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God is Love – Love is God
In this series, Richard defines love from the Biblical viewpoint and offers understanding in the application of this love in our daily lives.
What is the true motivation of God toward mankind? John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world”. This is why Jesus came, to put on display the love of God. In our quest to understand the motivation of God we need to determine who God is, that is, what His character is.
How much of Christianity is missing something in the understanding and application of the love of God. We seem to believe that “God is love”. Yet, we actually have a serious disconnect with defining Him as love. Our definition is flawed, and thus, our presentation of God to the world is flawed. In this series, Richard defines love from the Biblical viewpoint.
The True Motivation of God's Love
John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This verse is probably one of the most quoted verses from the Bible. Think about the first four words of this verse, “For God SO LOVED.” He loved. His motivation for manifesting Himself in the person of Jesus was that He loved.
It was not the judgement of sin that motivated Him. His motivation for giving Jesus was love. This being true, has His motivation changed now that Jesus has come, died for our sins, raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God? Rather, we are now in a “new covenant” with God through the work of the cross, the shed blood of Jesus, and His resurrection from the dead, His motivation is even more established. He loves the world. There is no questioning His motivation.
He absolutely has the same motivation today. HE LOVES THE WORLD. He and Jesus entered into a covenant to establish love as the reigning motivation of His heart toward the world.
His motivation is further revealed as we see the verse following John 3:16. John 3:17 says, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. When God sent Jesus to reveal His love, He did not include condemnation as a follow up.
In fact, Paul exposes the true motivation of God’s love for the world in 2 Corinthians 5. In verses 17-20, it says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The message of reconciliation is that God loved us, forgave us and receives us in Christ. This is our message until the last judgement. This is what the Bible calls “good news”. As His present-day ambassadors, we are to continue heralding the message of love the Father has for the world. We are now His “sent ones” declaring the He SO LOVED the world, that He loves the world right now, that He is not counting their sins against them. No, the “good news” is that He has forgiven the world in Christ.
How different would the response be of those we are sent to reveal this kind of love to? How would they respond if instead of condemnation and judgement, we were heralding the “good news” that they are received and forgiven in Christ? It is time that we come back to the truth of His love for the world and His “not counting their trespasses against them” message that was revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. This is the message needed for the world. God loves the world. God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ.
Jesus Put on Display the Love of God
For God so loved the world”. He loved the world. That is why He sent His Son Jesus, to put that love on display.
Jesus told us that He came to show us the Father. Those were His words. He came to show us the Father. In that display, He died, was buried, was resurrected and now sits at the right hand of the Father, in our stead. He died for us. He was buried for us. He was resurrected for us. He sits at the right hand of the Father. He’s there for us.
The law required perfection. The first man, Adam, could not fulfill what was required. No man has ever fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law. Not until Jesus. He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law, completely and once and for all. He lived the life no man could live. He died the death required by our inability to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. He was resurrected to newness of life after having fulfilled the requirement of death that had passed upon all mankind. And for what?
He came and put on display the love of God for mankind. He loved us. He made a covenant with Himself through Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection. The shed blood of Jesus has established a new covenant of God with mankind. We can now have a relationship with God that is based on love. He loves us. We can love Him. We are no longer alienated from Him because of our sin. He became sin for us so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Now that is good news! We are now made the righteousness of God in Christ. He, who is righteous became sin for us, taking our sin, so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Him. In Him. And how are we in Him? When we receive the gift of righteousness by receiving the sacrifice, He made of Himself for us. When we believe the truth that when we receive Him as He is, He now receives us into Himself. This is the transaction made available to us through the new covenant called being “born again”.
We are born from above, by an act of the Holy Spirit. Our spirit is revived from death and we are born into newness of life in Christ. Newness of life, a life we have never lived before. A life that is eternal and everlasting. A life that is in Him, by Him, through Him and of Him. As Galatians 2:20 says, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
There is it again; “who loved me”. Yes, God loves us. Jesus loves us. He made a covenant with Himself to prove His love for us. Now, He is inviting us to receive this love and live in its reality. The choice we have is whether or not we will believe in Him and receive His free gift to us.
God is Love
We’ve been discussing the true motivation of God toward mankind. We have looked at John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world”. He loved the world. That is why Jesus came, to put on display the love of God. In our quest to understand the motivation of God we need to determine who God is, that is, what His character is.
1 John 4:8 tells us that “God is love”. It doesn’t say that He loves, but that He IS love. His nature and character is love. Love is who God is.
1 Corinthians 13 gives us the definition of love. It says that “love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails”.
If we combine these references, we find ourselves asking how much of Christianity is missing something in the understanding and application of the love of God. What happened? We all seem to say we believe that “God is love”. Yet, when we examine the Bible definition of love, there are at times, a serious disconnect.
Could it be that we are improperly defining God because of a flawed understanding of love? And if so, is our presentation of God to the world as ambassadors flawed?
Do we believe that love is patient? Do we believe that God is patient? If we take a look at how love is defined by most people, it is in most instances, the opposite of the Bible definition of it.
If we have the wrong definition of love, it is certain it did not come from God. It finds it origin in our enemy, the devil. He seeks to distort who God is and in so doing, keeping us from knowing God as He is.
In John 8:44, Jesus told the Pharisees that “you belong to your father the devil”. These were the religious leaders of the day. Jesus was showing them that they had misinterpreted who God was. Jesus was there to put on display who God is. They rejected Him and murdered Him for it.
Do we have the same problem today? Consider these questions. Why is it that most global events that bring harm to people is interpreted by church leaders as the “judgement of God”?
Could it be that there are many people not interested in hearing about a God who loves them when He is constantly judging them? If in His judgement, He is responsible for traumatic events in the earth to judge the lives of people, we shouldn’t be surprised there is a general attitude of mistrust and disdain for God.
We have presented a God to be terrified of instead of a God who is love. We have preached a message of “you’re going to hell” instead of one that says, “Jesus died for you, so you don’t have to be separated from God”.
What we all need today is a better understanding of the God that was revealed in Jesus. He is love. He loves. He is proclaiming the good news of a God who is love.
God is Patient
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love patient? Is God patient?
In our flawed understanding of patience, we have seen it as the absence of anger. We have defined patience as withholding anger which really makes impatience a characteristic of love. That only leads to a belief that God is impatient with us as a rule. We have come to see God as just waiting for His impatience to run out so He can judge us for our imperfections, failures, i.e. sins. Sadly, we live our lives in fear of when His patience will run out with us and we will be forsaken. Yet Jesus said that He would never forsake us.
Is God patient with us even though we are imperfect? Too many still believe He is a God just waiting for us to cross the line of His patience so He can damn us to hell. This is not a definition of love. Rather, He is our Father and understands our weakness, our propensity to fail and our need for redemption. This is why He sent Jesus to redeem us. Jesus manifested the Father, showing us His great patience toward us. As our Father, He is with us for the long haul. In His love, He will never lose His patience with us.
Will we always do what pleases Him? No. Will He forsake us because we fail Him? No. He has a plan for our life, and He will be working toward that goal all the days of our life and into eternity. He is our Father. We are His sons. He loves us. His love for us is patient. He has a clear vision of our past, present and future. He will accomplish His desire in us.
God is Kind
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love kind? Is God kind?
It is disturbing in today’s culture to know that many if not most people do not believe that love must be kind to be authentic. In our quest to be Biblical, i.e. “speaking the truth in love”, we use the truth to justify our lack of kindness. In fact, the use of scriptures to criticize, condemn and even hate others has become the norm in the place of kindness. We are kind to those who agree with us and believe we have the right to vilify those who do not. On both sides of the arguments that divide our nation is the desire to manipulate that has become the counterfeit for kindness. We present ourselves to be kind in order to obtain our desired end. When we are met with disagreement, our kindness turns to anger and division. This is why any act of true kindness is interpreted by the question “what do you want?”.
This erroneous definition of kindness has led us to believe in and present a God who is not only not kind, but He is angry and stands ready to condemn and judge. If we see God this way, and most do, it’s no wonder that there is little kindness being shown to one another in our culture. We have come to be defined as insincere and always having ulterior motives even when we show what is perceived as kindness.
God is kind. He loved the world and sent Jesus to prove it. He loves the world, whether they serve Him or not. He is not desiring to manipulate anyone to love Him. He is not poised to judge and condemn those who choose not to acknowledge Him. The scriptures tell us that it is His goodness that leads us to repentance. We have been lied to that it is His fear that woos us. Not so. He is kind because He is love. He loves us in spite of our rejection of His love. He is kind with no hidden motive. He gave Jesus as an act of His incredible kindness. He is kind.
God is Not Envious
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love envious? Is God envious?
Envy is jealousy and self-serving. It is the first thing mentioned after the phrase “perilous times” in 2 Timothy, “for men shall be lovers of their own selves”. This is a root issue in all the division we are facing in our nation and in the world today, the love of self above others. We have become obsessed with our self and have become consumers, takers and entitled. We have lost the ability to give and sacrifice for the good of others. In our desire for what pleases us, we overlook the good in the heart of others for the pursuit of our own gain. Personal happiness is exalted as the purpose of living.
We’ve quoted the scripture, “God is a jealous God” and defined His “jealousy” from a human perspective. We have believed God is jealous as we understand it and we have become a jealous and envious people. Yet, envy is not love, and God is love. How do we reconcile this discrepancy?
We were created by God to love, to love Him, to be loved by Him, and to love others. He gave us life to represent Him in the earth. He wants us to love and be loved. We have been told we must give Him our life, but it’s our heart He desires. Our life is ours to live. He wants us to live it to the fullest. We are given abundant life in Christ. Again, it is ours to live, and when we love others, we are the most like God. This is His joy, that we would love others. When we love others, it is the proof that He lives in us. His jealousy is not for His own consumption, He is jealous for our benefit. He desires that we live loved and that we live to love.
Our Father will never be envious of our love for others. He rejoices in our love relationships. He is never insecure in His love. When we love, we are like Him. He created us to love. God is not jealous as we understand jealousy.
God is Not Boastful
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love boastful? Is God boastful?
To boast is to have excessive pride about one’s achievements, possessions or abilities. Pride is one of the most effective weapons our enemy uses against us. Ultimate idolatry is the love of self and all that accompanies self-promotion. Self-promotion almost always at the expense of loving and serving others.
1 Corinthians 1:31 says, “let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” To boast in the Lord is to put on display His character and to boast in our weaknesses for the purpose of loving, serving and elevating others. Human pride is at the root of comparison thinking and the judgement of others to be less than us. We live in a culture inundated with the pride of human achievements, possessions and social status. Without our boasting being grounded in the Lord, we are given to over valuing our own self-worth to the detriment of others. This opens the door to judging others critically. In doing this, we fall prey to the sin that took Lucifer down. He said, “I will be like God”. When we boast, we stand in the place of God in judging the motives and intents of other people’s hearts. The old saying goes like this – we judge others by our perception of their motives, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. s
So, is God boastful? The answer lies in how He chose to relate to us. He desired intimacy with man on such a level that He became a man. Laying aside His glory, He took on the lowliness of humanity and identified with every possible temptation to sin that man has ever or ever will face. He came as a servant and died as a criminal. He identified with the outcasts and rebellious. The life and death of Jesus is God not boasting!
He came to give us His life and has made us His sons. He has shared His glory with us. He has elevated us. He does not boast in His love for us, He has given us a love relationship with Him. He is love and we are loved.
God is Not Proud
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love prideful? Is God prideful?
Pride. It’s the cause of Lucifer’s fall from angelic status to that of being the enemy of God and all mankind. What is pride? Pride is rooted in the belief of not needing anyone else. It is the belief that you cannot nor will be vulnerable. To show weakness is to open your heart in total honesty to another. This kind of weakness is perceived as unacceptable. It is unacceptable because the culture of man values independence and the grittiness of our most adored tough guy hero or heroine.
Many of us have been raised to believe God is prideful. We have heard such things about God such as: He doesn’t need anyone. We were created for one purpose only, to serve Him. We are supposed to worship Him in obedience and if we don’t, He will chastise and judge us. Does this sound like love? Taken at face value, it sounds more narcissistic than loving. A narcissist is one who is self-centered, has an exaggerated sense of self-importance and an excessive admiration of one’s self. Sad to say but this is the image of God that’s been taught for centuries.
But, is God this way? The answer is simple. No, He is not. He did not create us only to worship Him. He is love. Love needs expression. Did He need us? No. But He chose to create us to express Himself fully. In creating us, He made Himself vulnerable. By doing this, He created a need in His own heart. He created us in His image, which resulted in us having the same vulnerability and need. Now, both He and us have a need for a relationship of love, a need to love and be loved.
God displayed His love for us in becoming totally vulnerable to human need. This is authentic humility. Born in a barn, working as a carpenter, and dying in our place. And for what? Our obedience and worship? Hardly. He became a man to show us the great love and desire He had for our heart, for us to know Him and be known by Him.
God is Not Rude
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love rude? Is God rude?
We live in a time of “telling it like it is”. Value is placed on believing that our opinion is what matters, no matter how it affects others, to the point of demeaning those who disagree with us. It is a rude society in general.
Rude is defined as offensively impolite. The scriptures implore us to “speak the truth in love”. We have come to define this as saying what’s on our mind even if it offends. We may be speaking the truth, but are we governed by love when we do?
Sadly, many Christians have taken on rudeness, and thus, representing God as being rude. He is mistakenly depicted as demanding His way without any thought or care for how it affects us. Jesus has also been represented as being rude, callous and showing disrespect for those who disagree with Him. Yet, as Christians we are sent as ambassadors of Christ. The nature of Christ is not rude and when He is presented as rude, it is a failure on our part as Christians. Truth ceases to be truth when it is spoken of or conveyed in any other tone than love. God’s nature is love. We have confused correction and rebuke of others’ behavior as love. Though it is true that the Father does correct and rebuke wrongful behavior, being rude and demeaning in doing so is not His nature and heart. He is not like natural fathers, He corrects for our good, that we may partake of His holiness, i.e. love.
God never intended our relationship with Him to be one of slavish obedience. We are redeemed to have a relationship of love with Him. Another definition of rude is unfinished. Rude wood is wood that is unfinished, full of splinters, not yet becoming what it is fashioned to be. He loves us for who He has made us to be. Until we are complete, He covers us in His love. He does not ever rudely expose us and deal with us harshly and in His anger. Remember this – Jesus is the revelation of the Father’s heart.
As those who are redeemed, we are now the righteousness of God in Christ! Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you”. God is not rude in that He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He is committed to love us and love is never rude.
God is Not Self Seeking
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love self-seeking? Is God self-seeking?
There is a way that love is meant to be – given to and for another. Our understanding of love is rooted in what is done for us. Our expectations of this love hinders us from receiving His love. This understanding of love paints God as self-seeking. Yet, Psalms 37 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This implies that He places His desires in our heart as we delight in Him. The complication comes when, in our pursuit of “His will for our life”, we set aside God-given desires to find His desires for us. In this place, we tend to follow after tradition and religious dictates in the hopes of discovering what the will of God is for our life. This is a love that only cares only for its own will. When God is perceived this way, it ultimately leads to the conclusion that personal choices are of little value and “out of the will of God”. The result is a bondage to the fear of “missing God”. There is a peace that accompanies living from the desires of our heart. When we deny His desires in our hearts, we refuse to acknowledge His will already revealed in them.
Romans mentions the “glorious liberty of the sons of God”. It is this liberty every son of God is created for and longs for. Everything about His kingdom and purpose for our life flows from this liberty – to live in His love and sharing His love with others. He is “us” seeking, not self-seeking. He desires our freedom. We choose to love Him as He has chosen to love us. He lives in us. He lives in and through whom He created us to be. We become like Him, in character. We become all that we are by being loved, loving Him, and loving others. This is love, to seek the liberty of the one you love to fully express from their hearts who they are, what they are to do and how they are to live. This is our Father’s love, that we are fully manifesting our life.
God is Not Easily Provoked
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love easily provoked? Is God easily provoked?
When we consider provocation, we must realize the real issue is about control. Love is settled and cannot be controlled. In our present cultural reality, being out of control has become acceptable. We actually praise out-of-control emotions. We relieve ourselves of responsibility to maintain control over our anger. We have become a people who push the limits with one another and actually feel we are expressing our freedom when we do. In truth, we are “easily provoked”. We have become a culture of pushing the buttons with each other with one purpose in mind – to get what we want, which leads to provoking others to anger. This is not the love of God, nor is it love for one another. In fact, it is rooted in the love of self.
This bent to provocation has altered our view of God. We have become a people who believe we can provoke God to get what we want. We are constantly looking for the ways that will cause God to do be what we want Him to be, to do what we want Him to do and above all, to always be there for us in our pursuit of our own will. We have crafted and understanding of God that is easily angered. In fact, we need Him to be that way in order to keep us in line. Fear has become the way to organize and secure what we call church today.
We believe that God is easily provoked. In contrast, we have been accepted in Christ – loved, received and secure in our relationship with Him. He will never leave or forsake us. We cannot fail Him, provoking Him to anger against us. He is secure in His love for us. He is not easily provoked, and neither should we be. We cannot provoke Him to anger against us. He is our Father. We are His sons – family. This is our Father’s love – that we, just like Him, are not easily provoked. We are secure in His love for us and our love for others.
God Keeps No Record of Wrongs
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Does love keep a record of wrongs? Does God keep a record of wrongs?
When we believe God keeps a record of our wrongs, we are caught in a cycle of repetition. We repeat the sin over and over again. We live in a cycle of sin, condemnation, guilt, repentance and sinning again. The missing element here is the belief that when we repent, He forgives us. By not believing we are forgiven, we keep a record of our wrongs and the result is living a life of sin consciousness. If we truly believed we were forgiven, i.e., that the record of our wrongs is removed, we would have the grace to break free from this cycle and live a life of righteousness consciousness.
Being forgiven means that God does not associate our future with our past. He restores us. He does not label us. We are not “sinners saved by grace”. We are people who once were sinners but are now saints, because of the grace of God. The shame and guilt of our sin has been removed and we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Our Father is not keeping a record of our wrongs for the very purpose of breaking us free from the cycle of sin. He has made us a new person in Christ. The old has passed away. He sees us in Christ, where all wrong has been expunged – past, present and future. He has kept no record of your past. Not before you were born again, not since then, and when tomorrow comes, He has already forgotten your past sins from yesterday. That is love beyond description. He loves us, therefore, as a good Father, He keeps no record of our wrongs.
Our Father addressed sin through Christ. He has made it possible to overcome sin. Our sin does not define us, nor can it confine us. Because of His love, it is not about wrongs even in doing right. He loves us because we are His sons. His grace frees us to live. We can rest in His love.
God Does Not Delight in Evil
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Does love delight in evil? Does God delight in evil?
We live in a time when evil is considered good. Fear is rampant. We focus on our fears which allows it to guide our choices in life. Fear is evil. To believe that God requires absolute obedience and punishes those who do not comply is evil. We have been presented a God who delights in punishment of our sin.
Fear has become one of the prominent tactics in those who are called to represent God. Consider all the bold proclamations that God is punishing our nation for its sins. Yet our message is that of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Are we missing something here?
One of the evilest of all presentations that God delights in evil is the “rapture theology”. The base principle of this teaching is to tell people that they will be “left behind” if they don’t get their life in order before Jesus returns. This is a belief that not only delights in evil but uses it as a manipulative tool to persuade people to come to Christ.
God doesn’t delight in fear tactics. To do so would be to align with evil to entice men to receive Him.
At the core of this thinking is that we do not believe that love is enough to draw men to Christ. It is the goodness of God that draws men to repentance. He is love and He loves us. He is not a Father that abandons His children in their failure. No, instead He is there to aid, comfort, heal and restore us. He never delights in evil. His delight is in His relationship of love with us.
Know this, the coming of the Lord is never meant to frighten you. It is our living hope! We who are His will never be “left behind”. His love is enough. We are secure in Him. There is nothing for us to fear about evil in our life. We have been redeemed fully and our future is determined. God delights in us!
God Rejoices in the Truth
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Does love rejoice in the truth? Does God rejoice in the truth?
Truth is not valued as it should be, not in our nation, and tragically, not even among those who love the Lord, Jesus, the one who personifies the truth. Why? We have come to expect lies behind most everything we see and experience in our lives. But even more tragic is the fact that we know we live in a culture of lies. Ron Paul once said, “truth is tyranny in an empire built on lies.” Tyranny is defined as “cruel and oppressive rule”. Ponder that in the light of our culture. This has become our accepted way of life.
In a culture of rejecting truth, do we believe the truth about ourselves? In accepting truth, can we believe God rejoices in truth about us? How could He? Could it be that the truth He knows about us is different than the truth we believe about ourselves?
It is not only possible, but it’s a reality. God is love and is incredibly in love with us. He redeemed us. He forgave all our sins. That is all sins; past, present and future. He made us righteous. He did all of this by placing us in Christ when we were born from above. He sees us in Christ. He doesn’t see as we see. He sees the object of His love as our Father.
He rejoices in the truth about us. That truth is that He judged all our sin in Christ, forgave us and gave us a new heart so we could know Him and become like Him. That new heart despises all that is not of God. That new heart is proof that we are and will ultimately be like Him. He now judges us by our heart, not by what we’ve done or ever will do. He sees us for who we are in Christ and who we are destined to become. He rejoices in this truth. Our destiny is found in Christ being in us. In that truth we should rejoice! In that truth God rejoices!
God Always Protects
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love protecting? Is God protecting?
Most people ask the question about the painful and hard things they have been through, “where was God when this was happening?”. The truth is that He was there, feeling our pain, hurting for us and with us. We wonder why He allowed this to happen. Why didn’t He rescue us?
We have come to define protection as nothing ever bad happening to us. Is it God’s responsibility as a Father to see to it that nothing bad ever happens to us? We do tend to view Him that way. Someone is miraculously saved from dying and we label it a miracle and credit God with it happening. Someone else dies and we attribute it to God’s ways being mysterious. The two are not compatible when considering whether or not God is a protector. If we believe about God this way then He is defined as being a protector by choice. Some He protects and some He does not protect, or worse, He protects us sometimes but sometimes not.
Our belief about His protection is connected to how well we believe we are toeing the line, following His laws and the rules of being righteous. At the heart of most of this is fear. We’ve been taught that we can step outside His protection or that He removes His protection to teach us. With this as our understanding about God, it’s impossible to believe that He always protects us.
God is love and love always protects. That’s the truth. He protects us because He is our Father, and He loves us. Jesus came and fulfilled all the rules, laws and became our righteousness. We are not promised that nothing bad will ever happen to us. Adversity, pain and other things happen to us in this world. Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered. We will too. Everything that happens to us is connected to our purpose and destiny. Going through them prepares us and the fact that we made it through them is evidence He protected us. He was there then and He’s there now. He always protects.
God Always Trusts
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love trusting? Is God trusting?
If you asked anyone if they believe that love always trusts, you would almost always be met with cynicism. We want to believe that love and being a Christian means we should always trust and be trusted by those we love. The reality is that we know the human frame. We’ve come to believe that in this world trust must be earned. And if we are let down by those we trust, we almost always stop trusting them. This is the pinnacle of self-protection. We all have built up walls of protection to keep us from being disappointed by those we trust. All of this almost always frames whether or not we trust God.
What does trusting God mean? Does He only trust us when we’ve proven we can be trusted? Most Christians actually believe He always tests our trust but never really trusts us. Why? Because of the perception that trust must be earned.
How does God respond when we fail? How do we respond to those who fail us? We’ve come to believe that God withdraws His love and fellowship when we fail. We respond this way with one another when we are let down by those we love and trust.
Does God believe in us? If we base it on our ability to always do what is right, we’ll never believe He does. We must see that God’s trust in us is based on our heart. We may not always be ready for certain responsibilities, and given them, we would fail. We may need help in how to love others and make decisions in life that are not selfish. These are things that require correction, growth and maturity. We all fail others in our humanity. Our Father’s trust in us is connected to who we are in Him and the end result of our life.
He always trusts us because He is love. He will never stop trusting us because of our failures. His love is never based on our performance. Love always trusts because to love is to trust. To trust is to love.
God Always Hopes
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love hopeful? Is God hopeful?
In most minds, hope has been reduced to wishing. It has been reduced to dreams and fantasy, and these only lead to hopelessness. Based on this definition, when the Bible talks about hope in Christ, we can see the disconnect. Sadly, hope in Christ has become wishing, dreams and fantasy.
If God is love and love always hopes, what does that mean? Hope is priceless. Faith begins with hope.
We must be able to hope, not only in God, but for life itself. Our hope connects us to God and to truth.
It is hope that gives us the ability to endure the trials of life. Because of our disconnect with what hope is, we find ourselves searching for how to cope with the times we are in. We have inaccurately defined hope, thus, inaccurately defining God. In this reality, we connect our hope to a lie that we want to be true, and when we come up short, the result is hopelessness.
Hope in God was never meant to be placed in things that cannot be, leaving us without faith for the future. Hope must be placed in what a past, present and future that is sure and guaranteed. Without this reality, we are left to questions about God’s faithfulness and the truth about what He has promised to us.
God’s ability to hope in us is founded in that truth that He knows about us. He sees our future and knows who we are and will become. He doesn’t wish we will succeed. He is sure of our future. We belong to Him. True hope, God’s hope for us, is knowing that the truth about us will prevail. We have a destiny that we will fulfill. His hope for us is the guarantee of the outcome. The beautiful reality about hope is that we still have hope even in the midst of our greatest failure. Our Father is there to reconnect us to our guaranteed future as we turn to Him in simple faith. Hope in Him, His truth and His hope for you. It is secure.
God Always Perseveres
God loves the world. What does this mean? He is love. What is the true motivation of His love? We have a serious disconnect with who God is because our definition of love is flawed and as a result, our presentation of Him to the world is also flawed.
How is love defined? Love is defined in a series of statements from 1 Corinthians 13. Taking each of these statements about love, we are seeking to understand love and therefore who God is.
In this article we will be asking and answering the questions – Is love persevering? Is God persevering?
Adversity is a common human experience. Some adversity is produced by our own choices. We make decisions and there are resulting consequences. When we choose selfishly to miss God’s best for our life, there are results of these choices. But that never implies that God is punishing us or has lost His patience with us. Even Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. His life and death were the evidence of His great love for us. He has persevered and He will persevere. His love will endure for His love cannot fail. He will be faithful to be with us before adversity, in adversity and after we have come through adversity.
In our culture we minimize the importance of perseverance. In fact, we are quick to judge, quick to condemn, and quick to believe that God is angry and ready to drop the hammer on us for our sins. This view of God has permeated even the church, among the very people who should know better about Him. Sin is to miss the mark, but it is never about God giving up on us.
Most Christians have lived their lives in Christ believing in the loss of their salvation and having to “rededicate” their lives over and over to just stay in His favor. We are so ingrained in old covenant thinking that we stand in opposition to our freedom, liberty, and His love for us. The new covenant is a relationship of love. He loves us. We love Him. There is nothing – nothing that can separate us from this love.
Revelation 13:8 speaks of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The sacrifice of Jesus for our sins was a pre-determined act of the Father for us. Why would the Father go to such lengths? Relationship requires the giving of the life for the other. This kind of love makes perseverance a reality. God ensured His love for us before He created us by the willing choice to sacrifice Himself for us. He died so we can live. That is the proof He perseveres.