Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor John Piper Kenneth from Starkville, Mississippi writes and to say this Pastor John I have been taking advantage of more and more of the resources at desiring God org lately And one of the things that stood out for me is the self exaltation of God You discussed how it is the most loving thing that God could do for us namely to exalt himself While it would be a sin for anyone else to do that.

My question is almost the reverse of this Are there things that we are commanded to do by God that would be a sin if God did them? Specifically Jesus tells us to love our enemies Would it be a sin for God to love his non-human enemies like Satan and the fallen angels?

Or does he love them? Pastor John? What would you say to Kenneth? Let me take those two questions one at a time because the first one that I hear is I think clear and easy to answer from Scripture the second one not so easy First he says Kenneth says Are there things that we are commanded to do?

By God that would be sin if God did them and the answer is clearly Yes, I can think of half a dozen things That God commands us to do that would be sin for God to do 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 It would be sin for God to confess his sins because he doesn't have any and that would be hypocrisy second 1st Corinthians 12 21 Every member of the body of Christ is told that we should never say to another person I have no need of you in the body of God have no need of you In other words human beings are all commanded and expected to admit our dependence on others And our need for others, but it would be sin for God to admit for a moment that he depended on anything outside himself 1725 God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything Since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything or to make almost the same point We're commanded in Proverbs 3 5 do not rely on your own understanding And it would be sin for God not to rely on his own understanding It would be sin because he's infallible and To fail to rely on his own infinite wisdom would make him a fool and God is not a fool.

His understanding is 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 Worship his Creator because he wasn't created and we're told in Romans 12 19 never avenge yourselves Leave it to the wrath of God.

So it'd be a sin for God to renounce his prerogative Vengeance and judgment since it belongs to him uniquely and doesn't belong to us and the list could just go on and on So to be a creature Rather than a creator puts a person in a position with responsibilities and expectations That the Creator does not have so the answer to the first question is yes There are many things in the Bible that we are commanded to do by God that it would be a sin if God did them and then Kenneth asks Specifically Jesus tells us to love our enemies.

So would it be sin for God to love his Non-human enemies like Satan and the fallen angels or does he love them and he went in a direction there I did not expect him to go. He made it too easy I'm gonna I'm gonna answer what he asked, but he really I think he wants to ask a harder question than that Namely not just non-human enemies, but human enemies said that's the real tough question 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 commanded to love Satan or his demons all All the commands go in the other direction.

There's implacable opposition between God and the devil and us and the devil so I don't think We're ever commanded to love the devil and God never gives any evidence of loving the devil he is beyond all redemption and therefore he has been handed over to his rebellion, but the the tougher question is Whether God loves his human enemies the way he commands us to love Our human enemies and at one level the answer is yes But not at every level.

In fact, Jesus tells us to Model our love of our enemies on his love of his enemies in Matthew 5 44. I say do you love your enemies? 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 Rise on the evil and the good in others He loves his enemies and sends rain on the just and the unjust so you treat your enemies that way, too But there's a difference isn't there?

We are finite and do not know the deep heart condition of our enemies We do not know the final trajectory of their unbelief in their hard hardness hardness of heart given our limitations It is always right for us to pray and work for their temporal and Eternal good until they're dead But God does know the deep heart condition of our enemies He knows the final trajectory of their unbelief in their hardness.

He knows whether he will exert an omnipotent saving influence in their lives and therefore what he expects from us in our ignorance and finiteness isn't the same as what he Exercises in his infinite wisdom and knowledge and power. He expects us To pray for their salvation work for their salvation until they're dead, but he does not always give that salvation x 1348 Ephesians 2 5 2nd Timothy 2 25 and 26 so I think the answer to Ken the second question is first neither God nor God's people are expected to love Satan and Second both God and his people love their human enemies, but not in the same way since God is all wise and all governing and we are finite and very limited in our understanding and wisdom Very interesting.

Thank you pastor John and for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes Or to subscribe to the audio feed or send us a question of your own go to our online home Desiring God org forward slash ask pastor John Pastor John and I will return on Wednesday to hear from a listener Who is scratching his head as he reads about Jesus saying in the Gospels that he is not seeking his own glory Why was Jesus not seeking his own honor if that's what the Gospels are all about Anyways, we will find out on Wednesday.

I'm your host Tony rank. You will see you then