The word distinguish is not in the Bible, but the concept, intent, and meaning is most certainly there.
Distinguish. Constituting a difference; serving to distinguish or mark off from others; distinctive, characteristic; sometimes in stronger sense, That renders (a person, etc.) distinguished or eminent.
God’s love makes a huge difference, distinguishing and marking His elect children from others.
This is also a distinguishing mark of our church, for we hold the old paths about God’s sovereignty.
We believe eternal life an unconditional gift by the eternal decrees of God to show love to some.
All others, like reprobate angels, are left to the just condemnation of Adam’s sins and their own.
Only a few remain that understand God’s love and Christ’s redemption are for the elect only.
We preach the whole counsel of God, which includes the revealed wrath of God (Rom 1:18).
God has a peculiar people that are His own different and distinct by His choice from all other people.
Peculiar. That is one’s own private property; that belongs to pertains to, or characterizes, an individual person, place, or thing, or group of persons or things, as distinct from others.
Consider scripture (Ex 19:3-6; De 14:1-2; 26:16-19; Ps 135:4; Ec 2:8; Tit 2:13-14; I Pet 2:7-10).
How should we measure or value love, especially God’s love for us, so we properly appreciate it?
Love is precious to the degree of the importance, intelligence, power, rank, wealth of the lover.
Love is precious to the degree of its commitment, cost, duration, or price paid by the one loving.
Love is precious to the degree of communication, certainty, effort, investment to the one loved.
Love is precious to the degree of advantage, pleasure, profit, security gained by the one loved.
Love is precious to the degree the love is guaranteed and unconditional to the one being loved.
Love is precious to the degree of its exclusiveness, focus, and certainty on one or few objects.
Love is precious to the degree that it does not depend on the performance of the one being loved.
The Arminian heresy of God loving all men, with most ending up in hell, satisfies only the first two.
They identify God with sufficient Bible evidence to be generally correct about His greatness.
They identify the commitment and cost of God’s love by the death of His only begotten Son.
But their God is a failure at best and a cruel monster at worst for miserably violating five traits.
Their God is a failure for not giving His love with any certainty or results to 99% of His objects.
Their God is a monster for creating men He knew He would damn, but yet promising them love.
Their God did everything He could to save them, but He proved to be a colossal failure to 99%.
Any benefits of His love at all, even the least, are entirely dependent on their own performance.
The gospel of Jesus Christ reveals that God and His love for His people perfectly fulfill all traits.
Take the time to carefully consider each of the seven traits in light of the full, true gospel of God.
The consequence or result of understanding this truth should totally and forever change your life.
It is commonly taught God loves all men without distinction and does everything He can to save all.
It is assumed with such arrogance that it is considered sacrilegious or blasphemous to question it.
Most people know so little of the Bible that they have no valid reason for their concepts of God.
This is all most people know about God, care to know about Him, and by which view the world.
It is commonly taught God hates the sin but loves the sinner in a vain attempt to defend His holiness.
They know there is enough evidence in the Bible God hates sin, so they coin this foolish cliché.
They have assumed without Bible proof that God must love men without exception, regardless.
No one really cares about the character of God, or they would argue for God loving the devil.
There is only one absolute, complete, final, and true place of information about Jehovah – the Bible.
What men may wish about God has no necessary connection to truth with valid confirmation.
Men wish God was a sugar daddy, who would forgive all to be nice and take them all to heaven.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, especially about God (Jer 17:9).
Creation only shows God’s glory, handiwork, eternal power, Godhead (Ps 19:1-6; Rom 1:19-21).
We need much more than that to discover His redeeming love, its objects, and the effects of it.
Most Christians (meeting only the Almanac definition) ignore anything uncomfortable in the Bible.
It is obvious choices are made for men that are horrifically distinguishing and discriminating.
Some die in the womb, in youth, are born blind, are born retarded, are born in squalor, etc., etc.
Why do men ignore Eden’s consequences, the Flood, the Canaanites, Korah, 70 A.D., etc., etc.?
Why don’t they think about God’s love of those in hell … what a strange way to show His love!
Why are many offended God hated Esau, when they should be confounded that He loved Jacob!
The truth here is like Noah telling his generation about rain or Columbus that the earth was round.
The sound of words, like John 3:16, is all they know; it must be rooted out and replaced with sense.
Remember, most Christians think “This is my body” means the communion wafer is Jesus’ flesh.
Remember, most Christians think “Born of water” means that baptism can and will save the soul.
Remember, most Christians think sprinkling water on a baby’s forehead is Christian baptism.
What are consequences of this heresy about the love of God? Compromising pulpits, effeminate sermons, no fear of God in the earth, ignorance of God’s holiness and righteousness, feminized church leadership, superficial professions of religion, lack of zeal for holy living, neglect of discipline in church and home, weak and begging ministry, the-end-justifies-the-means evangelism, a degraded view of salvation, contemporary worship to cater to the carnal, universalism and no-hell heresies, candy cane use of Bible verses, PETA, and lovers of pleasure assuming eternal life.
How can we benefit? Worship God in truth (John 4:23-24), serve Him with reverence and godly fear (Heb 12:28-29), understand the Bible without confusion (II Tim 2:15), bask in our glorious salvation (II Cor 9:15), see through the fallacy of an offer of salvation (John 6:38-39), see the commendation God gave His love (Rom 5:5-8), be motivated to extreme service (II Cor 5:14-17), know we can never be separated from it (Rom 8:38-39), and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).
God is holy and must hate sin.
We start with one of the most fundamental and essential traits of Jehovah’s nature.
God’s name is holy (Is 57:15); the four beasts declare it (Rev 4:8); the devils called Jesus the Holy One (Luke 4:34); the Bible is holy scripture (II Tim 3:15); the Spirit of God is the Holy Ghost and Spirit (I Jn 5:7); God swares by His holiness (Ps 89:35).
God’s holiness is His absolute and infinite freedom from sin and moral imperfection.
God’s holiness demands He abhor, despise, hate, resent, and destroy anything unholy.
Consider a few scriptures of many (Job 15:14-16; Hab 1:12-13; I John 1:5; Heb 7:26).
Any man who fears and loves God will hate sin with Him (Pr 8:13; Ps 45:7; Heb 1:9).
God’s holiness requires He hate sin (Psalm 5:4-6; 53:5; 73:20; Pr 6:16-19; Zech 8:17).
Heaven has no place for anything that defiles; God and heaven are holy (Rev 21:27).
Recall how God’s holiness and justice poured out wrath on Jesus for the elect’s sins.
He forsook His Son and was pleased to bruise Him … because of our sins … how much more forsake, bruise, hate those without faith, who continue in rabid rebellion?
Look at the cross to see God’s hatred for sin and sinners … think of a sinner with sins.
This is plainly taught in Psalm 5:4-6 and 11:4-6, but these verses are usually ignored.
God hates sinners – the wicked here – because He hates sin, and sinners love to sin.
Will you look up all the verses that speak of God’s hatred like abhor, abomination, anger, despise, fury, vengeance, wrath, against, etc.?
Will you tell me God loved the sheep and goats alike (Matt 25:31-46; John 10:26-29)?
Should Noah have had a banner across the side of the ark comforting the drowning rebels with the words, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner”?
Why didn’t angels hold evangelistic services in Sodom for more than Lot and family?
Should Joshua have had ensigns before the armies of Israel as they exterminated the Canaanites with the words, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner”?
There is nothing in man justifying God’s love; nothing in God requires He love man.
Throughout the Bible, there are two classes of men – the wicked and the righteous, the reprobates and elect, the sinners and saints, the children and bastards, the church and the rest, the saved and the lost, vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy, etc., etc.
It is very confused thinking to say the cliché, “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.”
Sin is not a separate thing that can be hated and punished by itself.
Sin is the rebellious choice of a rational creature to despise His Creator.
Sin is the rebellious choice of a rational creature to violate His commandments.
God hates the actor and activity of this rebel creature, not just the result of sin.
He will send persons to hell, not sins. He sent Jesus to the cross, not just sins.
God hates both the sin and the sinner (Lev 20:23; Deut 18:12; 25:16; Ps 2:4-9; 7:11; 10:3; Pr 3:31-34; 6:16-19; 16:5; 17:5; Malachi 1:3-4; I Cor 16:22; Rev 14:10-11).
If God can love sinners with or without Christ, as most teach, then He can take them to heaven with or without Christ, because He can and does love them as sinners.
The apparent dilemma with God loving His elect will be explained in detail in following points; but let it be remembered that God’s elect are not sinners or workers of iniquity, for God has viewed them as holy and without blame since before the world began, when He chose them in Christ Jesus His Beloved (Eph 1:3-6).
God loves His elect because eternally and legally they are not sinners.
He chose His elect as holy in Christ before time so He could love them (Eph 1:3-4).
He chose the elect in Christ in order to view them as holy and without blame.
He chose to view the elect as holy and without blame, so He could love them.
This wonderful passage has glorious declarations about God’s love for His elect.
The passage is wrapped up in the will and purpose of God, not our inherent worth.
God chose those He would love, and He made it possible to love them (Rom 9:15).
He predestinated the elect to be sons and made them acceptable in Christ (Eph 1:5-6).
He had to predestinate us to adoption by Jesus Christ in order to accept us sinners.
The issue is not if we accept God or not, but whether He can and will accept us.
This choosing and predestinating to make us holy and acceptable is by His will.
It is all to the praise of the glory of His grace, for it is by God choosing to love us.
If God loves all men indiscriminately and without exception, then it is a necessary conclusion eternal life is to the praise of the glory of their free wills and great wisdom.
The eternal covenant of grace saw the elect in Christ with sins fully paid and forgiven.
The new covenant has God forgetting their sins and iniquities (Heb 8:12; 10:17).
The legal phase of salvation must be understood to fully appreciate this transaction.
God by Christ reconciled the elect to Himself (Ro 3:25; II Cor 5:18-21; I Pet 3:18).
There are many others God has left in their sins and the objects of His eternal wrath.
In the Bible these are known as the wicked, children of wrath, vessels of wrath, etc.
The holy and just Potter made vessels of honor and dishonor of angels and men.
God hated the man Esau.
The Bible clearly states God hated Esau, while loving Jacob (Mal 1:2-4; Rom 9:13).
God hated Esau for Adam’s sin and his nature, not his sins (Rom 5:12-19; 9:11-12).
If these verses speak of nations and not individuals, then the point is even stronger.
If these verses use hate and love as a relative comparison, then what of “world.”
The context is not favor in life, but sons of God, mercy, or wrath (9:6-8,13-16,21-24).
God loves righteousness and those who are righteous.
God cannot love sin or sinners, but He does love the righteous (Ps 11:7; 45:7; He 1:9).
Consider any angle or perspective of God’s love, for He can only love righteousness.
His perfect character cannot and will not ever approve sin affectionately. He cannot!
God’s love is inseparably connected with Christ’s intercession.
Jesus at God’s right hand intercedes for all the Father loves (Ro 8:34-35; He 7:22-25).
He does not plead for sinners; He endures them in longsuffering (I Pet 3:20; Ro 9:22).
Jesus will save all His elect to the uttermost without losing a single one of them.
God’s love is revealed to its objects by the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit reveals and communicates God’s love to all those He loves (Ro 5:5).
But the Spirit is only given to sons of God, for God does not love bastards (Gal 4:6).
The Spirit is earnest of the inheritance for the elect only (Ep 1:13-14; II Co 1:22; 5:5).
God is angry at the wicked every day.
The Bible declares plainly that God is angry at the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11).
Note the difference within this verse as to how He relates to the righteous and wicked.
He burned in His wrath toward men, when He drowned the planet in a Flood of water.
He will be angry again toward men, when He burns the planet with fire in the last day.
God’s anger at His elect brings kind chastening; His anger at the wicked brings hell.
God taught David to hate all those who hated God.
David hated all God’s enemies, who hated Him, with a perfect hatred (Ps 139:21-22).
He was Israel’s sweet psalmist, who was the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
David admitted hatred of sinners in other places, but they are ignored (Ps 26:5; 31:6).
How does God love all the wicked, if the man after His own heart hates those men?
God did not inspire David to write sinful, wrong things; his hatred was holy and good.
God’s love for sinners is not a part of scriptural evangelism.
It is a popular delusion Bible evangelism is to spread the news that God loves sinners.
The world’s most popular tract, “The Four Spiritual Laws,” states confidently for its first and most important law, “God loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
Bumper stickers and smiley faces grin with foolish words, “Smile, God loves you.”
Some have said John 3:16 is the gospel in a nutshell, the most important Bible verse.
Which should Noah have displayed on the ark? The first spiritual law or John 3:16?
If you read the Acts of the Apostles, you cannot find even one reference to the love of God in any of the thirteen conjugations and forms of love used in the New Testament.
But you can read of God’s judgment – over and over (Acts 10:42; 17:30-31; 24:25).
Peter declared God had accepted Cornelius and his Gentile audience (Acts 10:34-35).
Something is wrong. Either the apostles were wrong, or modern evangelism is wrong.
Jesus and the apostles focused on our love for God (and neighbor), not His love of us.
When Stephen faced Jews in Acts 7, why didn’t he tell them about the love of Jesus?
When Peter met Gentiles in Acts 10, why didn’t he tell them about the love of Jesus?
When Paul met philosophers in Acts 17, why didn’t he tell them of the love of Jesus?
When Paul faced the Jews in Acts 28, why didn’t he tell them about the love of Jesus?
But … does not the Bible teach that God is love?
Yes, the Bible teaches God is love in I John 4:8 and I John 4:16. You have it right.
But these words do not prove (1) God is only love, (2) God loves all things, (3) God loves all men, (4) God loves any man, (5) God loves you, (6) how long God loves, or (7) just about anything else you can imagine about God and love.
It simply and only teaches that one trait of God is that He loves, and He does love.
But He is also holy and righteous, which John introduced first in this epistle (I Jn 1:5).
While God is love, God cannot love sin or sinners, as we have proved in other places.
But … does not the Bible teach that God loved the world?
Yes, the Bible says God loved the world in John 3:16 – the favorite verse for many.
This is the “gospel in a nutshell.” They say, “This is all I need and all I want.” But it is only one verse of 31,102. Every word of God is pure, and helps explain the others.
But this oft-quoted, never-understood verse does not say God loves every single man without exception so very much and so very badly that He sent His son to try to save them all, with the overall project being a colossal failure in that most are not saved.
The main issue with this popular corruption of the verse is the definition of the word “world.” But what about John’s use of “world” in 12:19; 14:17; 15:19; 16:20; 17:14?
What about the Spirit’s use of the word “world” (I Co 2:13 cp Luke 2:1; Rom 11:12)?
First, if we force “world” to mean every single man without exception or distinction, we have a serious contradiction with all we read and studied in our perfect Bibles.
Second, if we force “world” to mean every single man without exception or distinction, we create many absurdities and contradictions elsewhere in the Bible.
Jesus spoke to a ruler of the Jews and laid heavy doctrine on him. He described the new birth that blew his mind and then a dying Messiah, who would die for Gentiles.
Whomever God loved, He gave His Son for them (John 6:39; 10:11,27-29; 17:2-3).
True to John’s purpose, only believers can know eternal life (John 20:31; I John 5:13).
Jesus had already made crystal clear that sovereign regeneration had to precede any belief, which is granted only to the elect (John 1:12-13; 3:3,8).
Why don’t the lovers of John 3:16 want to deal with John 3:36 and its abiding wrath?
But … does not the Bible teach that God loves us as sinners?
Yes, the Bible teaches that God loved us when we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).
But in what sense(s) we were still sinners? This is key, for we were already in Christ.
When you read personal pronouns “us” and “we” in context with God’s love and Christ’s death, it is not a letter written from heaven to the whole human race.
We were still sinners legally before Jesus came in the fullness of time to die for us.
We were still sinners vitally and practically before regeneration and conversion, when Christ died for us. But we had been loved eternally long before the cross of Calvary.
But … does not the Bible teach that God loves His enemies?
Yes, the Bible implies God loves His enemies like we should love ours (Mat 5:43-48).
But our love of them is external kindness only, not passionate or intimate relationship.
God’s kindness to all creatures and men is further condemnation of them (Acts 14:17).
The Holy Spirit maintains a distinction in such relationships (Gal 6:10; I Tim 4:10).
But … particular love makes God unfair, cruel, and a respecter of persons?
Paul knew you would raise this objection. His answer? God forbid (Romans 9:14-24)!
You do not understand your own objection, for how is it respect of persons to love someone for nothing in them whatsoever, but altogether contrary to what is in them?
How is God unfair? Because He does not love all? Do all deserve love? We are sinful rebels, why must He love us? He is unfair by loving any, so it is called grace.
If you are so concerned about God’s character, why not argue God’s love of the devil?
Since you are an Arminian, why did your God create those He knew He would damn?
But … I couldn’t and wouldn’t serve a God that doesn’t love everybody!
There is another Jesus, spirit, and gospel with many preachers (II Cor 11:3-5,13-15).
If you are so concerned about God loving everybody, why not feel sorry for the devil?
You are gravely mistaken to think there is anything about you worth Him loving you.
You are gravely mistaken to think there is anything in God requiring Him to love you.
If you only love a God after your own thoughts, He has a word for you (Ps 50:21-22).
God’s love is only meaningful when His hatred of sinners is fully understood.
If a prostitute told a man she loved him, her words of love would be totally worthless.
In the same way, the love of God is not meaningful when it is loosely scattered to all.
What is so special about the love of God for me, if God loves everyone else equally?
What is so moving about the love of God for me, if many He loves are already in hell?
God’s love is not a promiscuous love of all men, but an efficacious love of the elect.
How does God commend His love? By loving us as enemies and giving Christ for us.
Paul wanted Ephesus to know the dimensions of Christ’s love, which knowledge could fill them with the fullness of God (Ep 3:14-19). How can universal love do this?
What saddens the righteous and confirms the wicked (Eze 13:22)? His universal love.
Now John’s words make sense, “We love him, because he first loved us” (I Jn 4:19).
God’s love for us should constrain us to serve and fear Him.
When we rightly understand His love, it will powerfully move us to devoted service.
If God’s love is universal without distinction, and it accomplishes nothing itself, there is hardly a motive for service, thus there are so few truly dedicated Arminians.
The more His love is bandied about, the greater the carnality and weakness of hearers.
Isaiah was moved to service His holiness and a specific sacrifice for his sins (Is 6:1-8).
When Paul reasoned, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love …,” he argued the great sense of debt and obligation we should have (Phil 2:1).
Paul was constrained to serve by the love of God in Christ, and he understood that this sacrificial and saving love should cause all saints to be new creatures (II Cor 5:14-17).
It should be easy to tremble before Him, when we see His love in truth (Isaiah 66:2).
We should find it easy to worship Him with reverence and godly fear (Heb 12:28-29).
We should grasp there is forgiveness with Him that He might be feared (Psalm 130:4).
Our prayers should be different from those who think He’s just a ball of cotton candy.
How can we sin easily, presumptuously, or repeatedly, if standing in awe (Psalm 4:4)?
This doctrine should cause us to walk humbly and justly before God in holy sobriety.
Conclusion:
This is not a popular topic, but neither was a universal flood by Noah or a round earth by Columbus.
You cannot know the true God of heaven apart from His detailed revelation in the Holy Scriptures.
Feelings and opinions of men are profane folly, for their hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.
The personal issue for you is not if God loves you, but if you fear and love God with all you are.
God is not obligated to love any. His love is by His choice, which He gave to His elect (Rom 9:15).
How can we benefit? Worship God in truth (John 4:23-24), serve Him with reverence and godly fear (Heb 12:28-29), understand the Bible without confusion (II Tim 2:15), bask in our glorious salvation (II Cor 9:15), see through the fallacy of an offer of salvation (John 6:38-39), see the commendation God gave His love (Rom 5:5-8), be motivated to extreme service (II Cor 5:14-17), know we can never be separated from it (Rom 8:38-39), and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:14-19).
