Love of God

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The deepest possible expression of God’s character. Though God loves all people, he is especially committed to sacrificial, loyal relationships with his people.

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God’s nature is love

1 John 4:8 NRSV

Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

His love is perfectly expressed within the Trinity

Mark 1:10–11 NRSV

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

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

Characteristics of God’s love

It is eternal

Jeremiah 31:3 NRSV

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

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

It is a covenant love

Deuteronomy 7:9 NRSV

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

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

It is lavish

Exodus 34:6–7 NRSV

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 the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

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

It is holy and just

Psalm 33:5 NRSV

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

Images of God’s love

God as a father:

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

God as a husband:

Je 31:32; Ho 2:14–20; Re 21:2

God’s loving actions

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

1 John 4:9–10 NRSV

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God sets his love on the unlovely

Deuteronomy 7:7–8 NRSV

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, 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

God always acts in love towards believers

Romans 8:38–39 NRSV

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 anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s love for his people

Israel

Isaiah 43:4 NRSV

Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.

See also Dt 10:15; 2 Ch 9:8; Mt 15:24; Ro 9:15–16; Ex 33:19; Ro 11:28

The church

Revelation 1:5 NRSV

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

God’s love for the world

Dt 10:18; Jn 3:16–17

See also Ps 145:9; Ps 145:17; Mt 5:45; Ac 14:17; Ac 17:25

God’s love for individuals

2 Sa 12:24–25 “Jedidiah” means “loved by the Lord”.

David:

2 Sa 7:15; Is 55:3

Ezr 7:28 Ezra; Ne 13:26 Solomon

God’s love transforms human love

Human love must respond to God’s love

1 John 4:19 NRSV

We love because he first loved us.

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

Human love must be modelled on God’s love

Matthew 5:44–45 NRSV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.