Does God really love us all?

I invite you to glance around whenever…

You’re in a store, at a sports game, at your workplace, at a gas station—any place where you are surrounded by other people; take a moment and look around at all these people. And remember that God loves every single one of them. 

I feel like I’ve always heard the phrase said by other Christians that “God loves you”, either to people they’re preaching to in church or on the street or even more generically on billboards, t-shirts, etc. But I don’t think I always truly believed it. I would think, “Yeah, God loves humanity as a whole” but I never let myself imagine God uniquely loving every individual breathing on this planet—the concept just never solidified in my mind.

But then I started thinking more about exactly what love is and while there are many definitions, there is one that is mentioned in the Bible that stuck out to me in the Bible. Many of us know John 3:16, but that’s also reinforced by John 15:13: “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends.”

And it just got me thinking—when Jesus died for our sins, he didn’t do it for a select few individuals. He didn’t say, “I’m going to die on the cross so that they may have eternal life, but these people over here that are going to be born in the 21st century, or in this country, or these people who are going to commit this specific sin, no way! I’m not dying for them, they can go kick rocks and burn in hell for all I care because I don’t like them.”

It doesn’t say that—Jesus gave his life for every single person you see living and breathing on this Earth, even those we don’t like, even those who commit the most detestable acts. 

I mean, there have been quite a few times where I’ll look at someone and think, “Really, Lord, you really love them too?” And I’d have to pull myself back and realize that’s my own pride talking. That’s my own idea of me thinking God only has love for a certain kind of person. Yes, I can have divine favor from God by following his commands and repenting when I don’t, but I am not above anyone else in God’s eyes just because I’m me or just because I think I’m righteous. I am just as much of a sinner as anyone else in God’s eyes, but he still loves me. 

Also, what’s so great about God is that he can redeem anyone. So sometimes we look at certain people who we think are too far gone and think, “There’s no way that person can come to God or turn their life around. That person is going straight to hell.”

But then, God, in his great mercy and grace, will make a way to transform that person completely. I’ve seen so many testimonies from people who’ve lived rough lives, gotten themselves into trouble, been deep in witchcraft, committed some of the worst acts, but have been renewed by God. So not only did Jesus sacrifice himself on the cross for us, but 2 Peter 3:9 says God is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

When you remind yourself that God truly loves everyone on this Earth and wants everyone to be saved, it helps you cultivate more empathy toward others, and it becomes harder to hold strong feelings of resentment or hatred toward others. We start to see ourselves in them. So, we don’t hold the love God has for us as just for ourselves; we realize that God holds that same love for every single person on this planet.

When you see each human as someone God has ordained a special righteous path and purpose for, it also becomes easier to forgive them because you know that God has created them to be someone great and the only reason they aren’t is because they are mired in sin and the schemes of the enemy. But there is the potential for them to emerge and become who they were meant to be.

At the end of the day, we really need to have the heart of Jesus when we view people. It’s not basic attitudes about just being kind but then if someone wrongs you, it’s time to wrong them back and hold their behavior against them. It’s not about, “Well, I was raised in the church, I serve in the choir, I have an anointing,” but you’re in comment sections calling people names or gossiping about them because you don’t like them or they’re not as “holy” as you.

Let me be clear: this is no judgment on anyone because I have been guilty of these things as well, but when we realize that God loves every one of us, even those who don’t follow his commands, even those who hurt his children, it makes it so much easier for us to humanize others, to forgive others, and to grant them the same mercy that God has given us.