God's love, individual or collective?
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:33 pm
Hi all, I was wanting to ask you all about what kind of impression you all get about God's love for each of us while reading the scriptures. Does God love each of us individually for slightly or even vastly different reasons or does He just love humanity as a collective?
To give you more of an example of what I'm talking about for instance when a person is friends with someone else or when two people of the opposite sex is in love with each other, if you were to ask them why do you love this or that person you will get a variety of answers such as "i love him because he is kind and humble towards people" or "i love her because she gives selflessly to help others in need". I was wondering does God while loving all of us, also loves us individually for certain special reasons or qualities that each person specifically has?
One of the things I've heard in the past from a local pastor is that "if you were the only person God ever created and you had to have your sins covered God would send Jesus specifically to die just for you". Now I wonder if this is the kind of love that God has for each of us or not. I certainly can't find anything in scripture that says that and I'm almost left with the idea that God may not specifically love us individually for special reasons that only that one person specifically has but instead just loves the "whole" of "humanity". Because afterall it isn't that "for God so loved John, Bob, or Mary" but "for God so loved "the world".
Just interested in what you all think, I would love to see your toughts on this. Thanks, take care.
To give you more of an example of what I'm talking about for instance when a person is friends with someone else or when two people of the opposite sex is in love with each other, if you were to ask them why do you love this or that person you will get a variety of answers such as "i love him because he is kind and humble towards people" or "i love her because she gives selflessly to help others in need". I was wondering does God while loving all of us, also loves us individually for certain special reasons or qualities that each person specifically has?
One of the things I've heard in the past from a local pastor is that "if you were the only person God ever created and you had to have your sins covered God would send Jesus specifically to die just for you". Now I wonder if this is the kind of love that God has for each of us or not. I certainly can't find anything in scripture that says that and I'm almost left with the idea that God may not specifically love us individually for special reasons that only that one person specifically has but instead just loves the "whole" of "humanity". Because afterall it isn't that "for God so loved John, Bob, or Mary" but "for God so loved "the world".
Just interested in what you all think, I would love to see your toughts on this. Thanks, take care.