A prevalent misconception in the evangelical church today is the teaching that God loves all people in the same way. Proponents of this view often quote the ever popular John 3:16, placing added emphasis on the universal term: "For God so loved the WORLD, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." However, does the term "world" or kosmos in the Greek mean "every single individual who ever lived, without exception" as most evangelicals claim? Let it first be noted that the term "kosmos" has at least seven distinguishable definitions within the New Testament. With that in mind, consider the words of the late scholar and teacher A.W. Pink:
Yet, if anyone will take a Concordance and read carefully the various passages in which the term "world" (as a translation of "kosmos") occurs, he will quickly perceive that to ascertain the precise meaning of, the word "world" in any given passage is not nearly so easy as is popularly supposed. The word "kosmos," and its English equivalent "world," is not used with a uniform significance in the New Testament. Very far from it. It is used in quite a number of different ways. -"The Meaning of 'KOSMOS' in John 3:16", A.W. Pink
Pink then proceeds to unpack those seven different meanings. Unlike most evangelicals today, Pink is actually concerned with being lexically faithful to the Greek in John 3:16. The problem with preachers in the church today is not so much that they are propagating straightforward lies (though in some cases they are), but that they are presenting an assortment of "half-truths." They are not preaching the "whole counsel of God" as Paul did in Ephesus (see Acts 20:27ff). God does have a general good will towards all his creation (Matthew 5:45; Luke 6:27-36). This is called common grace. However, God has a special, distinguishing love for the church (Ephesians 1:4ff; Romans 9:6ff). This is God's special grace. God has a salvific love for the ones he foreknew in eternity past. The distinction between this love and his general goodwill to all of creation is that it guarantees and secures the salvation of all the elect (Romans 8:29).
To which an objector may reply, "That's not fair! God cannot go about loving some and not loving others!" First, I will answer with a short, but needed response. God is obligated to no man but does whatever pleases him (Psalm 115:3, 135:6; Daniel 4:35; Romans 9:21, 11:34-36). The main problem with this kind of objection is that it presupposes that God is obligated to save sinners. However, God is not bound by any such stipulation. Instead, Ephesians tells us that it is because of God's rich mercy and unconstrained love that he chooses to save some (Eph. 2:4). Therefore, God has every right to love some and not others. This is the very logic behind Paul's analogy of the potter and the clay in Romans 9. A potter has every right to make some vessels for destruction and others for life, and so in the same way, God has every right to make some humans to be recipients of his saving love and others to be recipients of his damning wrath. Though some reject the notion that God has hatred towards any human, the Scripture clearly teaches otherwise (Psalm 5:5; Malachi 1:3; Romans 9:13).
It is interesting to note that the same evangelicals who object to God having a distinguishing love for his people whom he foreknew from eternity past (Ephesians 1:4ff; Romans 8:29, 9:6ff) have no objection to this kind of love existing among humans. After all, which of these evangelicals would ever claim to love criminals, strangers, or even their most friendly neighbors in the same manner that they love their own children? Such a practice if ever performed would be deemed neurotic, demented even and rightly so. Yet, if we are truly to be imitators of God as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:1, then such a view of God as having only one kind of universal love would lead us to conclude that we should do the same. The thought itself borders on absurdity.
Praise God that he is no less than his creatures and he is capable of having a particular, distinguishing love for his own! Soli deo gloria!
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