#798 Does God Like Me?
August 28, 2022Dr. Craig,
I can attest that your work has been indespensible to me in my intellectual and spiritual growth. May God continue to bless you and your work long into the future.
1. When the Bible tells us that God loves us, does this mean an affection (like the way my mother loves me) or is this merely an act of the will (e.g. to will our good)? If the former, are we as Christians called to love others in this way or only in the latter way?
2. As a Christian, does God like me, and if so, are there scriptures that attest to this?
Thank you again for all your work.
Charles
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
Fortunately, Charles, the Bible enables us to answer your questions decisively: Yes, yes, and yes!
First, does God love you affectionately (the way your mother loves you)? Yes! In fact, in the Old Testament God is actually described in relation to His people as being like a mother. The Lord says through the prophet Isaiah
As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 6.13)
The Lord consoles his afflicted people, who feel forgotten by God, comparing His love for them with a mother’s love for her infant child:
Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49. 15)
Even more frequently we find the parental metaphor of “father” applied to the relationship between God and His people (Deuteronomy 32.6; Psalm 68.5; Isaiah 63.16; Jeremiah 31.9; Malachi 2.10). This metaphor connotes both parental love and authority.
Moreover, the Scriptures not only testify to God’s agapé love for us but also use such emotionally laden words as “compassion” and “loving-kindness” to describe God’s love for us (e.g., James 5.1; Titus 3.4). So there can be no doubt that God’s love is much more than merely willing our good but involves the affections as well.
So “are we as Christians called to love others in this way?” Yes! The Scriptures also call upon us to be compassionate people (Luke 10.33; Colossians 3.2; Hebrews 10.34), just as the Lord Jesus was compassionate toward others (Mark 6.34; Luke 7.13). The Scriptures enjoin us to have, not just disinterested love, but “brotherly affection” toward one another (Romans 12.10; Hebrews 13.1; II Peter 1.7).
“As a Christian, does God like me?” Yes! The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends” (John 15.5). God wants to be your friend.
How wonderful the Christian message is! God is a God of love and compassion who wants us as friends! What a contrast to an atheistic worldview!
This is truly good news, especially for those with a poor self-image who have trouble believing that others really like them. God actually likes you and wants to be your friend.
- William Lane Craig