God Is Loving
Published on Dec 22, 2015
If God is anything, God is loving. Love is the nature of God. It is His essence. His loving nature is inseparable from him, as He shows love to both His Children and to enemies of the Cross-- extending His great love and favor to even those who currently reject Him. Learn more about this great love from this great God, the God of the Holy Bible. Part of a multi-session series by Dr. Freddy Cardoza, author of the Book/DVD series, "Beyond Belief" by LifeWay publishers. Hear the podcast at www.fredtalks.libsyn.com.
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God Is Loving
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Napoleon's Josephine
One of the World's Great Love Stories
Every person has an existential desire to love— and a need for love. This is true today and it was true in the past. One of the great love stories in history is that of Napoleon Bonaparte and his dearest, Josephine. Like an idyllic romance the couple met in the enchanted city of Paris. Josephine, a widow, was reeling from the violent death of her first husband in the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
Despairing of war and the ravages of personal defeats, the two found intimate belonging in one another. This initiated a love known centuries later and preserved in Napoleon’s love letters, penned in exquisite French prose.
When they met, Napoleon was a poor military officer of little reputation. But the love they shared emboldened and empowered him to quick military successes. He soon became the King of Italy and ultimately the first Emperor of France—and Josephine, his empress.
Just as people communicate the enduring nature of their love through the writing of love letters, God has chosen to communicate His eternal love for us through the holy love letter of His Word, the Bible, and particularly the book of First John.
Despairing of war and the ravages of personal defeats, the two found intimate belonging in one another. This initiated a love known centuries later and preserved in Napoleon’s love letters, penned in exquisite French prose.
When they met, Napoleon was a poor military officer of little reputation. But the love they shared emboldened and empowered him to quick military successes. He soon became the King of Italy and ultimately the first Emperor of France—and Josephine, his empress.
Just as people communicate the enduring nature of their love through the writing of love letters, God has chosen to communicate His eternal love for us through the holy love letter of His Word, the Bible, and particularly the book of First John.
Love
Is an Existential Human Need
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 Truths
- God's Love mentioned here is "agape" v. phileo, storge, or eros
- Agape (agapeo) is self-less, others-serving, and a passionate choice to put the object of our love in front of ourselves
Photo by ModernDope (old account)
1 John 4:7-8 Truths
- God's lavish love obligates believers to love one another (v.7) Why?
- (1) Because God is Love
- (2) Those Born of God (born-again) demonstrate they know God through their love for God and others
Photo by ModernDope (old account)
1 John 4:7-8 Truths
- Those who do not show "agape" do not know God
- To Know God is to experience Him intimately
Photo by ModernDope (old account)
Understanding Love
- Human love involves "choice" and commitment resulting in various expressions of devotion, affection, and passion (storge, phileo, eros, agape)
- Animals and inhumane people operate primarily on instinct which is biologically-imbred and primarily chemical, hormonal, and self-preserving
- Our ability lets us "love" others & God
Photo by giuvax
"The infinite abyss (our need for love) can only be filled by an infinite and immutable Object, that is to say, only by God Himself"
Blaise Pascal (1600s)
Photo by giuvax
God created us this way so our "love hunger" would create an insatiable craving for a relationship with Him
Photo by giuvax
God's Love is wide enough to reach across time, long enough to last forever, deep enough to reach the depth of our need, and high enough to overlook our mistakes
Pastor Rick Warren
Photo by giuvax
1 John 4:9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10 Truths
- John declares how God demonstrated His Love
- Emphatic: "in this way"
- Revealed: implies love was "God's action" not ours (He loved us first, God initiated)
- He sent His Only Son as Propitiation
Photo by dsevilla
Word Study
- Greeks sought to appease the Pantheon of gods through various sacrifices and rituals
- Superstitious offerings sought to sooth their anger and destructive rage
- Example: Goddess Athena of Athens at Parthenon high above the city
Photo by photographerglen
The Pantheon in NT Times
- The Roman Pantheon in Rome was built to gods
- Πάνθεον means "all gods"
- The Roman cult system was essentially identical to the Greek cult, with changed deity names
Photo by chilangoco
Biblical Propitiation
- Hebrew concept: "to cover" or "to atone"
- Propitiation brings 'atonement' or "at-one-ment" with God (peace with God)
- Blood on Mercy Seat (Ex 25:17) on Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement (Lev 16)
Photo by mharrsch
Christ's Blood Offering
- Replaced the Old Testament Sacrificial Lamb
- Jesus Became the Lamb of God (John 1:29)
- His blood offered propitiation
- That was history's greatest act of love, resulting in "salvation:
- No longer "covering" but "cleansing" human sin for atonement (1 John 1:7)
Photo by digitalART2
Summary of Propitiation
- To introduce Himself, God Incarnated or "pitched his tent" among us (Jn 1:1-13)
- Jesus became a mediator (representing both parties needing reconciled)
- As Man, Jesus lovingly became an offering for 'human' sin, but as God he provided a divine nature (sinless) and power over death (resurrection)
Photo by digitalART2
1 John 4:11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:11-12 Truths
- Conditional Statement: "If" (since) God loved us, we owe/are obligated/ must also love one another
- His love is perfected in us (perfect= meet the goal); the goal of God's love is that we will love HIM and others back
Photo by Captain Chaos
No One Has Ever Seen God
- God is:
- Personal essence, being;
- Non-corporeal; immaterial;
- Invisible; spirit; eternal
Photo by Captain Chaos
To Show "His Love"
- Since God in Trinity (Father, Word, Spirit) cannot be seen, He manifested physically
- God came in the flesh, ironically BECOMING in Jesus "temporarily" mortal, corporeal, physical, material, flesh-- everything He isn't eternally, in order that he would become made like us, just as we were made in His image
Photo by Doug1021
Call to Action
- Let God Love You; and Love Him Back.
- Decide to Reflect God's Love Back to Others
- Choose to Love a Person That You Feel Least Deserves God's Love-- the Unlovely and Unlovable
Photo by Alex //Berlin _ Alexander Stübner
Q&A
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Discussion
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