Is God All Loving and Accepting?

Here are two perceptions of God that people often hold:

Perception A: God is all loving and therefore all accepting. The argument can be made that because God is all loving he must be all accepting. He must accept people as they are. God does accept people as they are but he does not affirm behaviors, thoughts, and actions that are contrary to who he is.

Perception B: God is unloving because he judges people. This perception of God paints God as an angry God who isn’t loving because he constantly judges them. If God is constantly judging people then he is intolerant of them, their actions, behaviors, and thoughts. If one perceives God to be unloving the conclusion is that God is an angry God eagerly waiting for people to do Him wrong so he can exercise His hand of judgement against them. This is also an incorrect perception of God.

Your perception of God impacts your relationship with God.

My faulty perception of God led to this faulty conclusion:

Because God is love he is all accepting and because he is all accepting then he must tolerate thoughts, actions, and behaviors that are contrary to His will. Now I know that love is much more than a feeling, it is a commitment, it is an action, it is tangible on so many levels.

To disagree with someone who thinks or acts differently than you if often framed as unloving. This thinking is faulty and illogical.

Love and justice work together in harmony.

Love

The Greek word “agape” is often translated “love” in the New Testament. The essence of agape love is goodwill, benevolence, and willful delight in the object of love.
Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from the other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. Agape love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…”
1 Corinthians 13:1-8a

“Agape” love is unconditional love. No matter what one does or says it does not change God’s “agape” love for that person. They are loved unconditionally.

The Greek word for sexual love is “eros.” Eros is love expressed through sexual intimacy.

Agape love isn’t brotherly love either.

The Greek word for brotherly love is “philia” meaning a close friendship or brotherly love.

The Greek word for the love between a parent and child is “Storge”.

Outside of the New Testament, the word agape is used in a variety of contexts, but in the vast majority of instances in the New Testament it carries distinct meaning. Agape is almost always used to describe the love that is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself according to 1 John 4:8

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:8

God does not merely love; He is love. Everything God does flows from His “agape” love. The type of love that characterizes God is not a sappy, sentimental feeling such as we often hear portrayed. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely, not because we deserve to be loved or because of any excellence we possess, but because it is His nature to love and He must be true to His nature.

Justice

Social justice is the notion that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social opportunities irrespective of race, gender, or religion. Social justice has been so politicized that now when people say social justice it often leads to actually harming others in the name of good.

“You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed.”
Psalm 10:17-18

Distributive Justice refers to the equitable allocation of assets in society. To Americans, distributive justice leads to communism where everything sucks equally for everyone.

Environmental Justice is the fair treatment of all people with regard to environmental burdens and benefits. In our broken world environmental justice always comes with an agenda. Everyone would agree we should be good stewards of the earth. Nobody likes to live in filth.

Restorative or Corrective Justice seeks to make whole those who have suffered unfairly.

Retributive Justice seeks to punish wrongdoers objectively and proportionately. In the Old Testament there is a verse that says and eye for an eye. This is an example of retributive justice.

Procedural Justice refers to implementing legal decisions in accordance with fair and unbiased processes.

The most basic but important point to make about justice is that its source and foundation is God’s holy nature. God himself is holy and He is the standard of right and wrong.

True justice flows out of God’s perfect holiness. Nothing outside of the nature of God defines what is right or wrong. Justice involves speaking truth to people even if it hurts because to lie to them is unloving because God is love and just.

“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”
Deuteronomy 32:4

Justice is the manifestation of God’s righteous character in the world.

Justice is the expression of God’s holiness through right action.
To not act just is to not be loving conversely to be loving you must be just.

God is love He is just ands because he is just he is love.

1. God’s love desires that humans be restored to a right relationship with God.
2. God’s justice requires that there be payment for the penalty of sin.
3. God’s solution is Jesus to be our substitutionary atonement.
   

“God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4–5

How to apply this truth:

1. Because God is love believers should love others.
God tells believers to love their enemies. To forgive those who have hurt you, to love those who are outcast or treated unjustly. Believers are also to love those who do not look like them, act like them, or think like them. Believers should be loving and accepting of people.

2. Because God is just believers should act and respond justly toward others.
This means that as a believer, you have to speak truth to people even if it hurts another’s feelings. Accepting people as they are does not mean you have to affirm behaviors and thoughts that contradict God’s will and ways.

In Summary

God is love and God is just. We are called to love others and act justly. We love others because Christ loves us. We act justly because God is just and we are told to act justly. Sometimes acting justly involves helping others to see and understand truth even if its countercultural. Accepting others as they are is loving. Affirming behaviors that are harmful is unloving and unjust if you understand that God wants the best for them.