to comprehend of a God who hates. Popular Christian culture teaches us that God is Love and adds to this God loves everyone. The most frequented bible passage cited to support this claim is:
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (NASB95)
It seems clear from this passage that God loves everyone. This is sadly not what the passage teaches. In fact there is no passage in the Bible which qualifies as a direct statement of universal love for all people in the world. If we read the entire context of the passage above we also read this:
John 3:14-21
14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. (NASB95)
There is a fine line here. God so loved the COSMOS, that is creation, more commonly called the world. Today we might say the universe, but in a personal message, the universe only applies as far as we can ascertain it. That is, in that we are able to measure and experience it, share it and live in it. In this context the giving of His son bares far more than mere reflection upon the people of the creation, or the COSMOS.
There is also the solemn reflection of not only those spoken of as he who does not believe, as being judged already, that is condemned. The grammar here is in the perfect present tense, reflecting upon and integrating with the idea of the creation as a state of being which has no end. Those who believe, the converted, the elect, these are and always will be free from judgment and the condemnation of God. Those who do not believe, are judged and condemned already from the beginning, they were known and created as such and will remain as such until always. (Romans 9)
(More is coming)
