The term hate is sometimes an expression of choosing one over another and does not literally mean hatred.
For instance Jesus told Peter, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26)
No commentator worth his salt would suggest the term ‘hate’ in Luke 14 is literal, otherwise he would be hard pressed to explain Scripture’s other teachings such as, loving your wife as Christ loves the Church, honoring and loving your parents …
Instead this passage must be rightly understood to mean that man must choose following God’s will over the will of even the most beloved in one’s life.
God’s inability to be unloving is not a shortcoming of God’s strength and power, but the greatest most glorious characteristic of His eternal nature !
To declare God’s universal self-sacrificial love to the entire world reveals God for what makes Him so abundantly glorious !
His Love.
The question Calvinists are asking is backwards.
Instead of asking, as John Piper does, “How does a Sovereign God express His love ?”
We should be asking, “How does a Loving God express His Sovereignty ?”
The Potters Promise
Leighton Flowers
#tulip
