God is Love

1 John 4:16 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Last week Tal asked us 2 questions about love. What is the nature of Love and can man love with God?

We learned that love is God’s Nature and if we hope to have love it is God we must turn to.

Man cannot hope to love in it’s fullest sense without God.

Because, God is Love!

[let’s quickly look at God’s nature…]

I. God’s nature is love

John through Scripture confirms our title and thought...

1 Jn 4:8

1 John 4:8 ESV

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

His love is perfectly expressed within the Trinity

Mk 1:10-11

Mark 1:10–11 ESV

10 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. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Many more scriptures confirm God’s nature as love.

See also Jn 5:20; Jn 10:17; Jn 14:23; Eph 1:6; Col 1:13

John 5:20 ESV

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 10:17 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

John 14:23 ESV

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Ephesians 1:6 ESV

to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Colossians 1:13 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

[There are 4 characteristics we can discuss about God’s Love…]

II. Characteristics of God’s love

A. It is eternal

Je 31:3

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

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

As mentioned in 1 Cor God or love never fails...

See also Ps 103:17; Ps 136:1–26; Is 49:15–16; Is 54:8; Is 54:10

B. It is a covenant love

Dt 7:9

Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV

9 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,

God’s is Love and that love is a promise; a covenant in which we can be secure and significant if we would trust and abide in that love...

See also Ex 20:6; Dt 7:12; 1 Ki 8:23; Ps 106:45; Da 9:4

C. It is lavish

Ex 34:6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 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, 7 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.”

Exodus speaks to the lavish nature of God’s love when it mentions a “thousand years” keeping steadfast love...

See also Ne 9:17; Ps 103:8; Joe 2:13; Jon 4:2; 1 Jn 3:1

Nehemaih reminded the people when they returned to Jerusalem...

Nehemiah 9:17 ESV

17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

The Psalmist puts the love of God to poetry...

Psalm 103:8 ESV

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Jonah recognized the lavish nature of God’s love...

Jonah 4:2 ESV

2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

The love Apostle reveals the lavishness of God’s love...

1 John 3:1 ESV

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

D. It is holy and just

Ps 33:5

Psalm 33:5 ESV

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

The love that is God and from God is not warped or unseemly, twisted nor inappropriate.

See also Ps 37:28; Ps 99:4; Is 61:8

III. Images of God’s love

God’s love is demonstrated to us in images of father and also as husband...

A. God as a father:

Dt 1:31; Ho 11:1–4; Lk 15:11–32; Heb 12:6; Pr 3:12

Deuteronomy 1:31 ESV

and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

We even are told of the discipline of God’s love because He wants the best for us...

Hebrews 12:6 ESV

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Proverbs 3:12 ESV

for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

B. God as a husband:

Je 31:32; Ho 2:14–20; Re 21:2

Jeremiah 31:32 ESV

not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

Revelation 21:2 ESV

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

IV. God’s loving actions

How about the many ways we can experience the love of God...

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

1 Jn 4:9-10

1 John 4:9–10 ESV

9 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. 10 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.

See also Jn 3:16; Jn 15:13; Ro 5:7–8

B. God sets his love on the unlovely

Dt 7:7-8

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ESV

7 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, 8 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.

See also Eze 16:1–14; Ro 5:8; Eph 2:4–5

C. God always acts in love towards believers

Ro 8:38-39

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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.

See also 2 Co 13:14; 2 Jn 3

V. God’s love transforms human love

God’s love certainly is transformational...

A. Human love must respond to God’s love

1 Jn 4:19

1 John 4:19 ESV

19 We love because he first loved us.

See also Dt 6:5; Dt 30:6; Eph 5:1; Col 3:12–14

B. Human love must be modelled on God’s love

Mt 5:44-45

Matthew 5:44–45 ESV

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 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.

See also Ho 3:1; 1 Jn 2:15; 1 Jn 4:7–8; 1 Jn 4:11–12

God’s Invitation and Plan of Salvation

Hear - Romans 10:17

​Romans 10:17 ESV 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Believe and Confess - Romans 10:9-10

​Romans 10:9–10 ESV 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Repent - Luke 13:3

​Luke 13:3 ESV 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Be Baptized - Acts 2:38

Acts 2:38 (ESV) 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Remain Faithful - Revelation 2:10

​Revelation 2:10 ESV 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

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