What is God's greatest desire for humanity? He desires to have a close intimate relationship with us. He has gone to great lengths to make that possible (John 3:16). God wants you to spend time with Him and intimately communicate with Him, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to trust and follow Him, all to give your life meaning, purpose and joy. He wants all of humanity to have an intimate relationship and friendship with Him... based on Love. His kind of love. God, in His being and essence is “LOVE”.
His kind of love is very different from what is normal and natural for humans to feel and express. We think of “love” as intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" stems from a physical attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. Therein lies the problem with the capacities of human love. “When they make us feel good”... says that conditions apply. Instinctively, humans love conditionally. In other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them back. How many times have you heard or said, "I love you because you are cute" or "I love you because you take good care of me" or "I love you because you are fun to be with"?
Our love is not only conditional, it is also mercurial. We love based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is extremely high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" means they can part at the “death of their love” for one another.
If you read the previous article, What does it mean to REALLY Love God, as He expects to be LOVED... you can better understand how God expects to be loved by us. But even knowing what His expectations are, can anyone really comprehend the magnitude of "unconditional" love? It seems the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. We continue to love our children through good times and bad, and we don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. We make a choice to love our children even when we consider them unlovable... our love doesn't stop when we don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, but as we shall see, God's love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is still hard for us to comprehend.
"What does it mean that God IS love?"
The Bible describes the essence, character and nature of the kind of love that God has and expects from Christians. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). This is how Paul describes God's love. So, if these attributes define God’s love, and God is love (1 John 4:8), then this is what God is like. God and Love can be easily interchanged to express the same meaning... as demonstrated in the following summation of LOVE'S character.
Love (God) does not force itself (Himself) on anyone. Those who come to Him do so in response to His love. Love (God) shows kindness to all. Love (Jesus) went about doing good to everyone without partiality. Love (Jesus) did not covet what others had, living a humble life without complaining. Love (Jesus) did not brag about who He was in the flesh, although He could have overpowered anyone He ever came in contact with. Love (God) does not demand obedience. God did not demand obedience from His Son, but rather, Jesus willingly obeyed His Father in heaven. “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). Love (Jesus) was and is always looking out for the interests of others.
God’s Love is very different from human love. God's love is unconditional, therefore it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good. He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son, who also willingly died for us, to restore the basis for that relationship.
The greatest expression of God's love is communicated to us in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 5:8 proclaims the same message: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We can see from these verses that it is God's greatest desire that we join Him in a relationship that is grounded in His love. He has made that possible by paying the price for our sins. He loves us because He chose to as an act of His will. Love (God) forgives. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
From all that Scripture reveals about the person of God, we must conclude that Love is the ultimate attribute of God. Love is a core aspect of God’s character, His Person. God’s love in no way conflicts with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or even His wrath. In fact we must conclude that all of God’s attributes are in perfect harmony.... will all of His character attributes emanating from His love. Everything God does is loving, just as everything He does is just and right. God is the perfect example of true love.
Understanding His love and the expectations He has for us to demonstrate the same kind of love in our life relationships is simply overwhelming. How can frail sin-prone humans ever hope to master the love of God and show it in our relationships? We can... we all can.
Here’s the amazingly thing, if you want to love Him... He will make it possible for you to do so. God has given those who receive His Son Jesus as their personal Savior the ability to love as He does, through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1, 23-24).
If you are “in step with the Spirit”, then you have the enabling power to love God as He expects to be loved. You have a passionate desire to share the gospel with anyone seeking to know the living God. You have the strength to love your Christian brothers and sisters through conflicts and to seek their needs and interests before yours. You can even love those who simply care nothing about God... just as He did on the Cross.
In God’s grace... all things are possible!
