2 I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob; 3 but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Malachi 1:2-3
Commentary on Malachi 1:1-5
(Read Malachi 1:1-5)
All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or spiritual privileges, come from the free love of God, who makes one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompence of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.