“God’s Love for One, God’s Love for All”
I am reading a very fine book right now, Old Testament Theology: Reading he Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture, by R.W.L. Moberly. Moberly is an excellent biblical scholar, theologian, and writer. These qualities do not always go together. In fact, this combination probably occurs less frequently than flipping a coin and having it land on its edge.
Struggling with God’s choice to love Israel, Moberly writes,
Generally speaking, one of the recurrent notes that is sounded by a responsive individual recipient of love is an astonished “Why me?” This is a question that always looks for more than actual reasons and explanations, however much some reasons and explanations may indeed be given. The question expresses sheer marvel at the gratuitous wonder of being loved (gratuitous, because even the most admirable personal qualities are no guarantee of being loved by another). The reality of love surpasses the realm of reason. In this sense love is a mystery, not in the sense of a puzzle to be resolved but in the sense of a reality whose dimensions grow as people engage with it; . . . If this note of astonished wonder at the unpredictable gift of love is lost, then a significant dimension of understanding the nature of divine choosing is thereby also lost.[1]
For someone—even another human being—to choose to love you is a wonderfully baffling experience.
But what does this mean for those who are not loved or chosen? What of the outsiders? And who of us has not been or felt like an outsider at one time or another?
I haven’t finished this chapter in the book, so I don’t know how Moberly intends to resolve the tension of God’s love for all with God’s particular love for Israel. I personally do not believe that there is a way to resolve the tension. Some tensions have to be embraced rather than resolved. However, I will hazard an illustration that might help us as we struggle with the apparent contradiction of a God who loves us all, and yet loves us particularly.
My wife is one of the most loving people I know. She is thoughtful and kind and loyal. It takes a great deal of courage and toughness to love me. It really does. And she demonstrates this love on a daily basis.
On the other hand, despite the fact (but is it really despite?) that she has chosen to love me, she also loves many others. Does her love for me compromise her love for others? I don’t think so. Does her love for others compete with her love for me? I used to think it did. I was wrong.
Perhaps that is an analogy for God’s love for us in our particularity and God’s love for all. Perhaps my wife’s love for me is even more than an analogy. Perhaps it is a reflection of God’s love for the particular and God’s all-embracing love.
Part of the proper response to my wife’s love for me is, of course, to love her in return. But there is more to an appropriate response to that love. Her love calls, and leads, and pushes me to become a more loving person in general.
Being chosen and loved means that I am free to choose to love both her and others.
[1] R. W. L. Moberly, Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 44-45.
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