# THE LOVE OF GOD: PART 1 ## Introduction I welcome you to the combined service this morning. If Jesus tarries His second coming, may we experience and enjoy many glorious services like this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Yesterday at the December edition of the 'Operation Declare and Decree' service, our loving Father invited us to be a participant in a Journey of Love which by His grace is the theme of His church this month. We were reminded that love is one of the four themes of the advent season, the others being hope, peace and joy. Without a doubt, I believe we all have accepted the invitation to be part of this 'Journey of Love.' But before you join the love trail, I want each and every one of us to pause for a moment and reflect on the reason why you should accept the invitation. This is one of the key issues that the message of God this morning will be addressing in the sermon titled, The Love of God. ## God is Qualified to Invite You to The Journey of Love Children of God, let us start by looking at how you will react to a human invitation to an event. Suppose a friend of yours whom you know very well invites you to an event with a lot of promises of what will happen at this event. Being a rational being, you are likely to filter those promises with what you know about that your friend. Can he deliver or is he just marketing the event so that you can accept his invitation? So, I pose the question to you this morning, why should you accept the invitation from the Almighty Father to undertake a 'Journey of Love'? Or put in another question form, can God deliver on his promises of love in this journey? Your answer to this question is likely to be "Yes, God is always faithful, and he will deliver on His promises." The other part of the answer should also be that He is capable of delivering on the promises of love because the Bible tells us that one of the attributes of God is love. God is Love, therefore He can deliver on the promises of love. First John 4:8,16 says: *"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love...God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."* ## God is Love We need to elaborate more on this declaration that God is love. The essential nature of God is love. In a sense, love permeates all the other attributes and actions of God. For instance, God's love is not in conflict with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or even His wrath. All of God's attributes are in perfect harmony. Everything God does is loving, just as everything He does is just and right. God is just and holy. He abhors sin. But because of His essential nature which is love, even in his wrath and anger you will still see His precious love coming out so clearly. God's administration of His justice and punishment is never vindictive. More often than not, it is protective and corrective. ### Example from the Garden of Eden Let us illustrate this point from the story of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. First, before the fall we must remember that God created man specially after His own image (Genesis 1:27) which in itself is an act of love. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they had to be punished. Even at that, the Bible tells us that the love of God remained with Adam and Eve. Before they were banished from the Garden of Eden, God graciously provided them effective clothing compared to the fig leaves they had made for themselves: *"The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them"* (Genesis 3:21). In essence, even when they were being punished, God's love showed in His gracious provision for them. ## Definition of Love Beyond showing mercy and love when He punishes, God is love because He perfectly fits the Biblical descriptions or definitions of love. One of such definitions is from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians: *"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails"* (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a). As we can see, God (Love) is "patient" with us. He gives us several chances when we go astray to come back to the right relationship with Him. When we come back or repent, He receives us back unconditionally. That is to say that God "keeps no records of wrongs." ## Characteristics of the Love of God If God is love, the next question we should ask ourselves is what the nature of God's love is. This is important because the human use of the word love is often quite different from the spiritual use. In this second part of this message, we will focus on four characteristics of the love of God to us. ### God's love is steadfast and unchanging The first characteristic to know is that God's love is steadfast and unchanging. This is unlike the love of human for God or others which is ever so fickle. It is the nature of human love to change depending on circumstances or even mood. Not so with God's love. The Bible tells us that God's love for us is steadfast, and unchangeable and the faithfulness of God is so great that it confounds our human logic: *"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassion never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness"* (Lam. 3:22-23). ### God's love is not carnal or natural The second nature of the love of God is that it is not natural or carnal. That makes it amazing. With human love we are most likely to love the lovable. But not so with the love of God which is a type of love that loves the unlovable. This fact is buttressed by the Salvation story. God demonstrated His great love for us by sending His only Son to the world to die a painful death on the Cross so that we can be redeemed from the hold of Satan and sin. *"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"* (Romans 5: 6-8). ### God's love is demonstrated in Jesus Christ A closer look at the birth and the earthly mission of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ demonstrates the love of God for us. That famous Bible verse, John 3:16, tell us that God sent his only begotten Son to the world for our redemption. The motivation was the love that God has for us: *"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life"* (John 3:16). ### God's love is poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit The final characteristic I want us to ponder on this morning is that God's love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us: *"And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us"* (Roman 5:5). We need to pay attention to this fact because it is telling us something we can relate with when it comes to the issue of love. Human love as we know has something to do with the heart. When you are in love in the human sense, it is more of a matter of the heart rather than of the head. What this lovely verse is telling us is similar to what we know about human love - God's love is not mainly a matter of logical inference. It is something that we experience in the heart. You know about, and experience, God's love not mainly through inference from logic but majorly through your hearts. ## Conclusion Children of God, I do hope you can further appreciate the love of God through this message. And as I said earlier, I trust you will enthusiastically accept the invitation of God to embark on this spiritual journey called the 'Journey of Love' in this advent season. The person inviting you is an embodiment of love. He is love. You can therefore be sure that the promises of love He offers in this rendezvous is real.