Does God Love Sinners?

One of the earliest stories I ever heard about D. L. Moody, that great evangelist of the nineteenth century, took place when he was temporarily called away to another city and left a young English preacher named Henry Moorhouse to speak during his absence. Upon returning from his trip, he asked his wife, “Well, what about the young preacher?”

“Oh,” she said, “he is a better preacher than you are. He is telling sinners that God loves them.”

“He is wrong!” said Moody, “God doesn’t love sinners.”

“Well,” she said, “you go and hear him.”

“Is he still preaching?” asked Mr. Moody.

“Yes, he has been preaching all week and has only taken up one verse, John 3:16” was her reply.

When Mr. Moody went to the meeting, Moorhouse got up, and said, “I have been hunting and hunting all through the Bible, looking for a text, and I think we will just talk about John 3:16 once more.” Mr. Moody always testified that it was on that night that he first got hold of a clear understanding of the gospel and the love of God. Think what it meant in Moody’s life, and in the lives of tens of thousands who were reached through his ministry, to know that God loves sinners! —Adapted.

We can never really know God until we know His love. God so loved the world that He sent His Son. The world did not ask God to send Him, men did not ask Christ to come, but God loved them, and He sent Him. —J.N.D.