| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Carl" |
| Date: |
20 Aug 2007 07:44:09 PM |
| Object: |
God Is Love |
The following article is John MacArthur's attempt to teach about the
Biblical concept of "God is Love" which is something that is indeed taught
in the Bible quite clearly but has been difficult to thoroughly explain even
by Christians (and impossible to explain by nonChristians). God's love is
infinite and a perfect love that we Christians enjoy, rejoice about and find
bountiful joy within. God's love is also that which haters of God attack and
revile. Regardless the fact remains that God is love and we Christians are
loved by God. So much so that He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our
sins. I hope this article might give you pause to think and meditate upon
God's Word.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
---
God Is Love
by John MacArthur
On a cross-country domestic airliner a few years ago, I plugged in the
earphones and began to listen to the music program. I was amazed at how much
of the music dealt with love. At the time I was preaching through 1 John 4,
so the subject of love was very much on my mind. I couldn't help noticing
how glib and shallow most of the lyrics were. "She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah,
Yeah" is a classic by worldly standards. But few people would argue that its
lyrics are truly profound.
I began to realize how easily our culture trivializes love by
sentimentalizing it. The love we hear about in popular songs is almost
always portrayed as a feeling-usually involving unfulfilled desire. Most
love songs describe love as a longing, a passion, a craving that is never
quite satisfied, a set of expectations that are never met. Unfortunately,
that sort of love is devoid of any ultimate meaning. It is actually a tragic
reflection of human lostness.
As I thought about it, I realized something else: Most love songs not only
reduce love to an emotion, but they also make it an involuntary one. People
"fall" in love. They get swept off their feet by love. They can't help
themselves. They go crazy for love. One song laments, "I'm hooked on a
feeling," while another confesses, "I think I'm going out of my head."
It may seem a nice romantic sentiment to characterize love as uncontrollable
passion, but those who think carefully about it will realize that such
"love" is both selfish and irrational. It is far from the biblical concept
of love. Love, according to Scripture, is not a helpless sensation of
desire. Rather, it is a purposeful act of self-giving. The one who genuinely
loves is deliberately devoted to the one loved. True love arises from the
will-not from blind emotion. Consider, for example, this description of love
from the pen of the apostle Paul:
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is
not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not
provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
That kind of love cannot possibly be an emotion that ebbs and flows
involuntarily. It is not a mere feeling. All the attributes of love Paul
lists involve the mind and volition. In other words, the love he describes
is a thoughtful, willing commitment. Also, notice that genuine love "does
not seek its own." That means if I truly love, I'm concerned not with having
my desires filled, but with seeking the best for whoever is the object of my
love.
So the mark of true love is not unbridled desire or wild passion; it is a
giving of oneself. Jesus Himself underscored this when He told His
disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life
for his friends" (Jn. 15:13). If love is a giving of oneself, then the
greatest love is shown by laying down one's very life. And of course, such
love was perfectly modeled by Christ.
Love Is at the Heart of God's Character
The apostle John has been called "the apostle of love" because he wrote so
much on the subject. He was fascinated by it, overwhelmed with the reality
that he was loved by God. He often referred to himself in his gospel as "the
disciple whom Jesus loved" (Jn. 21:20; cf. 13:23; 20:2; 21:7).
In his first epistle, John wrote, "God is love. By this the love of God was
manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so
that we might live through Him" (1 Jn. 4:8-9). Those words are a clear echo
of a familiar passage, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life."
Look carefully, first of all, at this simple phrase from 1 John 4:8: "God is
love."
In what sense is it true that God is love? There are many ways to
misunderstand John's meaning. In fact, 1 John 4:8 seems a particular
favorite of cultists. All kinds of false sects from Christian Science to the
Children of God have misapplied this verse to support wildly heretical
notions-the former using it to portray "God as divine Principle, Love,
rather than personality";? 1? and the latter using it to justify sexual
promiscuity.? 2? It is important that we understand and reject not only
those doctrines, but also the false ideas on which they are based, lest we
be led astray in our own thinking.
First, the expression "God is love" is not meant to depersonalize God or
portray Him as a force, a sensation, a principle, or some sort of cosmic
energy. He is a personal Being, with all the attributes of
personality-volition, feeling, and intellect. In fact, what the apostle is
saying is that God's love is the highest expression of His person.
Therefore, to use this text to attempt to depersonalize God is to do great
violence to the clear meaning of Scripture. Such an interpretation actually
turns this text on its head.
Second, this verse by no means identifies God with everything our society
labels love. Gordon Clark wrote, "John is not saying that all sorts of
emotions called love are from God. The romanticism of Goethe, and much more
the present sexual debauchery, are not from God."? 3? In fact, those who
cite this verse to attempt to legitimize illicit forms of "love" are about
as far from the apostle's intent as it is possible to get. The love of which
he speaks is a pure and holy love, consistent with all the divine
attributes.
Third, this is not meant to be a definition of God or a summary of His
attributes. Divine love in no way minimizes or nullifies God's other
attributes-His omniscience, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, His
immutability, His lordship, His righteousness, His wrath against sin, or any
of His glorious perfections. Deny any one of them and you have denied the
God of Scripture.
There is certainly more to God than love. Similar expressions elsewhere in
Scripture demonstrate this. For example, the same apostle who penned these
words also wrote, "God is Spirit" (Jn. 4:24). We have already noted that
Scripture also says, "God is a consuming fire" (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). And
Psalm 7:11 says, "God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation
every day." The simple statement "God is love" obviously does not convey
everything that can be known about God. We know from Scripture that He is
also holy and righteous and true to His Word. God's love does not contradict
His holiness; instead, it complements and magnifies it and gives it its
deepest meaning. So we cannot isolate this one phrase from the rest of
Scripture and attempt to make love represent the sum of what we know about
God.
Notice, by the way, that this phrase "God is love" is not even the only such
statement in John's first epistle
In the introduction to the epistle, at the very outset, John gave this
shorthand statement of the message he wanted to declare: "That God is light,
and in Him there is no darkness at all" (1 Jn. 1:5, emphasis added). When
the apostle says, "God is light," he encompasses several ideas, including
holiness, truth, and divine splendor. So as we read from this epistle,
remember that these two statements, "God is light" and "God is love," must
be kept in balance at all times. God is love, but having said that, we have
not said everything that is true about God.
Nevertheless, we dare not minimize the force of this crucial text. By saying
"God is love," the apostle is making a very strong statement about the
character and the essence of God. It is God's very nature to love-love
permeates who He is. Or, as John Stott has written, "God is love in His
innermost being."? 4? Stott calls the apostle's declaration that God is love
"the most comprehensive and sublime of all biblical affirmations about God's
being."? 5?
This statement, "God is love," is so profound that no less than Augustine
saw it as an important evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity. If God is
love-that is, if love is intrinsic to His very nature-then He has always
loved, even from eternity past, before there was any created object for His
love. Augustine suggested that this love must have existed between the
Persons of the Trinity, with the Father loving the Son, and so on. So
according to Augustine, the very fact that God is love corroborates the
doctrine of the Trinity.
Clearly the love this text describes is an eternal reality. It flows from
the very nature of God and is not a response to anything outside the person
of God. The apostle does not say, "God is loving," as if he were speaking of
one of many divine attributes, but "God is love"-as if to say that love
pervades and influences all His attributes.
For example, we know that God is holy, "undefiled, separated from sinners
and exalted above the heavens," (Heb. 7:26). As a holy being, He would be
perfectly righteous to view all sinners with the utmost contempt. But His is
a loving holiness that reaches out to sinners with salvation for them-the
antithesis of aloofness or indifference.
Love surely tempers even God's judgments. What a wonder it is that He who is
a consuming fire, He who is unapproachable light, is also the
personification of love! He postpones His judgments against sin while
pleading with sinners to repent. He freely offers mercy to all who will
repent. He shows longsuffering and goodness even to many who steel their
hearts against Him. Divine love not only keeps divine wrath in check while
God appeals to the sinner-but it also proves that God is just when He
finally condemns.
And even when He condemns, "God is love." Our God therefore shows Himself to
be not only glorious but also good; not only spotlessly holy, but also
wondrously compassionate; not only righteous, but also a God of matchless
love. And that love emanates from His very essence.
Everyone Who Loves Is Born of God and Knows God
From the truth that God is love, the apostle draws this corollary: "Love is
from God" (1 Jn. 4:7). God is the source of all true love. Love is therefore
the best evidence that a person truly knows God: "Everyone who loves is born
of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God" (vv.
7-8). In other words, love is the proof of a regenerate heart. Only true
Christians are capable of genuine love.
Clearly, the kind of love the apostle is speaking of is a higher, purer form
of love than we commonly know from human experience. The love of which he
speaks does not flow naturally from the human heart. It is not a carnal
love, a romantic love, or even a familial love. It is a supernatural love
that is peculiar to those who know God. It is godly love.
In fact, the apostle employed a Greek word for "love" that was highly
unusual in first-century culture. The word was agape, not a common word
until the New Testament made it so. When a typical first-century pagan
thought of love, agape was not the word that would have come to mind. In
fact, there were two other common Greek words for love: phileo, to describe
brotherly love, and eros, to describe everything from romantic love to
sexual passion.
Phileo is occasionally used as a synonym for agape, but generally the word
agape is used as a more refined and elevated term. In the sense that John
uses it here, agape is unique to God. He is the sole source of it.
Love for one's family, romantic love, and the love of good friends all fall
into the category of what Scripture calls "natural affection" (Rom. 1:31; 2
Tim. 3:3, kjv). Even these expressions of "natural affection," or human
love, can be marvelously rich. They fill life with color and joy. They are,
however, merely pale reflections of the image of God in His creatures. His
love is perfect love. It is that pure, holy, godly love which can be known
only by those who are born of Him. It is the same unfathomable love that
moved God to send "His only begotten Son into the world so that we might
live through Him" (1 Jn. 4:9).
Donald W. Burdick gives three characteristics of this godly sort of love:
It is spontaneous. There was nothing of value in the persons loved that
called forth such sacrificial love. God of His own free will set His love on
us in spite of our enmity and sin. [Agape] is love that is initiated by the
lover because he wills to love, not because of the value or lovableness of
the person loved. It is self-giving. [Agape] is not interested in what it
can gain, but in what it can give. It is not bent on satisfying the lover,
but on helping the one loved whatever the cost. It is active. [Agape] is not
mere sentiment cherished in the heart. Nor is it mere words however
eloquent. It does involve feeling and may express itself in words, but it is
primarily an attitude toward another that moves the will to act in helping
to meet the need of the one loved.? 6?
All true believers have this love; and all who have it are true believers.
This kind of love cannot be conjured up by the human will. It is wrought in
the hearts of believers by God Himself. "We love, because He first loved us"
(1 Jn. 4:19). Love for God and love for fellow believers is an inevitable
result of the new birth, by which we "become partakers of the divine nature"
(2 Pet. 1:4). Just as it is God's nature to love, love is characteristic of
His true children. "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom. 5:5).
Godly love, therefore, is one of the most important tests of the reality of
one's faith.
The One Who Does Not Love Does Not Know God
It is important to understand the context of John's first epistle. He is
writing about assurance of salvation and outlining several practical and
doctrinal tests that either demonstrate or disprove the genuineness of one's
salvation.
John is writing to help struggling believers gain assurance. He says so in 1
John 5:13: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of
the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life"
(emphasis added).
But along the way he has a secondary purpose, and that is to destroy the
false assurance of those who may profess faith in Christ without really
knowing Him. Therefore, he writes such things as, "If we say that we have
fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice
the truth" (1:6). And, "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and
does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him"
(2:4). And, "The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother
is in the darkness until now" (v. 9).
Here he makes godly love a kind of litmus test for the true Christian: "The
one who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (4:8). With regard
to that statement, Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed,
John does not put this merely as an exhortation. He puts it in such a way
that it becomes a desperately serious matter, and I almost tremble as I
proclaim this doctrine. There are people who are unloving, unkind, always
criticizing, whispering, backbiting, pleased when they hear something
against another Christian. Oh, my heart grieves and bleeds for them as I
think of them; they are pronouncing and proclaiming that they are not born
of God. They are outside the life of God; and I repeat, there is no hope for
such people unless they repent and turn to Him.? 7?
Sadly, most of us have encountered professing Christians whose hearts seem
bereft of any genuine love. The apostle John's admonition is a solemn
reminder that a mere pretension of faith in Christ is worthless. Genuine
faith will inevitably be shown by love. After all, real faith works through
love (Gal. 5:6).
This sort of God-given love is not easily counterfeited. Look at all that is
involved: love for God Himself (1 Cor. 16:22); love for the brethren (1 Jn.
3:14); love of truth and righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18); love for the Word of
God (Psa. 1:2); and even love for one's enemies! (Matt. 5:44). Such love is
contrary to human nature. It is antithetical to our natural selfishness. The
very thought of loving those things is odious to the sinful heart.
Later in this same chapter, the apostle writes, "God is love, and the one
who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (v. 16)-again
making the godly kind of love the mark of genuine faith.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones listed ten simple, practical ways of knowing whether we
abide in love.? 8? I've paraphrased them here and added Scripture references
to underscore each point:
Is there a loss of the sense that God is against me? (Rom. 5:1; 8:31).
Is there a loss of craven fear of God, and a corresponding increase in godly
fear? (cf. 1 Jn. 4:18; Heb. 12:28).
Do I sense the love of God for me? (1 Jn. 4:16).
Do I know that my sins are forgiven? (Rom. 4:7-8).
Do I have a sense of gratitude to God? (Col. 2:6-7).
Do I have an increasing hatred for sin? (Rom. 7:15-16).
Do I desire to please God and live a holy life? (Jn. 14:21; 1 Jn. 2:5-6).
Is there a desire to know God better and draw near to Him? (Phil. 3:10).
Is there a conscious regret that my love for Him is less than what it ought
to be? (Phil. 1:9-10).
Is there a sense of delight in hearing about God and the things of God? (Ps.
1:1-2).
Suppose you fail those tests. How can you know the love of God? In
Lloyd-Jones's words, "You need not start traveling the mystic way, you need
not try to work up feelings; there is only one thing for you to do: face
God, see yourself and your sin, and see Christ as your Saviour."? 9?
The Cross Is the Consummate Proof of Divine Love
Let's now take a fresh look at the text from which we drew the title of this
chapter: "God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that
God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live
through Him" (1 Jn. 4:8-9).
We would not be doing justice to this verse if we limited our discussion of
divine love to abstract terms. The love of God is not merely a subjective
noumenon. It is dynamic, active, vibrant, and powerful. God has "manifested"
His love, or displayed it in a particular act that can be examined
objectively.
In other words, Scripture does not merely say "God is love" and leave it to
the individual to interpret subjectively what that means. There is a very
important doctrinal context in which the love of God is explained and
illustrated. To affirm that God is love while denying the doctrine
underlying and defining that truth is to render the truth itself
meaningless.
But that is precisely what many have done. For example, our adversaries, the
theological liberals, are very keen to affirm that God is love; yet they
often flatly deny the significance of Christ's substitutionary atonement.
They suggest that because God is love, Christ did not actually need to die
as a substitutionary sacrifice to turn away the divine wrath from sinners.
They portray God as easy to mollify, and they characterize the death of
Christ as an act of martyrdom or a moral example for believers-denying that
it was God's own wrath that needed to be propitiated through a blood
sacrifice, and denying that He purposely gave His Son in order to make such
an atonement. Thus, they reject the consummate manifestation of God's love,
even while attempting to make divine love the centerpiece of their system.
I commonly encounter people who think that because God is love, theology
doesn't really matter. A young man recently wrote me a letter that said in
part, "Do you really think God is concerned about all the points of doctrine
that divide us Christians? How much better it would be if we forgot our
doctrinal differences and just showed the world the love of God!"
But that position is untenable, because many who call themselves Christians
are deceivers. For that reason the apostle John began the chapter from which
our text is taken with these words: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false
prophets have gone out into the world" (1 Jn. 4:1).
And since an important body of doctrine underlies what Scripture teaches
about divine love, it is a fallacy to think of divine love and sound
theology as in any way opposed to each other.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote about this very thing:
The great tendency in this present century has been to put up as antitheses
the idea of God as a God of love on the one side, and theology or dogma or
doctrine on the other. Now the average person has generally taken up such a
position as follows: "You know, I am not interested in your doctrine. Surely
the great mistake the church has made throughout the centuries is all this
talk about dogma, all this doctrine of sin, and the doctrine of the
Atonement, and this idea of justification and sanctification. Of course
there are some people who may be interested in that kind of thing; they may
enjoy reading and arguing about it, but as for myself," says this man,
"there does not seem to be any truth in it; all I say is that God is love."
So he puts up this idea of God as love over and against all these doctrines
which the church has taught throughout the centuries.? 10?
Indeed, such thinking has been the predominant mood both in popular thinking
and in much of organized religion for the bulk of this century. That mindset
in many ways has become the hallmark of the visible church in the twentieth
century.
Lloyd-Jones points out that according to 1 John 4:9-10, "people who thus put
up as opposites the idea of God as love and these basic, fundamental
doctrines can, in the last analysis, know nothing whatsoever about the love
of God."? 11?
Indeed, looking at these verses again, we discover that the apostle explains
the love of God in terms of sacrifice, atonement for sin, and propitiation:
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10, emphasis added). That
word speaks of a sacrifice designed to turn away the wrath of an offended
deity. What the apostle is saying is that God gave His Son as an offering
for sin, to satisfy His own wrath and justice in the salvation of sinners.
This is the very heart of the gospel. The "good news" is not that God is
willing to overlook sin and forgive sinners. That would compromise God's
holiness. That would leave justice unfulfilled. That would trample on true
righteousness. Furthermore, that would not be love on God's part, but
apathy.
The real good news is that God Himself, through the sacrifice of His Son,
paid the price of sin. He took the initiative ("not that we loved God, but
that He loved us"). He was not responding to anything in sinners that made
them worthy of His grace. On the contrary, His love was altogether
undeserved by sinful humanity. The sinners for whom Christ died were worthy
of nothing but His wrath. As Paul wrote, "Christ died for the ungodly. For
one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man
someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:7-8, emphasis
added).
Because God is righteous, He must punish sin; He cannot simply absolve guilt
and leave justice unsatisfied. But the death of Christ totally satisfied God's
justice, His righteousness, and His holy hatred of sin.
Some people recoil at the thought of an innocent victim making atonement for
guilty sinners. They like the idea that people should pay for their own
sins. But take away this doctrine of substitutionary atonement and you have
no gospel at all. If the death of Christ was anything less than a guilt
offering for sinners, no one could ever be saved.
But in Christ's death on the cross, there is the highest possible expression
of divine love. He, who is love, sent His precious Son to die as an
atonement for sin. If your sense of fair play is outraged by that-good! It
ought to be shocking. It ought to be astonishing. It ought to stagger you.
Think it through, and you'll begin to get a picture of the enormity of the
price God paid to manifest His love.
The cross of Christ also gives the most complete and accurate perspective on
an issue we will revisit again and again in this book: the balance between
God's love and His wrath.
At the cross His love is shown to sinful humanity-fallen creatures who have
no rightful claim on His goodness, His mercy, or His love. And His wrath is
poured out on His beloved Son, who had done nothing worthy of any kind of
punishment.
If you're not awestruck by that, then you don't yet understand it.
If you do catch a glimpse of this truth, however, your thoughts of God as a
loving Father will take on a whole new depth and richness. "God is love"-and
He demonstrated His love for us in that while we were sinners in rebellion
against Him, He gave His only Son to die on our behalf-and so that we might
live through Him (Rom. 5:8; 1 Jn. 4:9-10). That is the very heart of the
gospel, and it holds forth the only hope to those in bondage to their sin:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31).
Footnotes:
? 1? Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston:
Trustees of MBE, 1875), 473.
? 2? The Children of God sect, otherwise known as the Family of Love, have
been known to practice an evangelistic technique they call "love bombing,"
where cult members offer potential recruits sex "to show them the love of
God." [Maurice C. Burrell, The Challenge of the Cults (Grand Rapids: Baker,
1981), 44-45.]
? 3? Gordon H. Clark, First John: A Commentary (Jefferson, Maryland: Trinity
Foundation, 1980), 131.
? 4? John R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964),
160.
? 5? Ibid.
kjv King James Version
? 6? Donald W. Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle (Chicago: Moody,
1985), 351.
? 7? D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Love of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994), 45.
? 8? Ibid., 150-53.
? 9? Ibid., 153-54.
? 10? Ibid., 51.
? 11? Ibid., 52 (emphasis added).
.
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| User: "SheBlewHimDidYouBlowHim" |
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| Title: Re: the christian God Is a MASS-MURDERING JACKASS |
20 Aug 2007 09:49:32 PM |
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Shall we compare body counts in the bible?
Let's see, the loving, caring christian god character drowned the whole
world, killed the firstborn of Egypt as well as its army after a devastating
series of plagues, ordered and personally participated in the slaughter of
countless
individuals during a genocidal rampage of his chosen people, fathered a
son specifically to be killed, and personally tortured a poor slob named
Job on a bet, and don't forget about demanding that Abraham MURDER his only
son.
The dreaded satan character did... Uhh... I don't know. I suppose he might
have killed someone at some point, but I'm not sure.
The satan character is a sweetheart compared to the evil monster character
called the christian god.
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