Today, what Christian believers mean when saying “GOD is love” is in view. The multiple facets of love are revealed in relationships, and go beyond mere affection and emotion. Included are acceptance, access, accountability, acknowledgment, affirmation, approval, and nurture. A writer at “Yahoo! Answers” using the ID “Anonymous” (no profile information appears) posted the following:
IS GOD LOVE?
THE GOLDEN ARROW: Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (1st John 3: 13-18, King James Version, KJV)
THE DOUBLE DAGGER: Believers Are To Love (12/07/2016); The Relationships With GOD? (11/30/2016); Herein Is True Love (10/21/2016); The GOD Who Loves? (10/02/2016); Divine and Unconditional Love (09/18/2016); Love That Is Spirit? (01/28/2016); Punishment To Show Love? (11/29/2015)
“Anonymous”, in the same way you could say, “football is a game,” be correct, yet, still not have said what makes it different and special from the many other games (e.g., baseball, cricket, ice hockey, soccer), many say, “GOD is love” without also indicating in what way GOD is different from affection and emotion within relationships that are platonic, romantic, professional, or sexual. Divine love is not best described by using ideas and language for carnal, material, and social relationships, for GOD is a spirit. Love to GOD is shown by such things as kindness to others, obedience, practice of sacraments, praise, prayer, respect, trust, and speaking truth. Divinity appears as an array of inseparable spirit substances such as faith, holiness, joy, longsuffering, immortality, immutability, incorruption, eternal purpose, purity, wisdom, and wrath against sin. Multiple sacred operations are carried out and performed by divinity including atonement, cleansing, covenant, forbearance, forgiveness, judgment, rebirth, reconciliation, redemption, revelation, salvation, and sanctification. The perfection and righteousness of GOD makes it that divine love is even expressed through such diverse and challenging elements for finite beings as birth, death, mercy, punishment, sacred law, and suffering. Consider the following:
(1.) Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, King James Version (KJV): 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
(2.) 1st John 4: 7-9, KJV: 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
(3.) Hebrews 12: 4-8, KJV: 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. 5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
There is far more to be said, correctly applied, and spiritually apprehended. (For example, (4.) 1st John 3: 1-3, KJV: 1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
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