God is Love
1 John 4:7,8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
From this passage we see that God's Love is His very essence-Essential Nature. The fact that God is love requires an eternal object that predates His love for us. The very nature of love requires an object. It never operates in a vacuum. Love is the essence of Being that has flowed from Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father, that Love which IS the very Spirit of God.
John 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the earth".
Colossians 1:12-13 Paul is "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom os the Son of His Love". (NKJV)
Ephesians 3:14-19 "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fulness of God".
Here we see the glory of the "Trinitarian Nature of God". Notice that the fact that God is love testifies to this glorious Triunity. Paul is addressing his prayer to the Father–The Father of whom? The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What for? That we might be strengthened through His Holy Spirit. What is the goal of this Holy Spirit work in us? That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. And why is that crucial? That we may be rooted and grounded in love. Does he stop only in the rooting and grounding? Praise God no! He tries to explain the expanse of what he wants in verse 18, but it seems like he runs out of ways to express the grand glory of his desire, so he just says in verse 19, that we might know the Love of Christ which passes knowledge (exceeds all human adjectives of description). And why is this knowing the Love of Christ so absolutely essential? In order that we might be filled with all the fullness of God! What is the only way to be filled with ALL the fulness of God? Only through the Spirits' activity of teaching us the Love of God in Christ Jesus. Since God is LOVE, the only way to know His Fulness is to know by the Spirit of His Love, the Love of Christ, the One Who has been Loved by the Father from before the foundation of the world. And as if that were not enough to consider for a life time, Paul reminds us that the Father to Whom He is praying, "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power (That is the Holy Spirit of God) that works in us." So it appears that in Paul's understanding, the only limit to our being filled with the fulness of God through the Love of Christ born in us by the Power of the Holy Spirit is in our asking!! Do you know the fulness of God? Do you know Jesus Christ, the Love of God? Have you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior. Does He dwell in your heart by faith? Are you growing in the knowledge of the Love of Christ?
James 4:2 You have not because you ask not.
Matthew 7:7-9 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone.
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, (and even if you don't!!) how much more sill your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.
John 16:23-24 Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in MY NAME He will give you.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in MY NAME. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Consider carefully Proverbs 8:22-36 where Wisdom Personified speaks beautifully of the Eternal Son, many portions of which find their way into Jesus' words and the New Testament writers. In verse 30, "and I was daily His delight". Remember Matthew 3:17? "And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well Pleased"-- Or "Who is my Delight". The Son has Eternally been the Father's Delight, the Spirit of Love ever proceeding from the Father to the Son, and the Son Eternally Delighting in the Father–this is the Love of God and the Love which by the work of the Son, we are being brought into.
John 17:23-24 "I in them, and You (the Father) in Me; that they may be made perfect in one that the world my know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have love Me, Father, I desire that they also whom You gave me may be with Me where I AM, that they may behold My Glory which You have Loved Me before the foundation of the world."
He determines the objects of His Love.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 The Lord did not set His Love upon you , nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you.
Ephesians 1:4 Just as He (the Father) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
God demonstrates His Love. His Love isn't theoretical, it is practical and evident!
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Gods' Love is sure and secure to those who believe in His Love Gift.
Romans 8:38,39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 6:39 This is the will of the Father Who sent Me, that of all He has give Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
God's loving kindness is better than life. It is to become the passion of the people of God!
Psalm 63:1-3 O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your Power and your Glory. Because Your loving kindness is better than life , my lips shall praise You.
God's love is shed in our heart by His Spirit of Love. He doesn't wait for us to love Him. He first loves us! (I John 4:19)
Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance (endurance - marg.);
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God is love therefore we are to love.
I John 4:7-8 The new birth manifests itself in the Nature of God being evidenced in us. John says in the above text, verse 12, "no man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us." His implication is that the love of the brethren is the evidence that we have passed from death in to the Life of God. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." But there is a further implication, and that is that our testimony to the very existence of the Triune Holy God of heaven and earth is to be the Love we have for the brethren. And to this agree the words of our Lord Jesus. John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." In other words, our love manifests the fact that we have the "Divine DNA"! Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
37 Jesus said to him, "‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 "And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets
I John 1:5, 7-8a But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him. By this we know that we are in Him......Brethren, I write no ne commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, WHICH THING IS TRUE IN HIM AND (THEREFORE) IN YOU.
So you see, God's Love is Eternal, not temporary. God's Love isn't flaky, changeable, here today gone tomorrow. God would have to "unGod" Himself to not be Love! God would have to disown His own Son to not be love. He would have to "unSpirit" His own Spirit to not be Love. And how wonderful that He doesn't leave us guessing as to what His Love looks like. He gave us a very beautiful demonstration of His Love: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God did not demonstrate His Love by sending His Son to die for good people! He sent His Son to die for people who were sinners, people without hope, people who weren't even people, people so completely incapable of relationship with a Loving, Holy God, that only Divinely Drastic Sacrifice could make a way so that He could wrap them up in His Eternally Loving Arms! I call that the Holy Hug! It is the Safe Place. It is the Warm Place. It is the Eternally Secure Place! It is the Father's Place!
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is IN Christ Jesus our Lord!
1 John 4:7,8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
From this passage we see that God's Love is His very essence-Essential Nature. The fact that God is love requires an eternal object that predates His love for us. The very nature of love requires an object. It never operates in a vacuum. Love is the essence of Being that has flowed from Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father, that Love which IS the very Spirit of God.
John 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the earth".
Colossians 1:12-13 Paul is "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom os the Son of His Love". (NKJV)
Ephesians 3:14-19 "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fulness of God".
Here we see the glory of the "Trinitarian Nature of God". Notice that the fact that God is love testifies to this glorious Triunity. Paul is addressing his prayer to the Father–The Father of whom? The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What for? That we might be strengthened through His Holy Spirit. What is the goal of this Holy Spirit work in us? That Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. And why is that crucial? That we may be rooted and grounded in love. Does he stop only in the rooting and grounding? Praise God no! He tries to explain the expanse of what he wants in verse 18, but it seems like he runs out of ways to express the grand glory of his desire, so he just says in verse 19, that we might know the Love of Christ which passes knowledge (exceeds all human adjectives of description). And why is this knowing the Love of Christ so absolutely essential? In order that we might be filled with all the fullness of God! What is the only way to be filled with ALL the fulness of God? Only through the Spirits' activity of teaching us the Love of God in Christ Jesus. Since God is LOVE, the only way to know His Fulness is to know by the Spirit of His Love, the Love of Christ, the One Who has been Loved by the Father from before the foundation of the world. And as if that were not enough to consider for a life time, Paul reminds us that the Father to Whom He is praying, "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power (That is the Holy Spirit of God) that works in us." So it appears that in Paul's understanding, the only limit to our being filled with the fulness of God through the Love of Christ born in us by the Power of the Holy Spirit is in our asking!! Do you know the fulness of God? Do you know Jesus Christ, the Love of God? Have you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior. Does He dwell in your heart by faith? Are you growing in the knowledge of the Love of Christ?
James 4:2 You have not because you ask not.
Matthew 7:7-9 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone.
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, (and even if you don't!!) how much more sill your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.
John 16:23-24 Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in MY NAME He will give you.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in MY NAME. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Consider carefully Proverbs 8:22-36 where Wisdom Personified speaks beautifully of the Eternal Son, many portions of which find their way into Jesus' words and the New Testament writers. In verse 30, "and I was daily His delight". Remember Matthew 3:17? "And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well Pleased"-- Or "Who is my Delight". The Son has Eternally been the Father's Delight, the Spirit of Love ever proceeding from the Father to the Son, and the Son Eternally Delighting in the Father–this is the Love of God and the Love which by the work of the Son, we are being brought into.
John 17:23-24 "I in them, and You (the Father) in Me; that they may be made perfect in one that the world my know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have love Me, Father, I desire that they also whom You gave me may be with Me where I AM, that they may behold My Glory which You have Loved Me before the foundation of the world."
He determines the objects of His Love.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 The Lord did not set His Love upon you , nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you.
Ephesians 1:4 Just as He (the Father) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
God demonstrates His Love. His Love isn't theoretical, it is practical and evident!
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Gods' Love is sure and secure to those who believe in His Love Gift.
Romans 8:38,39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 6:39 This is the will of the Father Who sent Me, that of all He has give Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
God's loving kindness is better than life. It is to become the passion of the people of God!
Psalm 63:1-3 O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your Power and your Glory. Because Your loving kindness is better than life , my lips shall praise You.
God's love is shed in our heart by His Spirit of Love. He doesn't wait for us to love Him. He first loves us! (I John 4:19)
Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance (endurance - marg.);
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God is love therefore we are to love.
I John 4:7-8 The new birth manifests itself in the Nature of God being evidenced in us. John says in the above text, verse 12, "no man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us." His implication is that the love of the brethren is the evidence that we have passed from death in to the Life of God. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." But there is a further implication, and that is that our testimony to the very existence of the Triune Holy God of heaven and earth is to be the Love we have for the brethren. And to this agree the words of our Lord Jesus. John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." In other words, our love manifests the fact that we have the "Divine DNA"! Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
37 Jesus said to him, "‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 "And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets
I John 1:5, 7-8a But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him. By this we know that we are in Him......Brethren, I write no ne commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, WHICH THING IS TRUE IN HIM AND (THEREFORE) IN YOU.
So you see, God's Love is Eternal, not temporary. God's Love isn't flaky, changeable, here today gone tomorrow. God would have to "unGod" Himself to not be Love! God would have to disown His own Son to not be love. He would have to "unSpirit" His own Spirit to not be Love. And how wonderful that He doesn't leave us guessing as to what His Love looks like. He gave us a very beautiful demonstration of His Love: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God did not demonstrate His Love by sending His Son to die for good people! He sent His Son to die for people who were sinners, people without hope, people who weren't even people, people so completely incapable of relationship with a Loving, Holy God, that only Divinely Drastic Sacrifice could make a way so that He could wrap them up in His Eternally Loving Arms! I call that the Holy Hug! It is the Safe Place. It is the Warm Place. It is the Eternally Secure Place! It is the Father's Place!
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is IN Christ Jesus our Lord!