Should a Christian Love Everybody?

It is taken as a truism by Christians of every stripe (something which itself should raise red flags) that we are to love everyone, every single human being in the world, with no exceptions. However, exactly as a truism, it is a principle which is rarely checked against our standard of truth, the Bible.

In I Corinthians 16:22, the Apostle Paul gives a blunt and startling command: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." Unless one is willing to claim that cursing is a form of love, Paul can only be taken to be commanding us to hate him who hates God.

As startling as that statement might be, it doesn't originate with Paul. Rather, the beloved King David, the man whom God Himself calls "a man after My own heart" (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), says (Psalm 139:19-22), "Oh that You would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against You with malicious intent; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies."

When I have brought this up in other circumstances, someone always mentions Matthew 5:44: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Does Jesus say something different? Not at all! He tells us to love those who hate us, not who hate Him. And, of course, that makes sense. We are wicked sinners, deserving of wrath. How can we blame anyone if he treats us as our sins deserve? But that is not true of the sinless and sovereign God. Not only do His enemies hate Him wrongly, out of bald-faced malice, but that hatred is an act of treason against their rightful Lord! It is far from the same thing.