Does God Still Like Us When We Sin?

Dear B,

You said, "When a Christian sins, God still likes him as well as loves him."

If by “like” you mean “is pleased with,” then no. However, I do not think like means “is pleased with.” I do not use the word like. God does not use the word. Even if it meant “is pleased with,” the answer is definitely not yes.

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. (1 Thess. 4:1)

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Cor. 5:9)

There is only one type of forgiveness. God forgives our sin when we receive Christ. He forgives the sins that we commit after we receive Christ when we confess them. He already paid for them.

You also said, “Many Christians express the view that God loves them but does not like them; that is, that God has their best interest in His heart, but He is displeased on a day-to-day basis because of their daily sinning.” You are correcting the wrong part of their wrong belief. The solution is not explaining that He likes them, but that He loves them differently than they understand.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Heb. 12:5-11)

God chastens those He loves. If we are not chastened, we are not sons. Chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

I notice that you often mention what some Christians believe and then you react to their false beliefs instead of giving them a straight biblical answer.

You have a mixed-up view of objective and subjective. Objective is always based on truth. Subjective is based on feelings. However, some feelings are truth. My feelings may be God-caused. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are feelings. Therefore, these feelings are objective truth. If God chastens me, that is a God-caused feeling. Therefore it is true. If someone thinks that God does not love him because he is being chastened, he has believed the lie of the Devil. Someone must come alongside him and tell him this chastening is the love of God for him.

From the time of our receiving Christ until we go to be with Him, the constant is God’s faithfulness and God’s love. These do not change. We are not condemned. We are saved. His love for us expressed in His once-for-all death on the cross is the beginning and end of our pilgrimage. Any action of God in our lives is based on His death, His faithfulness, and His love.

His faithfulness is expressed in different ways:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Cor. 10:13)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thess. 5:23-24)

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23)

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. (Rev. 19:11)

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. (Rev. 1:5)

We can see that this faithfulness is active in our lives. It is not only a once-for-all faithfulness. His love is expressed in different ways in addition to John 3:16, although that is the greatest expression of love.

Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)

No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. (John 16:27)

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 21)

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)

Because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. (Heb. 12:6)

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Eph. 3:16-17a)

This love of Christ is continually being expressed to us.