Does God love satan?

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sma:
If God is love, how does He feel about the devil?
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Well the Bible makes it pretty clear that He hates his enemies. If he didn’t there would not be a Hell. Which was created for Satan.

Just because He is love does not mean He cannot have righteous anger. God is love does not mean God has to love everything.

Mel
 
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Melchior:
…He hates his enemies. If he didn’t there would not be a Hell. Which was created for Satan.
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I’ll disagree with you on this point:

Lk 6:27-28

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

I think God let satan chose his own path. God is willing to allow his creation chose Him or not. That’s love!

Of course, I’m not sure if God’s plan for us is somehow different than it is for His angels. It’s possible that when Christ spoke these words in Luke, He was only referring to humans. Maybe someone with more knowledge on the subject can interject.
 
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sma:
If God is love, how does He feel about the devil?
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The devil made his choice, Luicifer when he was in Heaven thought he was above God he had everything and threw it all away.
Like any sinner that falls into Hell I feel an imense sorrow, but does God love the devil, who knows, and more so does it matter ?
 
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Stylteralmaldo:
I’ll disagree with you on this point:

Lk 6:27-28

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

I think God let satan chose his own path. God is willing to allow his creation chose Him or not. That’s love!

Of course, I’m not sure if God’s plan for us is somehow different than it is for His angels. It’s possible that when Christ spoke these words in Luke, He was only referring to humans. Maybe someone with more knowledge on the subject can interject.
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Ummm… then could you explain this in Rom 9:13 - “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
 
but the feeling is not mutual thus Satan can never be happy in the precence of God
 
Ummm… then could you explain this in Rom 9:13 - “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
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In this context “loved” and “hated” mean favored and unfavored.
 
Dr. Colossus:
In this context “loved” and “hated” mean favored and unfavored.
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The “favored” and “unfavored” words are not sufficient to support this verse unless you supply references to support it. Since that, I would like to know more about this.

Thanks
 
I believe God, being Love, loves all. Even “Satan.” I remember back in parochial grade school, I was taught that Lucifer was God’s closest of angels before he chose evil through his free will, and fell from Heaven.
(It’s been a long time, but until I see reason to change my lesson, I’m sticking to it). So, God does not love Satan less because of his evil, nor does he love us less when we sin. Hatred, I think, always comes from the abuse of our free will. Never from God.
 
St. Thomas Aquinas says,

Nothing prevents one and the same thing being loved under one aspect, while it is hated under another. God loves sinners in so far as they are existing natures; for they have existence and have it from Him. In so far as they are sinners, they have not existence at all, but fall short of it; and this in them is not from God. Hence under this aspect, they are hated by Him.

Peter Kreeft comments,

God practices what He preaches to us: love the sinner and hate the sin. God loves even the being He created in the devil, but not the lack of being in the devil’s sin. St. Thomas is not saying that sinners have no existence, but that they lack the fullness of existence that comes from loving the good. Vice and virtue have an ontological dimension as well as a moral one; we diminish our being when we sin and augment it by the virtues.
 
The “favored” and “unfavored” words are not sufficient to support this verse unless you supply references to support it. Since that, I would like to know more about this.
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Here’s the answer from Catholic Exchange (www.catholicexchange.com)
Question:
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Why did God hate Esau?
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Answer:
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When Scripture speaks of God’s “hating” Esau it refers not to sentiments of disgust God had for him, but to the fact that Esau was not chosen. Jacob received Isaac’s blessing, not Esau. This does not mean Esau went on to live a life of poverty (quite the contrary, he did very well in this life). It does not refer to Esau’s eternal destiny (of which we know nothing). Rather, it refers to the fact that it was through Jacob, not Esau, that the Messiah was born into the world. Interestingly, the Edomites (who descend from Esau) were included in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ along with all the other nations of the earth. In other words, Jesus, the son of Jacob, died for the sins of Esau as well as Jacob. So ultimately, we can say that God “hated” Esau in order to love him all the better in Christ. Similarly, Jacob was chosen for the sake of Esau, who was not chosen.
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God cannot act or be in any way contrary to Himself. There is a logically riddle that goes something like, “If God is omnipotent, can he destroy Himself?” To reply “no” usually evokes the counter that God is therefore not omnipotent (since He is “limited” as described). The falicy in such an argument is to fail to recognize something for what it is. It is the equivalent of saying, “could God (who is all powerful) become Satan?” – or, to rephrase, “can God become un-God?” God – and all things – are what they are. God cannot be un-God. In other words, He cannot stop being who He is.

The point of this is to say that God, being the very essence of good and love, cannot not love (if you’ll excuse the double negative). He is love, and loves even those who hate Him – even Satan.
 
Dr. Colossus:
Here’s the answer from Catholic Exchange (www.catholicexchange.com)
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There’s no references in there… Author did not give any reference, just based on his own opinions. Author has to use references to support his answer. It is not good enough for me… Sorry. Anyone have reference support?
 
This question reminds me of “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” 😃
 
The answer is in the language. I’ll try to find a source for this, but I recall that the Hebrew language didn’t have levels of degree, so “hated” was used to show “unfavored, or unchosen”. Fr. Most talks about this somewhere, so I’ll need to find a link for you.

Stylite
 
And here it is:
“Paragraph 13: Failure to know Hebrew could lead to horrid consequences, e.g., St. Paul who knew Hebrew, in Romans 9:13 quoted Malachi 1:2 in which God said: “I have loved Jacob, but hated Esau.” But poor St. Augustine thought this meant God really hated Esau! and destined him to hell without even looking to see how he would live (Ad Simplicianum 1. 14). But at the bottom is a Hebrew way of speaking. Hebrew and Aramaic both lack the degrees of comparison, such as: good, better, best, or, clear, clearer, clearest. Not having such forms, when they have such ideas, they are forced to use other devices. One of them is to speak of hate vs. love. In our language we would say: I love one more than the other. In Luke 14:26 Jesus says we must hate our parents. But that is the same Semitic pattern. Matthew 10:37 softened it, using the western way of speaking, and said: “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.” We recall that we saw earlier some striking texts from Isaiah 13:9-0 and 34:4 as well as Ezekiel 32:7-8 in which the apocalyptic way of speaking could be very misleading if one did not recognize the genre.”

From Ch. 5 of Basic Scripture by Fr. William Most
 
Vincent’s post has all the answers we need (well, more than we need, actually). St. Thomas’s statement, when carefully analyzed, shows that God is love and existence. Sin is a turning away from God, and thus the greater the sin, the greater the “no-thing”, or non-existence. (that’s not to say that sinning is “nothing special”, as we would say colloquially, or that one who sins mortally no longer exists). But it is to say that God doesn’t hate any-thing. (Think about it).

As for “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Good ethical advice. But it can be carried too far, to seduce one to indulge in hatred, and then convince one self that one is really “hating the sin” while one burns/attacks/scorns the sinner. Better than “hating the sin”, when confronted with temptation, is “loving the Good”.

Yes, this whole debate is like “how many angels can dance on a pin.” Revealing, if approached the right way. But too tempting to see God as subject to what we want Him to be.

So, let’s love, not hate. And let God be who He is.
 
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Stylite:
And here it is:
“Paragraph 13: Failure to know Hebrew could lead to horrid consequences, e.g., St. Paul who knew Hebrew, in Romans 9:13 quoted Malachi 1:2 in which God said: “I have loved Jacob, but hated Esau.” But poor St. Augustine thought this meant God really hated Esau! and destined him to hell without even looking to see how he would live (Ad Simplicianum 1. 14). But at the bottom is a Hebrew way of speaking. Hebrew and Aramaic both lack the degrees of comparison, such as: good, better, best, or, clear, clearer, clearest. Not having such forms, when they have such ideas, they are forced to use other devices. One of them is to speak of hate vs. love. In our language we would say: I love one more than the other. In Luke 14:26 Jesus says we must hate our parents. But that is the same Semitic pattern. Matthew 10:37 softened it, using the western way of speaking, and said: “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.” We recall that we saw earlier some striking texts from Isaiah 13:9-0 and 34:4 as well as Ezekiel 32:7-8 in which the apocalyptic way of speaking could be very misleading if one did not recognize the genre.”

From Ch. 5 of Basic Scripture by Fr. William Most
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Thanks Stylite, I’m glad you were able to find a source. It’s so frustrating to know something and then not be able to find a way to back it up.
 
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