But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. – 1 John 4:8
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. – 1 John 4:16.
INTRODUCTION
Love is an attribute and attributes are essentially characteristics or traits that are inseparable from someone or something. In this regard, God’s attributes reveal who He is. We know about God, in a larger extent, by knowing His attributes and His ways. God always acts in accordance with His attributes. It is also important to understand that God does not hold one attribute above another. God is consistent and unified. For example, God does not sacrifice His justice in order to demonstrate His love. If you intentionally hurt someone, remember, although God is merciful but His mercies cannot rob His justice.
In this chaotic world when some happenings don’t seem to make sense, we need love and we aught to look up to the source of genuine love which can only be found in God.When life seems to spin out of control, we can look to this amazing attribute of God and realize that He holds us in His loving palm of His hand.
Since it is God’s essential nature to love, He demonstrates His love by:
- lavishing it on undeserving people who are in rebellion against Him. God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental, romantic feeling. Rather, it is agape love, the love of self-sacrifice.
- sending His Son to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin (1 John 4:10), by drawing us to Himself (John 6:44), by forgiving us of our rebellion against Him, and by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, thereby enabling us to love as He loves. He did this in spite of the fact that we did not deserve it.
“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – Romans 5:8.
The problem, of course, for most people in English-speaking countries is that they associate the word “love” with particular kinds of human feelings, but in the Greek New Testament, physical or tangible human love is referred to by the term ‘eros’, from which we quite appropriately get the word “erotic,”. English, unfortunately, doesn’t have the versality of Greek when it comes to having different words for different kinds of love.
In the book of 1 John 4, where God is called love not once but twice, God is called agape, a very different word for love than eros. The verbal form of the noun agape (agapao) is used to say God loves the world of humanity in perhaps the most famous verse in the New Testament, John 3:16: “God loved the world in the following manner—he gave his only and beloved Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life” (author’s translation). There, we hear about a self-sacrificial God.
Clearly enough, the sort of love predicated of God is not any mere human love, certainly not any sort of narcissistic self-directed love, search for personal fulfillment, or expression of strong personal desires. No, to say God “is love” is to say that God is the most self-sacrificial being in the universe, and as such He was prepared to go to incredible lengths to set humankind right. But there is much more to be said. This love described by the author of 1 John 4 implies something fundamental about the freedom of God. Love cannot be compelled, manipulated, or predetermined if it is to be genuine love. It has to be freely given and freely received. God did not have to love a world full of self-centered and sinful human beings, but he chose to do this
It was Jesus Himself who once said, “Greater love (agape) has no one, than He lay down His life for his friends” – John 15:13, and Jesus Himself was to do this very thing on Good Friday. There, paradoxically, is the place we see most clearly both God’s great love for us all and his holiness as well. Not love without holiness and righteousness, but not righteousness without love either. This is the character of God in both the Old Testament and New Testament.
God Watched His Son Die Out of Love For Us
Jesus Christ freed humanity from the grip of sin by the lashes that dug into his skin as the Roman soldiers whipped Him (John 19:1). Jesus freed us from the condemnation of our sins by being beaten, mocked, spat upon, and made to carry His torture device on His back to Calvary (John 19:2-17; Matthew 27:27-31).
Since the Garden of Eden, God has loved us. Since the Fall of Man in that Garden, we have rebelled against God.Undoubtedly, God has been brokenhearted over His children’s choice throughout history to sin and to turn against each other.
God’s Love for Us Is Everlasting
Our bond with God has been a story about fatherly love from the beginning. God created the world and everything in it out of love, declaring His creations good and blessing it (Genesis 1). God showed His love for mankind in particular by making us in His image and entrusting us to be caretakers of the world (Genesis 1:27-28).
Our salvation is an expression of God’s love.
God did not send Christ as a reward to the obedient, but rather as a ransom for the defiant. We see Jesus display his love throughout His life and ministry. He healed the sick without requirement of gratitude. He displayed humility even though He was King of Kings. Even while on the cross, Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of the ones who placed Him there (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16, 4:10, Romans 5:8). Salvation is open to all who believe in Christ. God’s love does not discriminate.
We Can Have Confidence in God’s Love
Psalm 136 beautifully describes the love of God as unfailing. The psalmist recalls (26 times!) how in His sovereignty, the Lord upholds His creation and people in love. As we look back upon His loving faithfulness from the beginning of time, we can grow in our assurance that God will continue to vindicate His children and promote His kingdom until His plan and purpose comes to full fruition.
A Love Worth Emulating
In the middle of the chaos that surrounds us, our unfaithfulness towards one another, our tendency to hurt others, may the Lord enable us to still recognize the love our hearts has for our creation. May we trust in Your unfailing and unconditional love. May we out of love follow your steps in Jesus name.
‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.’ – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Remain Blessed!
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