The Love Of God

God first loves man before man even knows God.  God's love began with the creation of man and every one who is born is precious and beautiful.  However, due to the first three major deadly sins of pride, envy and avarice, followed by wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth, the remainder of them, the innate beauty of man is lost and what was once precious has become commonplace.  It is not everyday that one meets a saint but sinners are abound, and what was true when the second Letter to Timothy was written is even more pronounced today, and such conditions will be even more prevalent as time goes on until the end of time.  Quoted below without paragraph numbers, footnote references and footnotes is from 2 Timothy, Chapter 3 [1]:

The Dangers of the Last Days.

But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days.

People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious,

callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good,

traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them.

For some of these slip into homes and make captives of women weighed down by sins, led by various desires,

always trying to learn but never able to reach a knowledge of the truth.

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so they also oppose the truth—people of depraved mind, unqualified in the faith.

But they will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be plain to all, as it was with those two.

These eloquent words cannot be made more accurate in describing the world's populace.  When the last days arrive, many people will continue to be blinded and not be able see and will not have enough time to repent and change their ways.  Although Christ died on the cross to save sinners, He appears to save only penitent sinners.  On the cross, Christ said to the penitent criminal, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." [2]  Yet, He remained silent as to the non-penitent criminal who remained blind to God Whose Son's life God offered for the salvation of souls, but not all souls.  This is not to say that God delights in the punishment of unrepentant souls but rather delights in all repentant souls and opens the doors of Paradise to welcome them.



[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/2timothy/3, 1-9.
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/23, at 43.