The Love of God Study

Attribute Focus
God is love. Love is an essential attribute of God. When we look at the other attributes of God we recognize things about His love. “We see that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.” (Tozer) Because God is holy and righteous we might stand in fear and think it unthinkable to enter into his presence. But God’s holiness and justice are counterbalanced by the fact that He is a God of love. The death of Christ is the greatest expression of God’s love toward us. In His life and death for us we see clearly that God loves us.

Quote
One of the words used in the Old Testament is “the verb habab, it is translated ‘to love,’ but it also has the connotation of ‘having in the bosom’. Thus it speaks of a tenderness and closeness of feeling toward the object of love. The verb hasaq appears more frequently in relation to divine love than does habab. This word emphasizes that which attaches to something or someone. When used in regard to emotions it speaks of a love which is already bound to its object. Such inward attachment is true of God’s love for Israel (Deut 10:15), and yet that happened because of his own free will, not because Israel did anything to deserve it (Deut 7:7). This is the love that won’t let go of the object of love.” John Feiberg.

Another Quote
“No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love, or any mind comprehend it: it ‘passeth knowledge’ (Eph. 3:19). The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love, are infinitely below its true nature. The heaven is not so far above the Earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition in such as are the objects of it. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it.” John Brine, 1743.


Key Scripture
1 John 4:8, 1 Corinthians 13, Hosea 11:1-4, Jeremiah 31:3, Zeph. 3:17, Hosea 3, John 15:13, 1 John 3:16, 1 John 3:1, Romans 8:35-39, 2 Corinthians 13:11

Respond
1. Read through some of the passages and get a sense of what is being said. After each one talk about how it relates to God being a God of love.
2. What is unconditional love? Does this kind of love mean loving someone for who they are with no desire for them to change?
3. Is God’s love unconditional? Why or why not?
4. How did God show his love for us?
5. How can we show our love for others?
6. How can one know if they really love God?