Does God love Christians differently than non-Christians?

The Bible says that God demonstrated his love for the world by giving his only begotten son (John 3:16). This was Jesus Christ who was crucified for us (the non-Christians). The Bible also says that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10).

The first thing we notice is that God loves the non-Christian because even Christians were non-Christians at one point in their lives. So it doesn't matter if you are an atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or whatever. God loves all of us and He demonstrated that love.

What about God's love for Christians? How does that differ from the non-Christian? First let's define love since it is the center of the question. Love is unselfish, loyal, and benevolent concern for the well-being of another (Holman Bible Dictionary). Love is to actually care about someone else and this care is demonstrated through a plethora of activities even sacrifice. We can see that God's love for us must be unselfish because he doesn't need us nor is he insufficient without us. God stretched out to reach the non-Christian, i.e., the sinner or the unsaved.

Let me digress here to define Christian. A Christian is not someone that subscribes to certain rituals. A Christian is not someone that goes to church on Sunday; pay his or her tithes, or whatever. A Christian is simply someone that has been reconciled to God and as a result of that, he or she has been delivered from the impending doom that all humans head towards by ourselves. That is, unless God had not provided salvation for us then we would all head streaming for destruction. The point here is that a Christian is nothing special except they are reconciled to God. However, we are not reconciled by anything of our own power or ability. Basically, a Christian gives up his or her desperate trip to destruction for a life with God forever. We didn't earn it and yet God provided it to us anyway.

Ok. Now consider that the Bible says that God does not show favoritism (Romans 2:11 & Galatians 2:6). Therefore, we could say that God's love extends to all the same because God doesn't show favoritism. His concern for the sinner is just as that for the Christian. As a matter of fact, the love of God perhaps applies more for the sinner or non-Christian because God is calling them to be reconciled to Him and live.

So no, God does not love the non-Christian differently than the Christian. However, God's dealings with them respectively are different. For example, God's love for the Christian isn't manifested or expressed in the call to salvation as it is for the non-Christian. Many of the signs and wonders were manifested for the non-Christian not the Christian. These were to demonstrate God's power to those that did not believe (1 Corinthians 14).

The love of God for humans is the same whether you are a Christian or not. His dealings are predicated on what we have done and not how he feels about us or whether we are a Christian or not. There is another major difference, however, that I should point out. The Christian has forgiveness of sins (as well as a true heart to do right) whereas a non-Christian does not (except from a sense of real morality). Therefore, the sins of those who have forgiveness are not counted towards them as someone who does not have forgiveness as the non-Christian would (this doesn't mean that God "beats" us every time a non-Christian--or Christian--does something wrong, i.e., sins).

Also consider that Jesus said the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust and that the sun shines on the unjust as well as the just (Matthew 5:45). All people suffer calamity in the world. Tornados destroy the homes of Christians as well as non-Christians. If God loved us differently than all Christians' homes would not be harmed whereas all non-Christians' homes would be destroyed by the same tornado. We could consider many examples like this where there is a segregation of Christians and non-Christians.

God loves the non-Christian and God loves the Christian because God loves the human race that He created anyway. He does not show partiality or favoritism though his dealings with the two are different as described previously. The evidence of this is quite readily seen in Jesus Christ. If God loved Christians differently than non-Christians than I doubt that Jesus would have come and died because no one was a Christian before Jesus Christ came.