Love of God

God’s nature is love

1 John 4:8 ESV

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

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His love is perfectly expressed within the Trinity

Mark 1:10–11 ESV

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

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Characteristics of God’s love

It is eternal

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

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It is a covenant love

Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

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It is lavish

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

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It is holy and just

Psalm 33:5 ESV

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

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Images of God’s love

God as a father:

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God as a husband:

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God’s loving actions

The gift of God’s Son is a unique act of love

1 John 4:9–10 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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God sets his love on the unlovely

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ESV

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

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God always acts in love towards believers

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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God’s love for his people

Israel

Isaiah 43:4 ESV

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

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The church

Revelation 1:5 ESV

and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

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God’s love for the world

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God’s love for individuals

“Jedidiah” means “loved by the Lord”.

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David:

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Ezra; Solomon

God’s love transforms human love

Human love must respond to God’s love

1 John 4:19 ESV

We love because he first loved us.

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Human love must be modelled on God’s love

Matthew 5:44–45 ESV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

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