Love of God

God’s nature is love

1 John 4:8 LEB

The one 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 LEB

And immediately as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being split apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 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 LEB

From afar Yahweh appeared to me, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loyal love.

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It is a covenant love

Deuteronomy 7:9 LEB

So know that Yahweh your God, he is God, the trustworthy God, maintaining his covenant and his loyal love with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

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It is lavish

Exodus 34:6–7 LEB

And Yahweh passed over before him, and he proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh, God, who is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding with loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love to the thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and he does not leave utterly unpunished, punishing the guilt of fathers on sons and on sons of sons on third and fourth generations.”

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It is holy and just

Psalm 33:5 LEB

He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loyal love of Yahweh.

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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 LEB

By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may 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 LEB

“Yahweh loved you and chose you not because of your great number exceeding all other peoples, for you are fewer than all of the peoples, but because of the love of Yahweh for you and because of his keeping of the sworn oath that he swore to your ancestors, Yahweh brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

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God always acts in love towards believers

Romans 8:38–39 LEB

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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God’s love for his people

Israel

Isaiah 43:4 LEB

Because you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I myself love you, and I give people in place of you, and nations in place of your life.

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The church

Revelation 1:5 LEB

and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and released 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 LEB

We love, because he first loved us.

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Human love must be modelled on God’s love

Matthew 5:44–45 LEB

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

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