“Wherein hast thou loved us?”

Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,”

I have read many times that God did not hate Esau because God does not hate any person. I understand that people see certain places in the scriptures that the bible “appears” to say something that it does not actually say the way it is read. If every scripture was to be takes exactly as we read it, then the bible would be in contradiction. This is why we must study the bible in the context of the entire scriptures as they are written. God said, “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:14, 15. To study the bible is to dig deep into it and find what God is saying to us, what He is teaching us. If a person simply takes the scriptures as read and does not study them, they will be very confused. If a person does not piece the puzzle of the bible together, they will always be “spiritually discerned.” This means this person will never be able to make a spiritual determination of what God is saying. They will never be able to put the scriptural puzzle together. While no human will ever understand the bible in full (because it is God’s word) we must spend our entire spiritual life on this earth in study of it to “rightly dividing the word of truth.” The difference between men of old (like Spurgeon and others) were so biblically intelligent is because they have little else to occupy their time. Therefore, they (as a family) would sit under a candlelight or other burning lights reading and studying the bible and praying for the Holy Spirit to teach them. This is what made these men so scripturally intelligent. This is why so many (including myself) read and study their work. Most Pastors today have seminary learning or have been to school that teaches men to become Pastors. The greatest seminary is the local church under a scripturally sound Pastor. They will teach you how God is Sovereign, how He is all-knowing, and how He is eternal and never changes. How that the bible is God’s word penned by people that were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Your Pastor will teach you to take the time to study God’s word in-depth, looking up words and putting the context of the bible together, and “rightly dividing the word of truth.” That in that study you will “…shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed” It will be in that in-depth study that you will learn the right answer to this question, “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” Rom. 9:21 You will also learn that “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Rom. 9:18. And in all this scriptural understanding we have learned, and the Holy Spirit has taught us, we may have “the mind of the Lord” and “have the mind of Christ.” 1Cor. 2:16 When the Lord blesses us with this understanding, because we worked hard to learn it, then we will understand how it is that God loved Jacob and hated Esau his twin brother, just as God loved Abel and hated Cain. God loves us with an eternal love, He did not come to love us, He never did not love us. However, with people like Esau, God never loved them, God did not come to hate them, God hated them as He did Esau in eternity past. Once you learn this then you will shun off silly preachers comments like “God can’t change your will” or “God did not hate Esau because God does not hate any person.” God’s love to us is an act of mercy on God’s part, and the reason God saved us is an act of grace on God’s part. People that refuse to believe this has not studied enough to rightly decern the scriptures. That is, they are not able to separate by the differences between Truth and fiction. God loves us because He chose to, not because He had too.  

We are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:20 - 22 "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

There is no question that the Lord is talking about the local New Testament church here. In verse 19 the Lord said, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;” The “corner stone” is a large stone firmly at each corner and Jesus Christ is the “chief corner stone” He is named as such because the whole building rests on Him. Brother Oscar Mink, once Pastor of our church and now with the Lord said, “Christ Is The Cornerstone. A Corner Stone Is the Stone Placed In The Corner, Or Angles Of The Foundation Or Sub-Structure Where Two Sides Meet, And By Which They Are Held Together. The "Chief Cornerstone" Is the One, If Removed The Whole Building Would Collapse.” When   God says, “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” God is speaking of the gospel message of salvation and biblical truth, but the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ because He is the “chief corner stone” of both the church and the truth of the bible. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That “rock” Jesus was talking about was not Peter because he was a (Petros - a piece of rock) the rock (petra - a mass of a rock) is Jesus Christ. The foundation of everything is laid on Jesus Christ because without Him is all comes tumbling down. God said in 1 Corinthians 3:11 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the church or the gospel or biblical truth, Jesus is the foundation of it all, and if it is not built on Him then it is built on sand. Matthew 7:26 - 27 "And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: (27) And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." So, we must ask why did God say “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” Because as Brother Mink said in his study of Ephesians “We Are Not To Understand By These Words That "The Apostles And Prophets" Are A Part Of The Actual Foundation Of Salvation From Sin, Rather That They Were Apart From Christ, The Original Messengers Of The Truth That Salvation”. The Actual foundation of all of it was Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are speaking about the word, the gospel, or the church, Jesus Christ is the foundation and these Apostles and Prophets are the foundation laid on top of Jesus, this is why He is the Chief Cornerstone. However, since these men of old laid the foundation of truth the building continues to be built, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:” Verse 21. We are framed together on the same foundation as the Apostles and Prophets who are all built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. This is true if you are talking about the word of God, the family of God, or the Lord’s churches, we are “all the building fitly framed together” as God has so chosen. And it is because of this foundation, the Apostles and Prophets, and everyone since until today and even into tomorrow, we “are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” That is “For the indwelling, or the dwelling-place, of God.” Each individual believer, as well as each individual local church, all built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and the Apostles and Prophets for the purpose to be the “dwelling-place, of God.” Built by the Holy Spirit.