Jesus said that we should be compassionate as our heavenly Father is compassionate. This is right on the heels of saying we should love our enemies, and as anyone with common sense will realize, God never asks us to do something that he won't do himself. Jesus is God (people seem to miss this incredible fact), everything that Jesus did revealed God's true heart toward his creation. He wept over Lazarus, made sarcastic comments, and you know he laughed. When he was nailed to a tree, he forgave his enemies, God forgave his enemies.
When Jesus walked the earth, he never said in any of the gospels "I love you". Not once. People may take this to be callous, I take it to be brilliant. Jesus is the Word of God in action. He is love. He never needed to say that he loves people, he showed it by his actions. He showed his love by healing the broken, by touching the lepers, eating with prostitutes, forgiving people of their sins without them even asking for it.
John tells us in his 3rd chapter,
God loved the world in this way: He sent his only-born and unique Son...(v 16)
Now of course you know the rest of that verse, but focus on the first part. How do we know God loves the world? Because he sent Jesus to die for the world. And this where the greatest evidence for God's universal love can be proved, Jesus's death for all mankind. If he didn't die for everyone then it is reasonable and logical to assume God does not love everyone. Yet to deny Jesus dying for everyone is silly, there are to many scripture that assure otherwise.
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)
He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26)
The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-16)
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people (Titus 2:11)
Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17)
He is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Also the argument that 'the world' refers to the church is a realllllllyyyy weak argument. Jesus refers the world many times in the gospel of John, and each time he separates his disciples from the world. In 1 John we are told not to love the world or the things of the world. This is because if we love the world we may emulate it, whereas God is to perfect and holy to be swayed by its evils. We must love the people of the world, for we are commanded to follow God's example, yet we cannot love the system itself.
Ponder those verses above and ask yourself,
If "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us", and Christ died for the entire unjust and ungodly world (not one person excluded), how then can we deny his love for all people?
God is love, and his way of life hangs on two commands: Love the Lord and love others. The one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:8).
When Jesus walked the earth, he never said in any of the gospels "I love you". Not once. People may take this to be callous, I take it to be brilliant. Jesus is the Word of God in action. He is love. He never needed to say that he loves people, he showed it by his actions. He showed his love by healing the broken, by touching the lepers, eating with prostitutes, forgiving people of their sins without them even asking for it.
John tells us in his 3rd chapter,
God loved the world in this way: He sent his only-born and unique Son...(v 16)
Now of course you know the rest of that verse, but focus on the first part. How do we know God loves the world? Because he sent Jesus to die for the world. And this where the greatest evidence for God's universal love can be proved, Jesus's death for all mankind. If he didn't die for everyone then it is reasonable and logical to assume God does not love everyone. Yet to deny Jesus dying for everyone is silly, there are to many scripture that assure otherwise.
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)
He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26)
The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-16)
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people (Titus 2:11)
Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17)
He is the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Also the argument that 'the world' refers to the church is a realllllllyyyy weak argument. Jesus refers the world many times in the gospel of John, and each time he separates his disciples from the world. In 1 John we are told not to love the world or the things of the world. This is because if we love the world we may emulate it, whereas God is to perfect and holy to be swayed by its evils. We must love the people of the world, for we are commanded to follow God's example, yet we cannot love the system itself.
Ponder those verses above and ask yourself,
If "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us", and Christ died for the entire unjust and ungodly world (not one person excluded), how then can we deny his love for all people?
God is love, and his way of life hangs on two commands: Love the Lord and love others. The one who loves another has fulfilled the law (Romans 13:8).
