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Verse:“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” —John 3:16, NKJV
A few years ago, I was impressed to study the love of God, which I did in two stages. In the first stage, I focused on six passages of scripture.
In John 3:16, love may be defined as giving —God gave His Son.
In Romans 5:8, love is equivalent to sacrifice.
In Ephesians 2:4, 5, love is synonymous with mercy.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17, love means comfort.
In 1 John 4:9, 10, love is an active verb, and in Revelation 3:5, love means forgiveness. Those six passages reinforced God’s versatility; He loves us so very much that His love is translated into different meanings to meet our immediate and unique needs. His love also teaches me to be versatile and to love unconditionally.
It teaches me that love is generous; it gives freely.
Because I love, no sacrifice is too great, and my interactions should always be tempered with mercy. My love enables me to provide comfort for others, and because love is an active verb, it teaches me the importance of forgiveness.
The first stage of my study propelled me into a deeper study of God’s love. The second stage was a four-year journey, during which time I studied God’s love as manifested from Genesis to Revelation. During those years, I realized that some people’s version of the God of the Old Testament is very different from the One I encountered.
I’ve heard and read that the God of the Old Testament is an angry, vengeful, punitive warmonger who seemed to enjoy violence and destruction.
That may be the reason why natural disasters are described as “acts of God.” On the contrary, the God that I encountered in the Old Testament possesses the same consistent characteristics portrayed in the New Testament.
At the outset, in Genesis, God’s love is manifested in His creative acts. Because He loved, He created a world with all the beauty and conveniences that people would need, and then He created Adam and Eve. That same image resonates throughout the Bible. The final text in Revelation 1:5, 6 portrays God’s undying love embracing all the meanings as He cleanses us and elevates us to “kings and priests.” Oh, what love! I pray that we could embrace God’s love and daily study and grasp more of its depth for us.
Valerie Knowles Combie