WITW What IsLove

WITW What Is God’s Love

What Is God’s Love?

DEFINITION: God’s love is His freely given, intense affection, actively showing delight and goodwill toward the objects of His pleasure. Grace is God's love for people who don't deserve it, and mercy is God's love for people who need it.

If people believe anything at all about God, they believe that He loves. Still, this is often seen as a kind of vague indulgence, like a sweet but forgetful grandparent giving out treats. This type of perspective strips God of His holiness, forgetting that God’s wrath and His judgment of evil are also included in His character.

God's love has always been perfectly shown in how happy the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are with each other.

John 3:35 NKJV

35 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.

John 14:31 NKJV

31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

God chose to be creative or to make things, The creatures or things that God made He loves them, He takes care of them.

Matthew 10:29 NKJV

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.

Psalm 104:21 NKJV

21 The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.

He cares about every bird that falls from the sky. “The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God” (Ps 104:21). (Ps 104:21).

Christ Followers think of God's love in terms of His grace, which is His love for sinners.

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The core of the gospel is that God sent His Son into the world out of love. John 3:16 is the most famous Bible verse, and for a good reason. God can't ignore evil because He is holy, but out of love, He wants everyone to change and believe the gospel. He loves the world, which is full of sinners who are against Him.

In another way, God's love goes to the people He has chosen.

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 NLT

7 “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

He told the Israelites, "The Lord loved you and chose you, not because you were all that .

But because of the agape love he has for you and the promise He made to your ancestors!

This is God’s electing love.

Even with Jesus and the Church

Ephesians 5:25 NKJV

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

The Elective love plays out in Jesus’s love for the church, which is His bride.

This love is like the love a husband has for his chosen wife, which is different from how he should feel about other women in general.

Ephesians 1:5–6 NLT

5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

God's love for His people is always there, but being in a loving relationship with Him depends on doing what He wants.

Jude 21 NIV

21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

We have a charge to keep ourselves in God’s love

Jesus said that the only way to stay in His love was to do what He said

John 15:10 NKJV

10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Psalm 103:17–18 NKJV

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

It is important to realize that God's love was perfectly shown before the world was made!

It is important to realize that God's love doesn't change?

Finally it’s important to know that obedience relates to God’s love?

Jesus was sent in love for each of us when we didn’t deserve it

God is Love and he is a Just God

My prayer is that we stay in God’s love by listening to his word and doing everything we can to please him.