October 3, 2025 - Malachi 1:2,3 - "God's Distinctive Love"

Malachi 1:2,3

“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, and I hated Esau.”

Here is the beginning point of all true knowledge of God. Before the prophet brings reproof or correction, before he speaks of the corruption of the priesthood, or of Israel’s vain offerings, he first declares the sure foundation: “I have loved you, saith the LORD.” The entire prophecy rests upon this truth. The people have failed, but God's covenant has not failed, for it is built upon the everlasting love of God in Christ.

It is striking that the LORD anchors His love in the history of Jacob and Esau. “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Both were sons of Isaac, both descended from Abraham, both alike by nature. Yet God says, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.” Here is God's sovereign election. Grace is not because of any worthiness in man, nor in the will of man, but in the free, distinguishing love of God. As Paul writes in Romans 9:13-“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated…that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” This love is no abstract decree; it is the eternal covenant of grace purposed from eternity, but accomplished in time when the LORD Jesus laid down His life at the cross. “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). When God says, “I have loved you,” He is pointing us to the Lamb slain since the foundation of the world, Whose blood obtained the redemption of His people. In Christ, the electing love of God took on sinless human flesh, walked among men, and at last mounted the cross to accomplish the salvation promised.

Israel’s history testifies that chastening alone cannot bring men to repentance. After the captivity, after the temple was rebuilt, corruption yet remained. Their only hope lay not in their works but in God’s covenant love. So too with any of us that God has elected. Our sin condemns us, our works cannot stand; but God set His love upon His people in Christ. His electing grace secures both their redemption and their preservation. Consider the cross as the highest declaration of Malachi 1:2: “I have loved you.” There, the electing love of God shines brightest. There Christ bears the wrath due to His people, fulfilling the word, “Yet Jacob have I loved.” The Son of God loved the church and gave Himself for it. He bore their sin, their corruption, their covenant-breaking, and put it away forever by His death. And what of Esau? “Esau have I hated.” There is a solemn warning here. Those outside of Christ remain under God’s just judgment. The cross, which is salvation to the elect, is also the revelation of God’s righteous wrath against sin.

Therefore, let us rest wholly upon the electing love of God revealed in Christ crucified. He is the Messenger of the covenant, the Sun of righteousness risen with healing in His wings. His cross is the seal of God’s eternal word: “I have loved you.” Let us approach Him with awe and gratitude, recognizing that nothing in ourselves could ever merit such love. Let us look to Christ alone, Who alone has put away our sin and made us accepted before God. Let us walk in obedience not to earn His favor, but in response to His grace. And may our hearts be ever fixed upon Him, rejoicing that the same Love which elected us from before the foundation of the world has also redeemed us by His blood, preserved us in His mercy, and obtained for us eternal life in His presence (Romans 9:12).