Principle
GOD is love.
Explanation
The Bible asserts, quite directly, that GOD is love:
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
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10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
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16 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 them.
(1 John 4:7-8, 10-12, 16 NIV)
According to Scripture, GOD is the definition of love. The reason that humans know what love means is because of GOD's nature. Without GOD, there would be no love.
It is GOD's love that motivated Him to want to share life and blessings with other beings. This is His motivation in creating us, in creating the world we enjoy now and the greater one to come (for His children).
Every action that GOD takes, every decision He has made and ever will make is rooted in love. The love of GOD is known as "agape," the Greek word that precisely defines the type of love that desires what is best for the loved one.
GOD blesses us immensely because He loves (agapes) us. He withholds certain things that we may desire and even pray for because He loves us. Sometimes, the greatest act of love is to say no and that is how much GOD loves us.
As humans, our ability to discern what is best for us is extremely limited. Our perceptions are imbalanced and flawed and our judgments are often incorrect. GOD loves us so much that He only allows what is best for us. But often, what is best is not what we desire and this can make it seem to us as though GOD is unloving. Nothing could be more untrue, however.
Often, the most loving thing is the most difficult. For instance, imagine parents who have a child in their early 20's who is addicted to drugs. The parents have exhausted every means of helping the child over the years and it seems like nothing is working. The child has not committed to wanting to stay clean.
In situations like this, the most loving thing that the parents can do for the child's wellbeing is to cut ties with them and let them go their own path without help, until the child repents to seek help. But this is deeply painful for the parents and the child. And it is hard. Their love causes them to want to avoid such drastic measures. But nothing else is working. And, on the surface, such a decision seems cruel and unloving.
So it is with GOD and us.
I have a friend who used to say that it is impossible for a person to love others until they first receive love. Scripture seems to back this up. We love because GOD first loved us.
A major reason why the world is so violent and filled with problems is that the family unit has failed. Fathers aren't at home setting a godly example of loving and training up their children, so the kids grow up with a tremendous void in their hearts. They don't know what it is or why it's there, often, but the void is a great pain that they spend their lives trying to sooth. The solution is to receive GOD's love, but someone has to point them to Him so they can see Him and receive it. For most, they never do.
I often say that GOD is so powerful that He can transform the lives of people through His love alone. No explicit signs or wonders. No supernatural compulsion. Just love. Because He is that beautiful and that powerful. When you receive GOD's love, it draws you to Him.
Receive GOD's love.
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If you feel unloved or want to know GOD's love more deeply but don't know how, I can help you. I will show Him to you. Just message me. Email me at webmaster [at] chasingalion.com or click my author name link in the article heading. You can feel GOD's love in your life and have Him transform you as well. You don't have to live life alone and unloved.
