Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– F. F. Bruce
Devotional: 7 Truths About God’s Encompassing Love and Blessing
The F.F. Bruce Williams quote above is a very insightful quote because it really zeros in on the nature of God. God does not discriminate amongst His children. The Bible is clear that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, free and slave, or man and woman. You have to understand that during the time that Apostle Paul was preaching the Gospel, there were a lot of distinctions that separated human beings from each other. In other words, things have not changed all that much. But God was clear that the Gospel was for everybody. Since the Gospel is the ultimate blessing, it follows that God disposes blessings without discrimination. God’s love is all encompassing. Here are 7 truths about God’s encompassing love and Blessing:
God Sends Blessings to All His Children
Jesus was very clear that God sends rain not just to water the crops of the just but also the unjust. In other words, God provides for all His children, whether they love Him and acknowledge Him or whether they are rebellious and hate Him. That is how much of a loving father God is. He never turns His back on His children because if He did, He would make the sun shine only on those who love him. Obviously, He is not doing that. In fact, during the time of Noah, He continued to let the sun rise and prevent a flood until the last day. In other words, He gave people an even break at salvation. Sadly, only Noah and his family took Him up on His offer.
God Gives Based On His Grace, Not Based On What We Deserve
Jesus Christ was very clear about the nature of God’s compassion. In many of Jesus’ parables, it seemed that God forgot how to count. There were many cases from human perspective, which God should cut back on the blessing or at least give proportion of blessings; but no. God gave people the full measure of His blessings. A very dramatic example of this is, of course, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The son wasted the father’s resources, but the father still blessed the son when he came back repentant. That is how rich God’s grace is. Because if He was to give us only to bless us based on what we deserve, we will get nothing at all. In fact, the only thing we will get is death because death is the wage of sin.
He Reached Out To Us Even When We Were Still His Enemies
The book of Ephesians is clear that God gave us the provision of Jesus Christ even when everybody hated Him and even when we were sinners. God gave us his only begotten Son. That is how much God wants to bless us; that’s how rich His generosity is.
God Sacrifices for Whoever Believes
Regardless of the translation, if you read John 3:16, you would come to one conclusion: That God gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes… Meaning, the blessing is not just for Jews, or for Christians, or for people who do good. It is for everybody. The whole point is that God’s blessing is for people even if they hate God and do not know Him. It is for everybody, whosoever believes in Jesus. The word “whosoever” is all-encompassing. The only difference is that you come to believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
God Does Not Let Your Sin Get in The Way Of His Love
Time and time again, in the Bible, it is clear that Jesus looked at the church as a hospital; not as a museum of holy people. Because who were the people that approached Jesus? They were the tax collectors and the prostitutes. These were the people that were cast out by society and whom Jesus embraced with open arms. That is how much God loves you. Because all of us are sinners, we may like to pretend that our sins are less grave than the sins of others. But guess what? We are still all sinners; and if left untreated, we will all go to the same place which is eternal death. In all His parables and based on His own actions, Jesus did not let our sin get in the way of His redeeming love. Accordingly, we should love others without discrimination because inasmuch as God loved us without discrimination, we should love others without discrimination.
We Are Called To Reflect God’s Love Without Discrimination
We have to face that human beings are so fallen. According to the book of Jeremiah, our hearts are so depraved that we really are not capable of loving others. We are all selfish. All we care about is our own good; and in many cases, by focusing on our own selfishness, we basically ensure our destruction. When we believe in Jesus Christ and when we choose Him as our personal Savior, His love enters our lives. That is when for the first time in our lives we have real love, and we are called to share that love to others not just to the people that treat us well, not just to the people we are related to, and not just to the people we like, but throughout all the world. As Jesus said, a bright light should not be covered by a bushel, but put on a lamp stand so that the whole world can see. When you put a light on a lamp stand, it means that you do not care who sees the light. It means that you do not discriminate. Whether gay, straight, different races, disabled people, or non-Christians—it does not matter. God’s love reaches out to everybody and invites everybody, and so should the love Jesus put in your hearts.
God’s Love Cast Out Fear
The root cause of discrimination is fear. We fear the stranger, the foreigner, the people who are not in the same class as us, the people who did not go to the same school as us, or who do not speak or have the same values as us. It is all based on fear, and God’s love casts out fear. The Bible is clear that the antidote to fear is God’s love; and if we really have God’s love in our hearts because we accepted Jesus, the love that we carry must confront discrimination head on. We must be able to love everybody around us without any discrimination.
