Does God discriminate?
Christ in Gethsemane (Christus in Gethsemane), oil painting by Heinrich Ferdinand Hofmann (Heinrich Hofmann). The original is at the Riverside Church (Riverside Church, New York City). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Discrimination is an unlovely idea in the modern world. In some spheres, it is even a criminal one. Racial, sexual, and class discrimination are rightly acknowledged as evils which need to be purged from society. It may, therefore, come as a surprise to find that God exercises a discrimination in His love for His creatures. That He does so is put beyond doubt in such a statement as Paul quotes in Romans 9:13, from Malachi: “ Jacob have I loved , but Esau have I hated.” It is also reinforced in Hebrews 12:6 where we are assured that “whom the Lord loves He chastens.” Neither the chastening nor the love, however, are indiscriminate. They both refer to “every son whom He receives.” Again, in 1 John 3:1, the apostle marvels at the depth of the love the Father has bestowed o