Does God Love His Enemies?

00:00:00.000 | Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper

00:00:05.040 | Kenneth from Starkville, Mississippi writes and to say this Pastor John

00:00:09.480 | I have been taking advantage of more and more of the resources at desiring God org lately

00:00:14.300 | And one of the things that stood out for me is the self exaltation of God

00:00:18.620 | You discussed how it is the most loving thing that God could do for us namely to exalt himself

00:00:24.360 | While it would be a sin for anyone else to do that. My question is almost the reverse of this

00:00:30.080 | Are there things that we are commanded to do by God that would be a sin if God did them?

00:00:35.020 | Specifically Jesus tells us to love our enemies

00:00:38.160 | Would it be a sin for God to love his non-human enemies like Satan and the fallen angels?

00:00:43.760 | Or does he love them? Pastor John? What would you say to Kenneth?

00:00:47.680 | Let me take those two questions

00:00:52.360 | one at a time because

00:00:54.360 | the first one that I hear is

00:00:56.880 | I think clear and easy to answer from Scripture the second one not so easy

00:01:04.160 | First he says Kenneth says

00:01:08.680 | Are there things that we are commanded to do?

00:01:13.280 | By God that would be sin if God did them and the answer is clearly

00:01:19.840 | Yes, I can think of half a dozen things

00:01:22.720 | That God commands us to do that would be sin for God to do

00:01:26.840 | He commands us to confess our sins to each other in James 5 16 confess your sins to one another and pray for one another

00:01:35.080 | It would be sin for God to confess his sins because he doesn't have any and that would be hypocrisy

00:01:41.120 | second 1st Corinthians 12 21

00:01:44.680 | Every member of the body of Christ is told that we should never say to another person

00:01:50.880 | I have no need of you in the body of God have no need of you

00:01:54.520 | In other words human beings are all commanded and expected to admit our dependence on others

00:02:01.240 | And our need for others, but it would be sin for God to admit for a moment that he depended on

00:02:08.560 | anything outside himself

00:02:12.240 | 1725 God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything

00:02:17.080 | Since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything or to make almost the same point

00:02:23.680 | We're commanded in Proverbs 3 5 do not rely on your own understanding

00:02:28.880 | And it would be sin for God not to rely on his own understanding

00:02:34.560 | It would be sin because he's

00:02:38.080 | infallible and

00:02:41.040 | To fail to rely on his own infinite wisdom would make him a fool and God is not a fool. His understanding is

00:02:48.720 | unsearchable and we're commanded to worship our Creator and God has no Creator and it would be a sin for him to try to

00:02:56.480 | Worship his Creator because he wasn't created and we're told in Romans 12 19 never avenge yourselves

00:03:04.360 | Leave it to the wrath of God. So it'd be a sin for God to renounce his prerogative

00:03:10.840 | Vengeance and judgment since it belongs to him uniquely and doesn't belong to us and the list could just go on and on

00:03:17.560 | So to be a creature

00:03:20.320 | Rather than a creator puts a person in a position with responsibilities and expectations

00:03:27.360 | That the Creator does not have so the answer to the first question is yes

00:03:34.440 | There are many things in the Bible that we are commanded to do by God that it would be a sin if

00:03:42.440 | God did them and then Kenneth asks

00:03:46.040 | Specifically

00:03:49.080 | Jesus tells us to love our enemies. So would it be sin for God to love his

00:03:55.400 | Non-human enemies like Satan and the fallen angels or does he love them and he went in a direction there

00:04:04.280 | I did not expect him to go. He made it too easy

00:04:07.120 | I'm gonna I'm gonna answer what he asked, but he really I think he wants to ask a harder question than that

00:04:14.200 | Namely not just non-human enemies, but human enemies said that's the real tough question

00:04:20.800 | There's no evidence in the Bible that God loves Satan or the devils and there's no evidence in the Bible that we are

00:04:28.360 | commanded to love

00:04:30.240 | Satan or

00:04:31.840 | his demons all

00:04:33.840 | All the commands go in the other direction. There's implacable

00:04:36.920 | opposition between God and the devil and us and the devil so I don't think

00:04:43.960 | We're ever commanded to love the devil and God never gives any evidence of loving the devil

00:04:51.040 | he is beyond all redemption and therefore he has been handed over to his

00:04:56.600 | rebellion, but the the tougher question is

00:05:01.680 | Whether God loves his human enemies the way he commands us to love

00:05:08.400 | Our human enemies and at one level the answer is yes

00:05:13.040 | But not at every level. In fact, Jesus tells us to

00:05:17.960 | Model our love of our enemies on his love of his enemies in Matthew 5 44. I say do you love your enemies?

00:05:25.400 | Pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son to

00:05:32.980 | Rise on the evil and the good in others

00:05:35.740 | He loves his enemies and sends rain on the just and the unjust so you treat your enemies that way, too

00:05:42.280 | But there's a difference isn't there? We are finite and do not know the deep heart condition of our enemies

00:05:50.160 | We do not know the final

00:05:52.680 | trajectory of their unbelief in their hard hardness hardness of heart

00:05:57.200 | given our limitations

00:06:00.080 | It is always right

00:06:02.360 | for us to pray and work for their temporal and

00:06:07.240 | Eternal good until they're dead

00:06:10.360 | But God does know the deep heart condition of our enemies

00:06:16.480 | He knows the final

00:06:19.680 | trajectory of their unbelief in their hardness. He knows whether he will exert an

00:06:26.400 | omnipotent

00:06:28.720 | saving influence in their lives and

00:06:31.680 | therefore what he expects from us in our

00:06:36.240 | ignorance and finiteness isn't the same as what he

00:06:41.100 | Exercises in his infinite wisdom and knowledge and power. He expects us

00:06:48.360 | To pray for their salvation work for their salvation until they're dead, but he does not always

00:06:55.760 | give that

00:06:58.680 | salvation x 1348 Ephesians 2 5 2nd Timothy 2 25 and 26 so I

00:07:05.560 | think the answer to Ken the second question is

00:07:09.920 | first

00:07:11.960 | neither God nor

00:07:13.800 | God's people are expected to love Satan and

00:07:16.960 | Second both God and his people love their human enemies, but not in the same way

00:07:24.760 | since God is all wise and all governing and we are finite and very

00:07:31.440 | limited in our understanding and wisdom

00:07:34.440 | Very interesting. Thank you pastor John and for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes

00:07:41.480 | Or to subscribe to the audio feed or send us a question of your own go to our online home

00:07:46.240 | Desiring God org forward slash ask pastor John

00:07:49.080 | Pastor John and I will return on Wednesday to hear from a listener

00:07:52.640 | Who is scratching his head as he reads about Jesus saying in the Gospels that he is not seeking his own glory

00:08:00.400 | Why was Jesus not seeking his own honor if that's what the Gospels are all about

00:08:05.800 | Anyways, we will find out on Wednesday. I'm your host Tony rank. You will see you then

00:08:09.360 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Does God Love His Enemies?

Chapters