Bad People

God doesn't love good people and hate bad people.  That's how some people look at it and even how some people who call themselves Christians look at it.  Sometimes we get the idea that if we are bad, God is going to be mad at us, but if we are good, God will be happy with us and we get to go to heaven.  This is a very popular way to look at things but bears no resemblance to what the Bible says.

The Bible says that all people are bad.  "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23 NAS)  If God is going to hate sinners, He has to hate the whole world.  I think about Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church people who protest at funerals and hold up signs that say, "God hates fags" among other things.  There's a problem with these statements Biblically.  While it is true that God hates all sin, He loves sinners.   "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. " (John 3:16-17 NAS).  It doesn't say God loves just part of the world.  So, you can say bad people are loved.

Bad people are saved by trusting God (Christ).  You don't get saved because God decides your close enough to good.  All have sinned.  Instead God gives salvation to any who ask for it by accepting Christ's payment on the cross. "But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away." (1 John 1:9 CEV).  Bad people are lost by denying, rejecting God.  If you don't let God forgive you, then you are still holding on to the sin that God hates.  There will have to be punishment for that sin, love or no love.

So to recap, God doesn't love good people (aren't any) and hate bad people (everyone).  God loves everyone and died on the cross to pay for all the bad stuff.  Bad people (everyone) are saved when they embrace/accept that payment.  Now you can be called a good person (sorta) but not because your good, but because God paid up your badness.

This leads to one last point.  Safe bad people shouldn't be looking down at lost bad people but instead trying to reach them.  Since those who are safe (having been saved/forgiven) are only safe because God is good, not because they are, how can they look down on others?  That makes me think again of those protesters.  They condemn others with hateful speech and talk about God's judgement.  Now judgement is coming, but no one has the right to be prideful about being good.  They believe homosexuality is a sin.  So is pride.  Even Jesus came to save, not judge.  When He comes again, He will judge, but we should be still working on His first coming, trying to reach everyone with the good news that while none of us are good, God is very good and He wants to forgive all who come to Him, no matter what you may be guilty of.