BiblicalInsights.net

Does God love everyone the same?  This question deserves some serious thought.  Is there any difference in God’s love for the world (John 3:16) and His love for His people (John 14:21-24)?  In John 3:16 and Rom. 5:8-9, the Scriptures teach God’s love for sinners.  But, God’s love for sinners does not save sinners if they do not love God and believe on His Son, Jesus Christ.
God’s Love For the World                                                                                                                                           God’s love for the world is manifested in that He:  (1) Sends the sunshine and the rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:44-49).  (2) Sent Jesus into the world to die for the redemption of mankind (John 3:16).  Both reveal the general and unconditional aspect of God’s love.  God’s love is God seeking the highest good of each person by providing the essential things necessary to sustain physical life (creation) and to save man from the consequences of sin (redemption).  Just because God loves people in the world and has demonstrated His love in sending His Son to die in their behalf to obtain the means of atonement, does not mean that people love Him back.  Many do not love God.  Many do not believe in God nor heed His commandments.  In John 3:16, unbelievers will perish (eternal destruction, Matt. 25:46) even though God loved them, they will face His wrath.
God’s Love for His Children
God’s special love for His children is conditional.  Consider the words of Jesus in John 14:21-23, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”
God loves those that love His Son, “he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father.”
We love Jesus by keeping His commandments (become His disciples or in other words a New Testament Christian).
Obedience to Jesus wins God’s love.
God fellowships those that love Him and His Son, Jesus Christ.  Notice, the world is not in fellowship with God because of unbelief.  Unbelief and disobedience are connected.  Lovelessness and disobedience are connected.  God does not fellowship unbelievers or the disobedient.
God has a special love, a covenantal love, for His people.  This is God’s lovingkindness toward those who love and obey His Son.
God is Father spiritually only to those in covenant relationship with Him.  Gal. 3:26-27; I John 3:1-2.  “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27).
God’s promises and spiritual blessings belong to His people (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:3).  All spiritual blessings are in Christ and so, outside of Christ there are no spiritual blessings and no hope of eternal life (Rom. 6:23; Mark 16:16).
Summary
Those who love God win God’s special love (covenantal love).  Those who love Jesus Christ win God’s special love.  Those who are obedient to Christ win God’s special love.  God loves His people with a special love that He does not love the world with.  Consequently, God loves the world in a different way and in a different sense than He loves His children.  God is in intimate fellowship with His people whereas He is not in fellowship with the wicked of this world.

Before Jesus launched His public ministry, He appears to John the Baptist to request baptism by John.  Jesus recognized John as a prophet from God and knew that his message was from God.   Jesus complied with John’s baptism and was immersed in the Jordan River.  Why?
Personal Purpose.                                                                           Jesus’ mission was “to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:7).  Jesus was sinless and therefore, did not need to repent or be baptized for the remission of sins–both of which were aspects of John’s baptism (Mark 1:4).  However, positive conformity to God’s Will was most certainly required by Jesus.  Jesus publicly declares by His baptism His resolve to fully surrender His will to God’s will.  Had he not been baptized, He would have fallen into the same camp as the Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected John’s preaching and thus rejected God (Luke 7:30).  Later, Jesus rebukes them for this rejection (Matt. 21:25).
Paramount Principle
“And Jesus answering said unto him, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).  Righteousness is right conduct based upon God’s Word.  John’s baptism was from heaven (authorized by God, Matt. 21:25).  When the Pharisees and Sadducees rejected John’s baptism, they rejected the counsel of God against themselves (Luke 7:30). These Jewish leaders would not repent.  They would not obey John’s preaching.  They would not obey God.  They acted against their own spiritual welfare.  They violated the sacred principle that Jesus spoke and upheld.  This principle must guide every person today.  We must understand that we are amenable to the authority of God.  We must comply with all of His will for our lives or be in transgression of that will.  Transgression of the will of God is sin (I John 3:4).  There are no excuses for not obeying God.  There are no exemptions from obeying God.  Even Jesus Himself, who was without sin (Heb. 4:15; I Pet. 2:22) complied with all of God’s Will.  If anyone could or would have been exempt, it would have been Him.
Perpetual Pattern
Doing all that God instructs us to do is a powerful ethic for pleasing God and living a disciplined life as a Christian.  All of the evil in the world is the result of a departure from doing God’s Will! No excuse is good enough for disobedience to God.  No one is exempt from obeying God.  Jesus’ obedience to God’s Will is a perpetual pattern for all who would follow Him.  We must walk in His steps (I Pet. 2:21).  In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded His disciples to teach men to obey all of His commands (Matt. 28:18-20).  One of those commands is to be baptized (Mark 16:15-16).  Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned.”  It is perilous to the soul to disobey the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The call to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins is a legitimate part of the gospel.  Peter proclaimed this message on the day of Pentecost and three thousand souls obeyed it (Acts 2:38-41).  Respect for the principle Jesus uttered at His baptism is essential for our salvation.  Will you follow Jesus?

Love (agape) is a choice.  Without choice, there is no love.  Love thrives in freedom. Love is a principle.  It may be defined as: “undefeatable, benevolent, goodwill.”  Love involves seeking the highest good of another.  Love is often commanded in God’s word and touches every relationship including our relationship with God.  Love is a principle that we will ourselves to follow.  It requires human volition to pursue.

The Example of Jesus
In John 10:17-18, Jesus said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  No man taketh it from me, but I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father.”  Jesus was given a commandment from the Father that involved the sacrifice of His life for the redemption of mankind.  Jesus freely gave His life for us.  He was not coerced or forced to sacrifice His life.  He freely gave it as an act of love.  “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, the we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Pet. 2:24).  Jesus loved the Father. “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.” (John 14:31).  Jesus loved the Father and He loved us.  In a free act of love, He sacrificed His life to provider the atonement for sin and redeem unto Himself a special people purified by His blood.

Love is a Command
Consider the following commands from God involving love.  First and foremost, there is the command to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind (Matt. 22:36-39).  Mark adds “strength” (Mark 12:29-31).  In these same passages, we are commanded to love our neighbor.  Paul instructs husbands to love their wives (Eph. 5:25) as Christ loved the church as gave himself or it.  In Titus 2:4, Paul instructs aged women to teach younger women to love their husbands and their children.  Jesus commands us to love our enemies in Matt. 5:44.  Finally, love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is commanded (John 15:12; I John 3:14; 4:21).  When we are given a command from God, human volition is involved in obeying it.  When we love freely, there is no resentment in the action required.  When we choose to love God, we empower our lives for Christian living.  We act, rather than react, based upon a sacred principle.

Love and Freewill
Without choice, love is not possible.  Love is a free act of the human will in response to God’s commands.  The very existence of love, proves free will.  Consequently, determinism is false.  Evolutionists are determinists.  Sam Harris wrote, “Free will is an illusion.  Our wills are simply not of our own making.  Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control” (Sam Harris, Freewill, 2012, p. 5–quoted in Paradoxolgy, p. 230).  If this is true, then there is no love.  Secondly, predestination is false.  Those who teach predestination also teach that we do not have free will.  But, the price for believing such a doctrine is high.  If there is no choice, there is no love.

Love is Essential
Love is essential to becoming and remaining a Christian.  Loving God with all of our being requires a choice.  We must choose whom we will serve. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Rom. 6:16).  Obedience to God requires love for God (John 14:15).  Joy follows the decision to follow God.  When Jesus went to the cross, He embraced the joy that was set before Him (Heb. 12:2).  His joy was in manifesting His love for the Father and Us.  His joy was not in the painful death He suffered.  But, He had joy in His sufferings because He loved much.  Love for God will produce the same joy in us no matter what the cost might be for following Him.

Jesus connects love and obedience in three passages in John 14.  They are John 14:15, 21-24, and 31.
John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  John 14:21-24, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:  and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.  Judas saith unto him, not Isacariot, Lord,  how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.  He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”  John 14:31, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.  Arise, let us go hence.”
Jesus and the Father
John 14:31 is the only passage in the New Testament where Jesus explicitly affirms that He loves the Father.  The love Jesus has for the Father motivates Him to obedience to the commandment of the Father.  Love disciplines the heart and makes compliance to its object a natural part of its relationship with the object.  The strength of love is tested by obedience.   In Jesus’ case, obedience meant facing death upon the cross for the redemption of the sins of mankind.  The writer of Hebrews comments on this, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:8-9).
Consider the alternative which is disobedience.  Disobedience to the Father means a lack of love for the Father.  Lovelessness leads to lawlessness which causes a breach in relationship with God.  Disobedience involves the desire to fulfill one’s own will rather than God’s will.  This is selfishness.  Disobedience involves the desire to please self at the expense of relationship with God.  Disobedience is a failure to accomplish the desire of the (supposed) beloved.  When we say we love God and disobey Him, we lie.  The disobedient person really loves himself!
Jesus’ love for the Father was intense.  His obedience involves great suffering and sacrifice.  Where there is great love for God, there is authentic compliance to His Will.
Jesus and You
John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  Love comes before obedience.  It is possible to obey God without loving God.  But, you cannot love Jesus and disobey Him.  In Mark 10:17-23, the conversation between Jesus and a rich young ruler occurs.  In this conversation, the rich young man asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus tells him to keep the law (the man was under the Law of Moses at this time).  The man replied that he had kept the law from his youth up.  Jesus told him that he lacked one thing.  Jesus told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor.  The man refused and went away sorrowful for he had great riches.  The man loved material things more than Jesus.  Jesus loved him, but he did not reciprocate that love.  Here is a man who kept commandments without loving God.  Without love, obedience is vain (I Cor. 13:1-3).
Obedience to God is a test of love for God.  Jesus said if a man love me, he will keep my words.  Jesus affirmed that the words He spoke were from the Father.  To reject Jesus’ words is to reject the Father.  The Father loves those who love and obey Jesus.  Jesus and the Father will come and make their abode with those that love and obey Jesus.  Disobedience indicates lovelessness.  Where there is no love for Jesus, there is no relationship with Jesus.
How can you be in covenant relationship with Jesus when you disobey His will?  In Matt. 7:21-23, Jesus mentions those that claim relationship with Him but, in fact, because they have not obeyed Him, they are not known by the Lord and identified as workers of iniquity.
No one has ever been saved by faith alone.  To affirm such is to affirm that love is not an essential part of one’s relationship with God.  Faith and love are both essential to salvation.  The scriptures teach that we must trust and obey and that we must love and obey.

     Jesus said, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s and unto God the things which be God’s” (Luke 20:25).  The context in which He spoke these words is very interesting.  The chief priests and the scribes (Luke 20:19) set out to entrap the Lord through a devious design.  Luke reveals their intent, “And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor” (Luke 19:20).  They watched Him, sent forth spies to spy on Him, and were willing to twist His words to accuse Him.  They designed a question for the purpose of entrapment.  “Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or no?” (Luke 19:22).  The question was designed to put Jesus on the horns of a dilemma.  If He answered yes, He would incur the displeasure of Jewish patriots who hated to pay taxes to Caesar.  If He said no, then He would incur the displeasure of the Romans who required it. 
     Jesus orchestrated a masterful escape from their devious intentions.  Jesus knew their diabolical hearts.  He asked, “Why tempt ye me?”  He knew that they were testing His faithfulness to God.  Jesus said, “Shew me a penny.”  The penny was a denarius–a Roman coin with an image of Caesar on it.  Jesus asked, “Whose image and superscription hath it?”  They correctly replied, “Caesars.”  Jesus said unto them, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”  Several observations on this statement are in order.
     First, paying taxes recognized the authority of Caesar.  The authority possessed by Caesar was delegated to him by God (Rom. 13:1; John 19:10-11).  Paying taxes was an act of obedience to the authority of Caesar (a delegated authority).
     Second, the coin had Caesar’s inscription on it.  The image of Caesar on the coin denoted a claim to ownership.  Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things which be Caesar’s.” 
     Third, when Jesus said, “Render unto God the things that are God’s,” He recognized God’s ownership of the universe and of each of His creatures.  Every person was given life by God (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Dan. 5:23).  By virtue of the fact that He is our creator, we must glorify Him as God.  Every Christian is bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 6:20).  God makes a claim on us.  We owe God our obedience, homage and faithfulness.  We are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26,27).  Render unto God the things that are God’s!  God’s authority is supreme.  Yes, you must pay your taxes.  But, you owe God everything.  You owe Him your life and your all. We glorify God when we accept His rule in our hearts.  We glorify God whenever we obey Him.