Does God love Satan?

God loves you. It’s a phrase that many have heard all their lives. Priests, pastors, and religious leaders across the world have taught about God’s infinite, unchangeable, agape type of love toward His creations. That love is for everything He has created and everyone. Lucifer is a creation of God. God created Him. God loves Him. God hates his actions.

Many people struggle with their past and the idea that God could love them after everything they have done. However, a common mistake is confusing the love of God with the forgiveness of God. Just because God loves us does not mean He forgives our sins if we are unrepentant. There lies the problem with Lucifer – known as Satan. It is the same problem that also exists with the fallen angels who were thrown out of heaven with Lucifer after his rebellion toward God. It’s the problem of an unrepentant heart. It’s a sin problem.

First, we must understand repentance is a turning away from that sin. It’s not telling God we are sorry for the sin and asking forgiveness, only to go directly back into that sin again. Repentance is a turning away from that sin and walking toward God. Satan, by his nature, will never repent. Therefore, despite God loving him, Satan and those fallen angels have made their choice and it’s not God.

“Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This ‘fall’ consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents ‘you will be like God’. The devil ‘has sinned from the beginning’; he is ‘a liar and the father of lies.’ It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels’ sin unforgiveable. ‘There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for man after death.’” (CCC 392-392)

If we are to say that God does not love Satan then we must say there is a point where God’s love stops. We have to say there is something we can do to cause God to stop loving us. That is not the nature of God. The nature of God is love. God is love. That does not mean God ignores sin and treats everyone equally. Those who serve, love, and obey God remain in God’s favor. There are consequences to sin. For those who choose to not serve God or obey Him, the consequences are dire for eternity. That does not mean God does not still love them.

There are 4 types of love: Eros, Storge, Philia, and Agape. Agape is the highest form of love. It’s a self-giving love. It’s unconditional. It’s the type of love we associate with God because God is self-giving and loving. Within this type of love, God created his angels with free will just as He created mankind with free will. The angels are free to love God or turn against Him just as humans have the same choice. Satan chose to turn against God and rebel, along with many other angels. Satan and those fallen angels were thrown out of heaven. Consequences. We must never forget there are consequences to sin. In today’s society we take sin too lightly. We brush it off many times, ignore the severity of it, and perhaps simply say because God loves us it’s not that big of a deal. But, it IS that big of a deal. Just as when your children are disobedient to you there are consequences. If you are disobedient to your boss, there are consequences. When you punish a child for disobedience, it does not change the fact you care about that child or love that child, but that love does not ignore that negative behavior demands punishment.

God’s love does not stop because of what we do. However, His love alone will not guarantee eternal life with him in heaven either. It is His love, His mercy, His grace, His sacrifice, combined with Our love, Our obedience, Our desire to serve Him that brings us to eternal life.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

“For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” (I John 3:11-15)

Satan made his choice. The fallen angels made their choice. They are enduring the eternal consequences for their decisions. The angels in heaven and saints made their choice as well and are enjoying the eternal life God offers to those who choose Him above all else. Have you made your choice? God loves you, but do you love Him?