The Love of God

           We all have ideas about what love is. Oxford Languages describes love as “an intense feeling of deep affection”. Your Dictionary defines it as “a strong feeling of affection and concern toward another person, as that arising from kinship or close friendship”.

            The Greeks had up to eight different words for love, such as: Storge: affection; Philia or Phileo: friendship;  Eros: sexual, erotic; Agape: unconditional, divine, selfless; Ludus: flirtatious, playful, casual, uncommitted; Pragma: committed, long-standing; Philautia: self-love; Mania: obsessive, possessive, addictive, dependent.

            The Bible describes love the following way: “Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 MSG).

            In our lives here on earth, as we interact with our family members and those around us, we can come to believe that love is conditional and has to be earned. Through what we’ve experienced in the past, we may accept as true that no one will ever love us unless we are perfect, that in the end, love will always walk away, and God will only love us if we do such-and-such.

            But God’s love for us is a commitment, an unbreakable covenant – undeserved, unconditional, and unceasing. His Word says that “...while we were wasting our lives in sin, God revealed His powerful love to us in a tangible display – the Anointed One died for us” (Romans 5:8 VOICE). “Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, (God) united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace!” (Ephesians 2:5 TPT).

            God’s love can’t be earned because we already have it. And it can’t be lost because we don’t deserve it in the first place. And how much does God love us? Let the following words from the Apostle Paul sink deep into your spirit. “So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love...his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens...There is no power above us or beneath us- no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!” (Romans 8:38-39 TPT).

            Why do we struggle to accept God’s agape, unconditional, divine, selfless love? Probably because we live in a broken world that accepts conditional, inconsistent love as normal. Long-term marriage commitments are becoming fewer and farther between, and divorce is the norm. Parents give up on their children, and children abandon their parents.

            1 John 4:16 says we can trust in the love God has for us because God IS love. God doesn’t have love. He is love. John 1:1 (AMPC) says, “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.” Jesus is God incarnate. He is love incarnate. We can trust the love He has for us.

            When we first learn to float, we have two options – to struggle and have difficulty believing that the buoyancy of the water will hold us up, or to lie back and trust Archimedes’ principle – the physical law of buoyancy.
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          Jesus said, “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love...” (John 15:9 MSG). God wants us to believe the love He has for us, to lie back, and rest in the loving arms of His Son, Jesus. His love will NEVER let us go.