The Attributes of God: Love
(part of this list is taken from web site: https://www.josh.org/resources/spiritual-growth/attributes-of-god/? A free Bible study site by Josh McDowell)
- as
a father, God corrects His beloved children (Prov. 3:12) Discipline is
proof of his love. Discipline -
yakach, reproves, corrects. In Hebrews 12:11 it says that the displine of God is painful, but produces a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who are willing to be trained by it. Similiar to the idea of in Romans 5:3-5 where it says that suffering produces perseverance, endurance and character and eventually builds hope.
- Believers
should imitate God’s universal love (Matt. 5:44-45) this comes right before
where Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you. Then he gives the example of
God who sends his rain upon the good and the evil.
- eternal
plans are motivated by His love (Eph. 1:4-5) God chose us in Him before the world was
even created. His motivation was
love to adopt us as sons through Jesus Christ.
- God
loves and preserves His godly people (Ps. 37:28) The Lord loves those who
are just and won’t forsake those who are faithful. Love is the word ‘ahab which is the word
used to describe God’s love for people.
- God
loves His people, even when they are faithless (Hos. 3:1) God tells Hosea
to go love his wife even though she is an adulteress just as God loves
Israel even though Israel was not faithful and had turned to other gods.
- God
deserves thanks because of His perpetual love (Ps. 100:5) says that the
Lord is good and his love is something that endures forever. This word for love is checed which can
be translated lovingkindness. It
can mean goodness, faithfulness, kindness.
- God
loved the world enough to send His Son to die (John 3:16) God’s love
motivated him to give His only son that the one who believes in Him would
not perish but have eternal life
- God
loves those who love His Son (and obey Him) (John 14:21) Jesus says the one who loves him is the
one who has his commands and obeys them.
The Father will also love
this person and Jesus promises to show himself to this person.
- His
love is poured into believers’ hearts (Rom. 5:5) God has poured out his love to the
believer through the Holy Spirit.
- God
is love, and those who know God love others (I John 4:7-8, 20-21) Love is from God and the person who
loves has been born of God and this is evidence that he knows Him because
God is love. True is is not that we
loved God first, but rather that he loved us and sent Jesus to be a substitutionary
sacrifice for our sins and make atonement for us.
- nothing
can separate the believer from His love (Rom. 8:38-39) Through the one
who loves us we are more than
conquerors and nothing can separate us from His love. Paul goes on to mention many things that
cannot separate us like life and death, angels and demons, present nor
future, nothing else in all creation because love is greater than all of
these.
- to love enemies and the wicked is
to be like God (Luke 6:35)- similar to what was said in Matthew 5:44-45
that we are to love our enemies just as God is kind to those who are good
and those who are evil.
- (Romans 13:10) says that love is
the fulfillment of the law.
- (John 15:9) Jesus repeatedly tells them to love each
other as he has loved them. He says
that if they obey his commands they will remain in his love. Jesus love
for the believer is similar to the Father’s love for the Son.
