God Is Love
In this upcoming series, we will explore the doctrine of God and the moral attributes of His character, nature, temperament, personality, and what He is like. Our focus during this series will be; One of the missional responsibilities of a believer is to share God. So, how would you complete the following sentence; To you, God is…? We can know how to answer that question unless we know the source of the answer. Likewise, we can't know how to describe someone unless we understand their nature appropriately.
Last Week God is Holy - Ps. 99 - Nothing compares to God's holiness; it sets Him apart from all of His creation.
God is Just - Ezekiel 18:21-24; 30-32 - God is always just.
God is Forgiving - 1 John 1:5-10; 2:1-2 - God always forgives when I truly repent.
God is wise - Proverbs 2:1-6; 3:5-7 - God will give me wisdom when I humbly seek it.
God is faithful - Hebrews 6:17-20; 10:19-23 - God's past faithfulness ensures our secure future.
This coming Sunday, our focus will be; God is Love. God's Love empowers me to love. "Dear friends, let us love one another, because Love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is Love." 1 John 4:7–8. The apostle John wrote this letter (1 John) to encourage believers, to lead them to avoid sin and false teaching, and to help them know they have eternal life. The topic of Love permeates this short book, leading us to focus on the Love of God and our need to love one another. One of the pieces of evidence that we have a relationship with God is the presence and demonstration of His Love in our lives.
God made us with a unique capacity for emotions, passions, meaning, and purpose. He made us with a need to give and receive Love so that our hunger for Love would lead us to pursue a relationship with Him. Therefore, everything God does is motivated by Love. Jesus' death and resurrection prove that absolutely nothing can keep God from loving us. But God doesn't love us, so we can keep that Love to ourselves. He wants us to give that Love away. We are never more like Him than when we love others. God is Love - Everything God does is consistent with Love and motivated by Love.
What is God's Love like? How does God's word describe God's Love? It is God's nature to love (to give and sacrifice). The truth that "God is love" complements other beautiful statements made about God's nature in the Bible.
God is Spirit (John 4:24).
God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29).
God is light (1 John 1:5).
God is true (1 John 5:20).
"God is love" does not equal "love is God" (a form of pantheistic thinking), any more than "grass is green" means "green is grass." God's Love is everywhere. "… I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in Love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's Love," Eph 3:17–18. A pastor once said God's Love is
Wide enough to reach across time
Long enough to last forever
Deep enough to reach the depths of our needs
High enough to overlook our mistakes.
God is loving - He was loving. He sent His Son into enemy territory, into a world of sinners, on a search and rescue mission. He came looking for us even when we were not looking for Him. Christ came so that we might live through him - What does it mean to "live through Him?" (1 John 4:9)
It means to be born of God and to know God.
It means to experience His Love and share that Love with others.
It means to enjoy fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It means to walk in the light, enjoy fellowship with one another, confess and receive forgiveness of sins, walk as He walked, abide in the Word and His will, know the truth, be confident at His second coming, has victory over sin, and so much more.
Do you know that God is loving? Take the time to speak with God. Reflect on His Love for you. Seek to be challenged to reflect His Love to those around you.