davidbowerkingwood

The Greatest of These is Love!

One of the most staggering truths revealed in the Bible is the nature of God; God is love! Even when mankind, created in the image of God, committed spiritual suicide by disobeying a direct command; God still loved mankind so much He sent His own Son to be born of a virgin with the sole purpose of dying as the substitute payment for the penalty that had been incurred by that disobedience.

We are told in Romans 1 how creation reveals the majesty and power of God and one look at the heavens on a clear night reveals the magnitude of the one who created it all and sustains its existence from moment to moment. It is only in the Bible, however, the basic nature of this powerful creator is revealed; it is only in the Bible we discover God is love.

In 1 Corinthians 13 the Apostle Paul discusses faith, hope and love and concludes the greatest of these is love. The need for both faith and hope will pass when we are finally home with the Lord but the joy of love will always remain. A great beauty of the Christian life is the opportunity to experience the joy of God’s love right now.

Love Came First

In Romans 5, Paul writes of the order of events; in verses 6-8 we are told:

^“6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Mankind, lost in sin, was the object of God’s love, mercy and grace and the Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, died on the cross to make redemption a possibility for all who receive Him as Savior.

At the point of salvation we receive the earnest of our inheritance, are made spiritually alive and given the indwelling Holy Spirit of God to live with us forever; part of the gift of the Spirit is love, a love of God and all that is His.

The Apostle John gives us a beautiful summary of the blessings we have received at salvation when he writes in 1 John 4:7-12:

^“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. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 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.”

The Beauty and Blessings of Love

I’m sure we have all marveled at the positive and uplifting feelings love can generate; how the very core of our being seems to be stirred by the deep emotions we feel as we observe or think on someone loved very deeply. In my experience this has been true of not only human beings but also other living beings in which I see the hand of our Creator; I see the hand of God in the two cats who are members of our family, Abby Cat and Tomboy.

Abby Cat

Tomboy

In the beginning mankind was given the responsibility for all of the living creatures, in Genesis 1:26 it is written:

^“26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Although mankind lost its position of rulership there still remains a responsibility to love and care for those creatures that were originally entrusted to us. The situation has changed dramatically under the curse of Genesis 3:14-19 but mankind still feels the responsibility to love and care for God’s creation as intended.

That we can love God’s creation, both animate and inanimate, is God’s gift of love to us that we might love and appreciate that which is important to God. In an earlier essay on God’s love I concluded with the following and would like to include it again.

“A Final Thought

One of the joys of loving people and all of God’s creation is a better understanding of how God can love us. If each of us, with all of the flaws we know we possess, can love each other and God’s creation, it becomes much easier to believe a Holy God who is free of all of these flaws can really love us as much as He says He does.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

First published on November 27, 2014, revised and updated.