Skip to main content

God Is Love 7


And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (I John 4:16) 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4) 

          That the Lord our God is one does not mean only that there is only one God, but that God is also united in His characteristics. We are focusing on God being love, and lots of people love to focus on “their god” being a loving god, but at the same time that God is love and loving, He is also wise, just, holy, forgiving, omnipresent, all-knowing, true, independent, merciful, jealous, blessed and blessing, eternal, unchanging, wrathful, and all the other things the Bible attributes to Him. We may discuss these things as being separate, but they aren’t. Technical, God isn’t loving. God is God, and we attach the label “loving” to Him. We’re both correct and incorrect.
          The same is true of love. Love can be said to have all those attribute, and more (as we’ll see) but love is never just one of the characteristics correctly attributed to it, but it is simultaneously all of them. That doesn’t mean that every characteristic we demand or attribute to it is there. People like to talk about “unconditional love” as if the unconditional is a require part of it. I’m sure I’ve done so. I’m not sure that it’s true. I need to think about it more. It seems to me, however, that if God is love and love is unconditional, then God must be unconditional, too. There are ways that I can see that possibilities, and ways in which I don’t think it’s true. I suspect there may be other, truer ways to express the idea.
          As with God, we may perceive different characteristics at different times. Because we perceive that God is being merciful does not mean that He is not also being just, true, omnipotent, etc. It only means that “merciful” is the characteristic we noticed and put a name on. In addition to our perception being faulty, we must also note that a Human loving is not the same as love loving. Humans are fallible, inconsistent, weak, etc. Humans change. They fail. Love does not.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more