Revd David W John

8 Does God Like some people more than others?

 In our last sermon from our series on Biblical doctrine we considered the idea and quality of Gods forgiveness and I suggested you may remember that the forgiveness that God offers is both hard for us to grasp and quite unique because, unlike the forgiveness we offer within our lives it is complete forgiveness and in Character one which covers the whole of our lives from beginning to end and encompasses that time span right from the moment we find Jesus.

On the Cross then Jesus carried all of our lives sin and Gods punishment for them, so thus, the Bible can conclude that firstly God sees our Sin no more and secondly that there is now no further sacrifice needed to atone for our Sin and we are free to live and love God without the fear of rejection.

In today’s sermon I would like to sort of supplement these thoughts by asking the question “Does God like some people more than others” or “Does God dislike some people and love others more”

Now this may seem like an odd suggestion but it is believe it or not, something that many people believe at least subconsciously anyway and all to often also about themselves…….many believe actually that God dislikes them or at least doesn’t love them as much as say……. the Priest!!  And despite the initial heady response of No of course he doesn’t like some more than others, it is a tricky issue, after all it would make sense to me, for example that God would feel less inclined towards a murderer than he does towards a member of the Peace core or less inclined towards me when I am a sinner than another who appears to be such a wonderful and Holy Christian……..!

We often rate how God might feel towards others and ourselves as compared to those who we see as better than us, and its an easy and natural thing to do because that’s what we do with each other all the time and even within the family of the Church. 

Take for example the current and catastrophic debate within the Church of England around the issue of Homosexuality and the practice of this preference by consenting adults. Now without going into a debate about the rights and wrongs of this whole issue the first question we should be all asking ourselves in this situation is “Does God like Gay Christians less than he likes straight Christians” or “Does God like us (who are straight) more than those who are Gay” And if we think he must then on what basis do we suggest this? Because we are better than Gay Christians? Because Gay Christians are bigger sinners than us?  Because Gay Christians who live in Gay relationships don’t receive the same forgiveness as all the rest of us? Assuming of course that we believe their lifestyle is wrong in Gods eyes…… or do we think that God just doesn’t like them?

and what about Christians who struggle with other issues like Drug addiction or Alcohol, smoking, those who tell lies, or who live with their partners outside of marriage? One parent families……  Does God like them a bit less because they aren’t living in the way some of us perhaps think they should? And does he really like us more because we apparently are? Where does it stop…does God then only like those who we think he should like?...... you see my point…. when we look at things this way it all gets just a bit out of control until the only person God actually really likes is you and me and actually I am not too sure about you either……. perhaps the only person God really like is himself !!!!!!!! The rest of us he either tolerates, puts up with, rejects or just down right hates!!!!! But hang on….. this is not quite the picture that Jesus portrayed was it……..when he walked on earth embraced the prostitutes, and ate with the tax collectors and sinners!! Jesus it seems in fact just didn’t look at people this way…The Pharisees and teachers of religion in his day often did yes, but we all know Jesus heartily rejected their judgments and religious snobbery.

 In the Bible there seem to be a number of ideas to help us with this dilemma and I have chosen two passages to illustrate some my thoughts on the issue:

Firstly From Pauls letter to Rome, Romans chapter 3 vrs 9 to 23 in which Paul quite clearly concludes in part with the sentence “There is then no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”   his argument up to this point has illustrated his belief in the equality of all in the eyes of God and for much of the passage it is an equality of judgement everyone has failed and therefore everyone is judged equally and is condemned equally by God for their failure, the point for today is that there is, no sense in which some are considered to have failed more or for that matter none are seen to have failed less than any other, there is then no sense of degree…. everyone is considered equally and the same, as a race in our natural state we are doomed together and equally so we are all objects of Gods wrath and equally so and in this Paul lists blasphemers with liars with adulterers, with Gossips, slanderers with those who simply don’t worship God there is a picture then of everyone being equally corrupt without any sense in which Gods think worse of some than others or vice versa……………

In the second passage from Pauls letter to the Church in Galatia, Galatians 3 vrs 26 to 29 Paul states that “We are all Sons of God through Faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you who were Baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor Free, Male or Female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Which indicates of course also an equality, but this time an equality of identity and an equality of acceptance here…….. as with many other passages God we are told sees us now as his children and all equally so, if we have accepted Jesus we have clothed ourselves with Christ…it is Jesus whom we now reflect in Gods eyes, his perfection in us God sees, Gods love for his Son is the love he has towards us and all equally whoever we are!

In both cases then that of Gods Judgement and now in the case of Gods love and favour the one word equality screams out loud and clear………. and as with his judgement…with his Love there is no sense of degrees…..of him liking some Christians more than others or vice versa……. In Christ we are all one!

The only thing then which seems to separate how God see’s human beings is how they have responded to the Cross and resurrection of Jesus. There is no ‘God liking some more or less than others’ we are either outside of Jesus equal in one way or In Jesus and equally within Gods Favour…..completely…….

Faith in the Messiah is the only activity which determines how God sees us as human beings and such Faith places us all equally  within Gods incredible grace. 

Now this is wonderful news because it means that it is within the grasp of all people to be completely loved by God and equally whoever we are.

And in view of this we should consider:

Firstly: If we are not a Christian then we should take great care to consider the life and claims of Jesus for according to this Faith it is this and this alone which determines Gods response to us, there is no getting to heaven by living a good life….for according to this none of us do…..there is no bargaining with God, outside of the Cross of Christ.  

Secondly: As Christians we must adopt two attitudes; Firstly we must never ever think that God doesn’t like us or that he likes anyone else more than he likes us. The concept of Gods attitudes, as we have seen, whether in love or in judgement demonstrates no sense of degrees….. there is no More love for some than there is for you and likewise, no less love for others than he has for us… how God sees us does not depend on who we are……… but on what Christ has done.

And thirdly we must of course seek to reflect that same attitude towards each other. ‘Do not Judge less you be judged.’

When we start to think that God condemns other Christians because of their life style choices issues or complications we are missing the point for we are all one in Christ and have been clothed with Christ. We may not agree with everything or in everything but, to quote Jesus himself “if we only love those who love us, then how much better are we than the heathen even they do this? We are to ‘love our neighbour as ourselves.’

And finally we should also of course consider the importance of our message to those we know who do not know Christ. I would never presume to know how God will treat this world and its millions of people on their day of judgement but I do know that to know Christ now is a blessing beyond measure, one which brings me great comfort and hope….because I know that God accepts me now in Christ and this gives me every reason to presume that this will not change just because I die.

 So our message and our experience of God in Christ is important and we should make every effort to encourage others to try it for themselves.

Mainly though my wish today in this talk is to encourage us all of us not to think that we are in any way unloved by God we may all have different issues with which we struggle and complicated and difficult lives within which we all live.

But it seems a biblical fact that God shows no favouritism and that he likes us all just as much a each other, that we can approach him in full assurance of his acceptance, that there is no Jew no Greek, no slave no free, no better or worse in his eyes we are all one in Christ. That in his love for us there is no measure or degree just love.