essay about love of god

Home — Essay Samples — Religion — Spirituality — The Love Of God

The Love of God

• Categories: Spirituality

About this sample

Words: 685 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 685 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Bibliography:.

• The Holy Bible, New International Version
• Hinduism Today, "The Love of God in Hinduism" by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

• Expert in: Religion

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

5 pages / 2147 words

1 pages / 391 words

1 pages / 359 words

1 pages / 641 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Spirituality

Moksha, the ultimate goal of life, is a concept deeply rooted in Hindu philosophy and spirituality. It is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death, also known as samsara, and the attainment of eternal bliss and union [...]

The divine creation theory stands as a profound paradigm that seeks to bridge the realms of science and spirituality, offering insights into the origins and purpose of existence. This theory posits that the universe, life, and [...]

A mandala, a Sanskrit word meaning "circle," is a geometric configuration of symbols that has deep spiritual and psychological significance in various cultures, particularly within Hinduism and Buddhism. Beyond its religious [...]

In the tapestry of human existence, our beliefs stitch together the fabric of our identity, guiding the choices we make and the paths we tread. These beliefs, often referred to as a credo, are the essence of our moral and [...]

Multiple studies have shown the effects of using meditation to improve mental, physical, and emotional health. Though mindfulness-based stress reduction, which in turn improved health-related quality of life. What is meditation, [...]

Spirituality is so much like science both of these looks closely at the world. Science and spirituality are two complete beliefs of the world. Spirituality in education refers to the connection between the student, teacher and [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Theology: Love of God Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

T., thank you for a meaningful and competent post; the aspect of love you touched on is fundamental for any preacher. As it is said in the Bible, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together.” (Col. 3: 14). The approach you have chosen when establishing intercultural communication based on love certainly commands respect; it includes love for both God and surrounding people.

“Reverence for God, admiration for God, worship of God, glorification of God, obedience to God” can act as feelings that unite people of different cultures. This prescription obliges a person to love with his mind, heart, and will. Love for God is expressed in the fulfillment of His commandments. To love God means to accept all His gifts, all the qualities given by Him, all His prescriptions. As one of these commandments prescribes to love surrounding people like oneself, it is necessary to be guided by this commandment.

M., thank you for your detailed and structured post; your idea of planning a sermon is interesting because it is an essential aspect of cross-cultural communication. Indeed, a sermon is not just a free speech on a spiritual topic or even a review of some texts of the Holy Scripture.

It is a complete speech with a specific topic, introduction, central part, and conclusion. “A preacher is called to be a man of prayer “(1 Tim. 2: 8); therefore, special attention should be paid to preparing a sermon. It is especially important if the speech concerns a conversation with people of a different cultural background.

Planning a sermon is one of the most challenging tasks in the ministry of a preacher. It is necessary to build a speech in the best possible way at the moment, based on what the Lord wants to say to the parishioners right now.

Bibliography

Lingenfelter, Sherwood. “Leading Cross-Culturally.” In Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership , edited by Stella Ting-Toomey, 76- 88. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008.

Lingenfelter, Sherwood. “Pathways to Empower. ” In Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership , edited by Stella Ting-Toomey, 43- 76. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008.

Siewert, Frances, ed. Amplified Bible, Classic Edition . Michigan: Zondervan, 2015.

• The Importance of Thinking Beyond the Home Culture for the Sake of the Gospel
• Soteriology: The Concept of Doctrine
• The Sermon on the Mount and Moral Theology
• Psalm 23 and Sermon on the Mount Comparison
• Engagement of Jonathan Edwards’ Sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God With the Christian Ideology
• The Beauty of God’s Creation. Theology
• The Significance of Being a Theologically Informed Christian
• Cosmogony Theories in Religion
• Faith and Justice in the City. Seek for Justice
• The Problem of Evil: Personal Viewpoint
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, October 22). Theology: Love of God. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theology-love-of-god/

"Theology: Love of God." IvyPanda , 22 Oct. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/theology-love-of-god/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Theology: Love of God'. 22 October.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Theology: Love of God." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theology-love-of-god/.

1. IvyPanda . "Theology: Love of God." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theology-love-of-god/.

IvyPanda . "Theology: Love of God." October 22, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/theology-love-of-god/.

God Is Love: 5 Implications of This Amazing Attribute of God

1. We can trust in God’s Love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 gives several descriptions of love:  

" Love is patient , love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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. " 

At the core of these qualities is the unwavering and unfailing aspect of love.  God has proven this nature about Himself to humanity throughout the ages. He has maintained a covenantal relationship with humanity since creation. Even in our sinfulness, God continued to maintain patience with us and show us mercy. When Adam and Eve sinned, before they had to leave the garden, God lovingly provided clothing to cover their nakedness. Even through the Israelites rebellions, God maintained His covenant relationships with them. After Jonah fled from the Lord, God delivered him from death through the big fish. By looking at the faithfulness of God’s love throughout history, we can trust that He will continue to act accordingly in our lives.

2. Our salvation is an expression of God’s love.

The greatest demonstration of God’s love was this gift of His Only Son.

" 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, " John 3:16 .

God did not send Christ as a reward to the obedient, but rather as a ransom for the defiant.  We see Jesus display his love throughout His life and ministry.  He healed the sick without requirement of gratitude.  He displayed humility even though He was King of Kings.  Even while on the cross, Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of the ones who placed Him there ( John 3:16 , 1 John 3:16 , 4:10, Romans 5:8 ). Salvation is open to all who believe in Christ.  God’s love does not discriminate.

Photo Credit: Pexels

3. Our ability to love is enabled through God’s love.

Jesus set for us the example to love and gives us the command to follow in His example ( John 13:34-35 ; 1 John 3:16-20 ). When Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, He took the role of a servant and placed the needs of others above His own dignity. He instructed His followers to do the same. He tells to love our neighbors as well as our enemies. Yet, this task is not burdensome, for love is a fruit of the Spirit ( Galatians 5:22 ).  When we rest and abide in God, love outpours onto others as a result ( 1 John 4:7 ). It is through our love that the world will know that we belong to Christ.

4. We can rest in God’s love.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

5. We Can Have Confidence in God's Love.

Psalm 136 beautifully describes the love of God as unfailing. The psalmist recalls (26 times!) how in His sovereignty, the Lord upholds His creation and people in love. As we look back upon His loving faithfulness from the beginning of time, we can grow in our assurance that God will continue to vindicate His children and promote His kingdom until His plan and purpose comes to full fruition.

A Prayer On Love

Father God, 

In the middle of the chaos we call life, may we be still enough to recognize the love you have for your creation. May we trust in Your unfailing and unconditional love.  As You have loved us, may we love one another . Forgive us for the times when we have forgotten the cost of Your love, the life of Your Son, Jesus. I pray that we will live confidently today, knowing that we are Your children who You have chosen with a plan and purpose in mind.  Help us live for You. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God's Love - spoken over you.

Listen to what God's Word says about love in 1 Corinthians 13 in this BibleStudyTools.com video, " 1 Corinthians 13 - The GREATEST Love of All ."

Salvation is How We Know God is Love

Trillia Newbell talks about this in her article, “ Why is Real Love So Rare?” : “To truly love , we must first know God. Love starts with God and ends with God because God is love . We see this in 1 John 4 : 7-8. God is not physical love, but it is one of his attributes. All God does is out of love. He cannot and does not do wrong. His display of love the purest and truest there is. He loves perfectly. And because we are made in God’s image, we can love. Love isn’t something that is derived from within us. It is radical. It is supernatural. For the kind of love that God calls us to–the love that loves our neighbor as much as we love ourselves– that must come from Him. We cannot love like that without first being born of God.”

What do we do with this ability to love?

Garry J. Williams talks about our proper response to God’s love in his article, “ 10 Things You Should Know about the Love of God.” : “God’s love truly perceived always draws out from us a response of love. The contemplation of divine love in its biblical fullness is never something that ends in itself. Our rest in God never finds its fulfillment in ourselves but always leads us out of ourselves toward him and toward others. The love of God is to be lived as well as learned. The love of God for us begets love in us for him and for others. The true Word of love that we have in the Bible , if we have it truly, will abide in us, and will not return empty as, by miracles of grace, we make glancing reflections of the immeasurable love of God visible to others in our own lives.”

The Transformative Power of "God is Love"

Understanding that "God is love" is not just a theological concept but a life-changing reality is a profound and transformative realization. This truth, vividly illustrated in the Bible, has far-reaching implications for how we live our daily lives and how we interact with others.

Romans 5:8 captures the active and selfless nature of God's love: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This verse underscores that God's love is not contingent upon our worthiness or actions. Instead, it is a love that reaches out and sacrifices, even when we are at our worst. It's an unconditional love that doesn't wait for us to be deserving but instead takes the initiative to redeem and restore us.

One of the most poignant illustrations of this love is found in the parable of the prodigal son ( Luke 15:11-32 ). In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a father who, despite his son's reckless and wasteful behavior, welcomes him back with open arms and a heart full of forgiveness. The father's reaction is a powerful symbol of God's readiness to forgive and restore us, regardless of our past actions. It's a vivid portrayal of God's unconditional love and His desire for reconciliation with His children.

This understanding of God's love invites us to reflect deeply on its implications for our lives. How does knowing that God loves us unconditionally change the way we see ourselves and others? How does it influence our actions and our willingness to forgive and extend grace? The story of the prodigal son challenges us to embrace and emulate this divine love in our own lives.

Reflection Question : How does the story of the prodigal son resonate with your understanding of God's love? Take a moment to consider how this parable mirrors your experiences and how it shapes your perception of divine love and forgiveness. How can you embody this same kind of love in your relationships and daily interactions?

All We Need is Love

When life seems to spin out of control, we can look to this amazing attribute of God and realize that He holds us in His loving palm of His hand. While we could look many other devices for comfort, satisfaction, or distraction, we must remember: All we need is love.

Cortney Whiting is a wife and mother of two wonderfully energetic children. She received her Masters of Theology Degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. After serving in the church for nearly 15 years, Cortney currently serves as a lay-leader and writes for various Christian ministries. You can find her at her blog, Unveiled Graces . 

• Navigate to any page of this site.

• In the menu, scroll to Add to Home Screen and tap it.

• In the menu, scroll past any icons and tap Add to Home Screen .

Religious Educator Vol. 21 No. 3 · 2020

Feeling god’s love, lindon j. robison.

Lindon J. Robison, "Feeling God's Love," Religious Educator 21, no. 3 (2020): 175–84.

Lindon J. Robison ( [email protected] )  was a professor of agricultural and food resource economics at Michigan State University when this was published and a former seminary and institute instructor.

“Where Love Is, There God Is Also”

—Leo Tolstoy

Some of my family and friends have separated themselves from the gospel. Their reasons vary. However, they often share a common concern: if God loves all his children, all the time, everywhere, and no matter what—why can’t I feel it? In response to this question, I wrote this essay. In doing so, I found President Russell M. Nelson’s conference talk on divine love to be an important resource. President Nelson states that “while divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional .” [1] In grappling with the concept of conditional love and hoping to comfort loved ones who struggle to feel God’s love, I suggest that the reason we cannot feel God’s love is not because he loves us less but because we cannot access it.

The focus of what follows describes the nature of God’s love and how we can feel it more. I begin by distinguishing between God’s love—which is perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal—and how we experience his love—which is conditional. Then I point out that we sometimes mistakenly associate the evidence of God’s love with our material conditions and experiences when the evidence that God loves us all—everywhere, all the time, no matter what—is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This essay also addresses how obedience and repentance can increase our access to God’s love, how to feel God’s love even and especially during hard times, the price we must pay to experience divine love, and the single requirement for feeling God’s love—loving others.

Defining Divine Love

What is divine love, and what distinguishes it from other kinds of love (namely, parental love, friendship, or romantic love)? [2] Sympathy , [3] empathy , [4] and compassion [5] are all Topical Guide synonyms for love . Combined, they define our love for others as the state or condition of having internalized their well-being. This definition of love implies that there are as many kinds of love as there are loving relationships. Adam Smith wrote, “Every man feels his own pleasures and his own pains more sensibly than those of other people. . . . After himself, the members of his own family, those who usually live in the same house with him, his parents, his children, his brothers and sisters, are naturally the objects of his warmest affection.” [6] Of the different kinds of love, divine love, the state or condition in which God has internalized our well-being, is the highest form of love because it is perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal.

The scriptures teach that to internalize another’s well-being requires that we somehow dwell in that person: “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16). One important consequence of love—of dwelling in each other—is that their success, happiness, and sufferings become our own. [7] Indeed, God’s divine love means that his work and glory is our progress toward achieving immortality and eternal life (see Moses 1:39).

Examples of Dwelling in Each Other

Adam and Eve internalized each other’s well-being, leading Adam to exult, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. . . . Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:23–24). The Apostle Paul characterized the Saints in his day as dwelling in each other by comparing them to members of the same body. As members of the same body, each member cared for the other so that “whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). The sons of Mosiah loved those beyond the borders of their families and members of their faith to include the Lamanites, their enemies: “They could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble” (Mosiah 28:3; see also Alma 26:33).

Dimensions of Divine Love

There is a difference between God’s ways and our ways—between God’s divine love and our love. Jesus taught his twelve Apostles: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). Loving others is certainly not a new commandment. However, loving others “as I have loved you” certainly is. [8] Keeping this new commandment requires us to distinguish between our love and divine love expressed and exemplified in the Savior Jesus Christ. Consider the four dimensions President Nelson used to describe God’s love. [9]

Divine love is perfect. Perfect can be defined as free from fault or complete (see Matthew 5:48). Perfect love is pure and unstained by selfishness. Lehi reflected this quality of love when he declared, “I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls” (2 Nephi 2:30). Perfect love is manifest in all our senses. It enlightens our mind and enables us to confound the wise (see Doctrine and Covenants 6:15; and 1 Corinthians 1:27). It is delicious (see Alma 32:28). It frees us from fear (see 1 John 4:18). It strengthens us beyond our natural abilities (see 1 Nephi 7:17–18).

Divine love is infinite. Infinite implies limitless or endless in space, extent, or size. God’s infinite love was manifest by his infinite atoning sacrifice that, like his love, is infinite. As a result, there is no suffering, disappointment, separation, or pain that God cannot understand and heal (see Alma 7:11–12).

Divine love endures. The risen Lord taught, “For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed” (3 Nephi 22:10; quoting Isaiah 54:10). [10] Indeed, charity, or the pure love of Christ, “never faileth” (1 Corinthians 13:8). And while an earthly mother may forget her suckling child, the Lord promises, “yet will I not forget thee” (Isaiah 49:15).

Divine love is universal. Mormon recorded, “Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth” (Alma 26:37).

Together, these descriptions of divine love paint a comforting picture of a Father in Heaven whose love for us transcends our circumstances and even our bad choices, a love that has power to reach out after us and save us—whether in life or in death.

Christ’s Atonement: The Expression of God’s Love

The greatest example of love was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. “Greater love hath no man” than he who “lay[s] down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). His perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal love enabled him to dwell in each of us and vicariously suffer for our sins and mistakes and to rejoice with us when we draw near to him (see 3 Nephi 17:20). Indeed, his atoning sacrifice can be described as perfect and pure, [11] infinite, [12] enduring (see Isaiah 49:15), and universal. [13] Our response to his perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal sacrifice should be, “I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.” [14]

Some separate themselves from God’s love because they see the uneven distribution of life’s privileges that appear unrelated to individual choices and blame God for the inequities. From their observations, they conclude that either God has favorites or God doesn’t exist. Either conclusion is false and distances us from his love. One’s share of wealth, power, education, and freedom do not measure God’s love. Otherwise, we would conclude that the wealthy are more righteous, the powerful are God’s chosen, and the educated and free are God’s beloved. The scriptures teach otherwise.

Mary taught that the Lord “hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away” (Luke 1:51–53).

The world is a very unfair place without the Atonement. But in the Atonement, we find the one sure egalitarian measure of God’s love. He suffered and offered salvation for each of us—all of us—equally. Nephi taught: “Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden. . . . He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:28, 33). Truly, God is no respecter of persons.

Experiencing Divine Love through Obedience and Repentance

Some of what we experience is related to our choices. President Nelson taught, “The full flower of divine love and our greatest blessings from that love are conditional—predicated upon our obedience to eternal law.” [15] Nephi likewise explained: “Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; [but] he that is righteous is favored of God” (1 Nephi 17:35).

Those conditions that increase our capacity to experience God’s love (namely, faith, repentance, baptism, and enduring obedience to his commandments) are themselves an indication of his love. Because he wants us to be like him, he allows us room to incrementally come into a fullness of his love as we try, fail, and try again. Sometimes we make poor choices and experience unhappy consequences. Yet experiencing the difficult consequences of our poor choices are evidence of God’s love because they are designed to divert us away from the path of destruction and to protect the innocent. For God “doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him” (2 Nephi 26:24). Those who choose to keep God’s commandments and continue in God receive “more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter” (Doctrine and Covenants 50:24) until they are “glorified in truth” and know “all things” (93:28).

These scriptures teach us that the “blessings” that come from obedience have little to do with worldly wealth, power, or opportunity and more to do with our access to God dwelling within us. Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught that these blessing are accessed through obedience to divine law: “The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God’s laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love.” [16]

The parable of the prodigal son emphasizes the connection between God’s love, our choices, and what we experience. The prodigal son’s father loved him, even when he withdrew from his presence and squandered his inheritance. Yet the father knew that exercising agency was required to becoming righteous. So, he let him choose. But the father continued to love his son even when he made bad choices. And when his son repented and returned, the father rushed to meet him and called for a celebration to welcome him home (see Luke 15:11–32).

Keeping God’s commandments not only increases our access to God’s love but demonstrates our own love for God and others. We begin by keeping God’s first and second great commandments to love God and others (see Matthew 22:38–39). Then, as we dwell in others and God in us, we naturally keep God’s other commandments because that is how we bless others. We don’t lie, steal, envy, murder, violate the law of chastity, or commit similar acts because we want to bless rather than burden our neighbors—because their well-being has become our own (see Exodus 20:1–17). Emphasizing that keeping the two great commandments leads naturally to keeping God’s other commandments, Jesus taught, “On these two commandments [to love God and others] hang all the laws and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40).

Experiencing God’s Love in Adversity

Sometimes, we may separate ourselves from God because we associate our hard times with the absence of his love. This is, again, a false conclusion. Not all of what we experience follows from our choices. Jesus taught that God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). King Benjamin taught that God “has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another” (Mosiah 2:21). And independent of our choices, the Resurrection is made available to all (see John 5:28–29).

Sometimes what we experience is simply the result of living in a fallen world where the agency of imperfect and evil people causes the righteous to suffer for a season—only to be later exalted on high (see Alma 14:11). Regardless of the circumstances of our lives, we can be assured that God has internalized our well-being and is dwelling within us if we are willing, including in our loneliest and darkest moments. A familiar hymn confirms the connections between hard times and divine love:

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of sorrow shall not o’erflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, . . .

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress . [17]

We cannot always or even often understand why our lives’ paths lead through deep waters. However, because God’s love is perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, we can trust that he will be with us and sanctify to us our deepest distress—even when what we are experiencing seems lacking in love. Elder James B. Martino summarized: “Our Heavenly Father, who loves us completely and perfectly, permits us to have experiences that will allow us to develop the traits and attributes we need to become more and more Christlike. Our trials come in many forms, but each will allow us to become more like the Savior as we learn to recognize the good that comes from each experience.” [18]

Experiencing God’s Love by Loving Others

The most important way we can access God’s divine love is to ask for it. The most important way we can experience God’s divine love is to love others. Divine love for others is a gift that we can ask God to bestow upon us. Mormon taught, “Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ” (Moroni 7:48). Being filled with the love of God for others shines the same love into our lives. Then, the more we love others, the more of God’s divine love we enjoy in our own lives (see Matthew 16:25). Sometimes when we feel a lack of closeness with God, we can interpret it as an invitation to reach out in love to others. In so doing, we will enjoy God’s love in our lives in richer abundance than ever before. But how, knowing the transcendent quality of divine love, can we ever love others the way he loves us? How can we keep the new commandment to love others as God loves us?

Since divine love is a gift from God, and God is love, we can only receive this gift by receiving the Savior and his Atonement. Because of our humanness, we cannot, on our own, possess divine love. Through the Atonement, we are enabled to develop this divine love. We ask for God’s help with all the energy of our soul. Exercising our moral agency and accepting the Savior’s will by itself neither saves nor exalts us, but it does open the door for the Savior to do so. As we ask for and receive God’s divine love, our natures are changed. We grow in love as if from grace to grace. It is this change in our disposition that enables us to love others. [19] Joseph Smith described the change: “A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world anxious to bless the whole human race.” [20]

We can measure our capacity to love by comparing our love for others with the qualities of divine love. We may ask ourselves the following questions:

• What is the quality of our love for others? Can we love without asking, “What’s in it for me?” [21] In our hearts, do we desire deeply the well-being of others and feel joy when they succeed and sorrow when they fail or suffer? (see Mark 12:30; and Moroni 10:32).
• What is the depth of our love for others? Are we patient and kind even when it is inconvenient or unpopular to do so? Are we willing to serve and sacrifice when only God notices our efforts? (see Matthew 6:1).
• What is the durability of our love for others? Does our love for others falter in the face of their rudeness, demands on our resources, and character flaws? Do we forgive generously? Are we loyal friends even when circumstances and companions change? (see Matthew 5:44).
• What is the breadth of our love? Despite differences between ourselves and others, including circumstance, perspective, and choices, does our love bridge the gap? Can we include in our circle of friends even those who are different and who sometimes disappoint us (see 3 Nephi 12:44)? Do we love others more than we love winning?

Even though we will all find our love for others less than divine, we can reach out to the Savior to help us try to be better. Seeking his love can heal all wounds, including the ones between us. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote: “Love is the healing balm that repairs rifts in personal and family relationships. It is the bond that unites families, communities, and nations. Love is the power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect. It is the source that overcomes divisiveness and hate. Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope. Love should be our walk and our talk.” [22]

Experiencing the Price of Divine Love

Sometimes we may not feel God’s love because we are unable or unwilling to pay the price—the price of internalizing the well-being of those around us. Under these circumstances, we need to resolve to pay the price of divine love. Part of that price is to sometimes suffer in place of, sometimes because of, and sometimes vicariously with those we love. Whether by experiencing the loss of a loved one or by experiencing the painful consequences of the choices made by someone we love, our love for others often includes heartache and sacrifice.

Our natural tendency may be to go it alone: to think that we don’t need God and his commandments or, similarly, that we don’t need relationships with those around us that may bring us heartache and loss. But to be in relationships with both God and others, we must willingly pay the price of love (see Isaiah 35:10). As Sister Aileen H. Clyde explained, were we to refuse to pay the price love requires, “we would have to avoid what gives us life and hope and joy—our capacity to love deeply.” [23] We willingly pay the price of love so we may experience joy. Of the Savior, Elder Bruce C. and Marie K. Hafen wrote that the Savior’s “infinite capacity for joy is the inverse, mirror image of the depth of his capacity to bear our burdens.” [24]

Love is what truly identifies us as disciples of Christ: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). The late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin summarized the centrality of love in our lives when he taught: “Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship. It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death. In the end, love leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life. . . . We are a people who love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and we love our neighbors as ourselves. That is our signature as a people. It is like a beacon to the world, signaling whose disciples we are.” [25]

Still, we may sometimes wonder if God loves us—all the time, everywhere, and no matter what. I have sometimes felt alone and unloved even when my choices, I assumed, qualified me for something better. As Bonnie and I approached the end of our mission, I was diagnosed with cancer. Then I learned that my retirement funds were lost and that one of my family members whom we love deeply had been excommunicated. It all seemed like very deep water. Yet we trusted that God loved us and held on. Now, years later and looking back, we can see how God sustained and restored us and we sing, “I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me.” [26]

The author thanks Lana R. Bailey and Rebecca T. Robison and three anonymous reviewers for reading and commenting on this essay. However, what I owe Lana and Rebecca and the three reviewers is more than the usual thank-you. They helped me understand and write about divine love in ways that I had not imagined. So, thank you, Lana and Rebecca and reviewers, for reading and commenting on this essay—and for much, much more. The flaws that remain reflect my own lack of understanding.

[1] Russell M. Nelson, “Divine Love,” Ensign , February 2003, 20.

[2] See C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960).

[3] A relationship or an affinity between people in which those things that affect one affects the other. See Merriam-Webster , s.v. “sympathy.”

[4] The capacity to recognize and to some extent share feelings (such as sadness or happiness) that are being experienced by another. See Paul S. Bellet and Michael J. Maloney, “The Importance of Empathy as an Interviewing Skill in Medicine,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 226, no. 13 (1991): 1831–32.

[5] “A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” Dictionary.com, s.v. “compassion.”

[6] Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Philadelphia: Adam Finley, 1817), 354.

[7] See Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961), 363.

[8] I thank an anonymous reviewer of this essay for this insight—that the new commandment requires us to pattern our love for others after God’s divine love.

[9] Nelson, “Divine Love,” 20.

[10] Regarding this verse, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wrote: “I love that. The hills and the mountains may disappear. The seas and oceans may dry up completely. The least likely things in the world may happen, but ‘my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed.’” Jeffrey R. Holland, Trusting Jesus (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 67.

[11] Bruce R. McConkie, “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign , May 1985, 9.

[12] Tad R. Callister, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ,” Ensign , May 2019, 85–87.

[13] Merrill J. Bateman, “A Pattern for All,” Ensign , November 2005, 74–76.

[14] Charles H. Gabriel, “I Stand All Amazed,” Hymns (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), no. 193.

[15] Nelson, “Divine Love,” 25.

[16] Dallin H. Oaks, “Love and Law,” Ensign , November 2009, 26.

[17] Robert Keen, “How Firm a Foundation,” Hymns , no. 85.

[18] James B. Martino, “All Things Work Together for Good,” Ensign , May 2010, 101.

[19] Matthew O. Richardson, “‘The Pure Love of Christ’: The Divine Precept of Charity in Moroni 7,” in Living the Book of Mormon: Abiding by Its Precepts , ed. Gaye Strathearn and Charles Swift (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2007), 290–301.

[20] “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 [2 November 1838–31 July 1842],” 1115, The Joseph Smith Papers.

[21] James E. Faust, “What’s in It for Me?,” Ensign , November 2002, 19–22.

[22] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Love of God,” Ensign , November 2009, 21.

[23] Aileen H. Clyde, “‘Charity Suffereth Long,’” Ensign , November 1991, 76.

[24] Bruce C. and Marie K. Hafen, The Belonging Heart (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994), 315.

[25] Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Great Commandment,” Ensign , November 2007, 28–30.

[26] Charles H. Gabriel, “I Stand All Amazed,” Hymns , no. 193.

Contact the RSC

185 Heber J. Grant Building Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 801-422-6975

Helpful Links

Religious Education

BYU Studies

Maxwell Institute

Articulos en español

Artigos em português

Connect with Us

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We’re on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ.

The Meanings of Love in the Bible

John Piper Twitter @JohnPiper

Don’t devour one another, god decides the future, the emotional roller coaster of bible reading, god rules babylon, how does love fulfill the law, seemingly insignificant providence.

Founder & Teacher, desiringGod.org

Love in the Bible, as in our everyday usage, can be directed from person to person or from a person to things. When directed toward things, love means enjoying or taking pleasure in those things. Love towards persons is more complex. As with things, loving persons may mean simply enjoying them and taking pleasure in their personalities, looks, achievements, etc. But there is another aspect of interpersonal love that is very important in the Bible. There is the aspect of love for persons who are not attractive or virtuous or productive. In this case, love is not a delight in what a person is, but a deeply felt commitment to helping him be what he ought to be. As we will see, the love for things and both dimensions of the love for persons are richly illustrated in the Bible.

As we examine the Old Testament and the New Testament in turn, our focus will be on God’s love, then on man’s love for God, man’s love for man and man’s love for things.

Love in the Old Testament

Jesus said that the greatest commandment in the Old Testament was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind” (Matthew 22:36ff; Deuteronomy 6:5). The second commandment was, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39; Leviticus 19:18). Then he said, “On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets” (Matthew 22:40). This must mean that if a person understood and obeyed these two commandments, he would understand and fulfill what the whole Old Testament was trying to teach. Everything in the Old Testament, when properly understood, aims basically to transform men and women into people who fervently love God and their neighbor.

You can tell what a person loves by what he devotes himself to most passionately. What a person values most is reflected in his actions and motivations. It is plain in the Old Testament that God’s highest value, his greatest love, is his own name. From the beginning of Israel’s history to the end of the Old Testament era God was moved by this great love. He says through Isaiah that he created Israel “for his glory” (Isaiah 43:7): “You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified” (Isaiah 49:3). Thus when God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt and preserved them in the wilderness it was because he was acting for his own name’s sake, “that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations” (Ezekiel 20:9, 14, 22; cf Exodus 14:4). And when God drove out the other nations from the Promised Land of Canaan, he was “making himself a name” (2 Samuel 7:23). Then finally at the end of the Old Testament era, after Israel had been taken into captivity in Babylon, God plans to have mercy and save his people. He says, “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you…For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:9, 11 cf. Ezekiel 36:22, 23, 32). From these texts we can see how much God loves his own glory and how deeply committed he is to preserving the honor of his name. This is not evil of God. On the contrary, his very righteousness depends on his maintaining a full allegiance to the infinite value of his glory. This is seen in the parallel phrases of Psalm 143:11, “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In th y righteousness , bring me out of trouble.” God would cease to be righteous if he ceased to love his own glory on which his people bank all their hope. Since God delights so fully in his glory—the beauty of his moral perfection—it is to be expected that he delights in the reflections of this glory in the world. He loves righteousness and justice (Psalm 11:7; 33:5; 37:28; 45:7; 99:4; Isaiah 61:8); he “delights in truth in the inward parts” (Psalm 51:6); he loves his sanctuary where he is worshipped (Malachi 2:11) and Zion, the “city of God” (Psalm 87:2, 3). But above all in the Old Testament, God’s love for his own glory involves him in an eternal commitment to the people of Israel. The reason this is so is that an essential aspect of God’s glory is his sovereign freedom in choosing to bless the undeserving. Having freely chosen to establish a covenant with Israel, God glorifies himself in maintaining a loving commitment to this people. The relationship between God’s love and his election of Israel is seen in the following texts. When Moses wanted to see God’s glory, God responded that he would proclaim his glorious name to him. An essential aspect of God’s name, his identity, was then given in the words “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:18, 19). In other words, God’s sovereign freedom in dispensing mercy on whomever he pleases is integral to his very being as God. It is important to grasp this self-identification because it is the basis of the covenant established with Israel on Mount Sinai. God’s love for Israel is not a dutiful divine response to a covenant; rather, the covenant is a free and sovereign expression of divine mercy or love. We read in Exodus 34:6-7 how God identified himself more fully before he reconfirms the covenant (Exodus 34:10): “The Lord … proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …’” Thus the Mosaic Covenant, as with God’s oath to the patriarchs earlier (Deuteronomy 4:37; 10:15), was rooted in God’s free and gracious love. It is wrong, therefore, to say that the Mosaic Law is any more contrary to grace and faith than are the commands of the New Testament. The Mosaic Covenant demanded a lifestyle consistent with the merciful covenant God had established, but it also provided forgiveness for sins and thus did not put a man under a curse for a single failure. The relationship which God established with Israel and the love he had for her was likened to that between a husband and a wife: “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, behold, you were at the age for love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I plighted my troth to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord God, “and you became mine.” This is why Israel’s later idolatry is sometimes called adultery, because she goes after other gods (Ezekiel 23; 16:15; Hosea 3:1). But in spite of Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness to God, he declares, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3; cf. Hosea 2:16-20; Isaiah 54:8). At other times, God’s love to his people is likened to a father for a son or a mother to her child: “I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born” (Jeremiah 31:9, 20). “Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13). However, the love of God for Israel did not exclude severe judgment upon Israel when it lapsed into unbelief. The destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 18:9, 10) and the captivity of the Southern Kingdom in Babylon in the years following 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:8-11) show that God would not tolerate the unfaithfulness of his people. “The Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12). In fact, the Old Testament closes with many of God’s promises unfulfilled. The question of how God’s undying love for Israel will express itself in the future is picked up in the New Testament by Paul. See especially Romans 11. God’s relationship to Israel as a nation did not mean that he had no dealings with individuals, nor did his treatment of the nation as a whole prevent him from making distinctions among individuals. Paul taught in Romans 9:6-13 and 11:2-10 that already in the Old Testament “not all Israel was Israel.” In other words, the promises of God’s love to Israel did not apply without distinction to all individual Israelites. This will help us understand such texts as the following: “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who pursues righteousness” (Proverbs 15:9). “The Lord loves those who hate evil” (Psalm 97:10). “The Lord loves the righteous” (Psalm 146:8). “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man; but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:10, 11; 103:13). In these texts, God’s love is not directed equally toward all. In its full saving effect, the love of God is enjoyed only by “those who hope in his steadfast love.” This does not mean that God’s love is no longer free and unmerited. For on the one hand, the very disposition to fear God and obediently hope in him is a gift of God (Deuteronomy 29:4; Psalm 119:36) and on the other hand, the appeal of the saint who hopes in God is not to his own merit, but to God’s faithfulness to the lowly who have no strength and can only trust in mercy (Psalm 143:2, 8, 11). Therefore, as in the New Testament (John 14:21, 23; 16:27), the full enjoyment of God’s love is conditional upon an attitude appropriate for receiving it, namely, a humble reliance upon God’s mercy: “ Trust in the Lord and he will act” (Psalm 37:5).

Man’s Love for God

Another way to describe the stance which a person must assume in order to receive the fullness of God’s loving help is that the person must love God. “The Lord preserves all who love him; but all the wicked he will destroy” (Psalm 145:20). “Let all who take refuge in thee rejoice, let them ever sing for joy; and do thou defend them, that those who love thy name may exult in thee” (Psalm 5:11; cf. Isaiah 56:6, 7; Psalm 69:36). “Turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love you” (Psalm 119:132). These texts are simply an outworking in the life of the stipulations laid down in the Mosaic Covenant (the Abrahamic covenant had its conditions too, though love is not mentioned explicitly: Genesis 18:19; 22:16-18; 26:5). God said to Moses, “I am a jealous God, showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10; Nehemiah 1:5; Daniel 9:4). Since loving God was the first and all-embracing condition of the covenant promise, it became the first and great commandment in the law: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). This love is not a service done for God to earn his benefits. That is unthinkable: “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and terrible God who is not partial and takes no bribe” (Deuteronomy 10:17). It is not a work done for God, but rather a happy and admiring acceptance of His commitment to work for those who trust him (Psalm 37:5; Isaiah 64:4). Thus the Mosaic Covenant begins with a declaration which holds great promise for Israel: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 20:2). The command to love God is a command to delight in him and to admire him above all else and to be content with his commitment to work mightily for his people. Thus, unlike God’s love for Israel, Israel’s love for God was a response to what he had done and would do on her behalf (cf. Deuteronomy 10:20-11:1). The response character of man’s love for God is seen as well in Joshua 23:11 and Psalm 116:1. In its finest expressions, it became the all-consuming passion of life (Psalm 73:21-26).

Man’s Love for Man

If a person admires and worships God and finds fulfillment by taking refuge in his merciful care, then his behavior toward his fellow man will reflect the love of God. The second great commandment of the Old Testament, as Jesus called it (Matthew 22:39), comes from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The term “neighbor” here probably means fellow-Israelite. But in Leviticus 19:34 God says, “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as a native among you and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” We can understand the motivation of love here if we cite a close parallel in Deuteronomy 10:18, 19, “God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” This is a close parallel to Leviticus 19:34, because both refer to Israel’s sojourn in Egypt and both command love for the sojourner. But most important, the words “I am the Lord your God” in Leviticus 19:34 are replaced in Deuteronomy 10:12-22 with a description of God’s love, justice and mighty deeds for Israel. The Israelites are to show the same love to the sojourners as God has shown them. Similarly, Leviticus 19 begins with the command, “You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Then the phrase, “I am the Lord,” is repeated fifteen times in chapter 19 after the individual commands. So the intention of the chapter is to give specific instances of how to be holy as God is holy. Seen in the wider context of Deuteronomy 10:12-22, this means that a person’s love for his fellow man should spring from God’s love and thus reflect his character. We should notice that the love commanded here relates to both outward deeds and inward attitudes. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart ” (Leviticus 19:17). “You shall not take vengeance (deed) or bear any grudge (attitude)” (Leviticus 19:18). And to love your neighbor as yourself does not mean to have a positive self-image or high self-esteem. It means using the same zeal, ingenuity and perseverance to pursue your neighbor’s happiness as you do your own. For other texts on self-love see Proverbs 19:8; 1 Samuel 18:1, 20:17. If love among men is to reflect God’s love, it will have to include the love of enemies, at least to some degree. For God’s love to Israel was free, unmerited and slow to anger, forgiving many sins that created enmity between him and his people (Exodus 34:6, 7). And his mercy extended beyond the bounds of Israel (Genesis 12:2, 3; 18:18; Jonah 4:2). Therefore, we find instructions to love the enemy. “If you meet your enemy’s ox or ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall not leave him with it, you shall help him lift it up” (Exodus 23:4, 5). “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Proverbs 24:17). “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat” (Proverbs 25:21). See also Proverbs 24:29; 1 Kings 3:10; Job 31:29, 30; 2 Kings 6:21-23. But this enemy-love must be qualified in two ways: First, in the Old Testament, God’s way of working in the world had a political dimension which it does not have today. His people were a distinct ethnic and political group and God was their law-giver, their king and their warrior in a very direct way. Thus, for example, when God decided to punish the Canaanites for their idolatry he used his people to drive them out (Deuteronomy 20:18). This act by Israel cannot be called love for their enemies (cf. Deuteronomy 7:1, 2; 25:17-19; Exodus 34:12). We should probably think of such events as special instances in redemptive history in which God uses his people to execute his vengeance (Deuteronomy 32:35; Joshua 23:10) on a wicked nation. Such instances should not be used today to justify personal vindictiveness or holy wars, since God’s purposes in the world today are not accomplished through an ethnic political group on par with Israel in the Old Testament. The second qualification of the enemy-love is required by the psalms in which the psalmist declares his hate for men who defy God, “who lift themselves up against thee for evil! Do I not loathe them that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.” (Psalm 139:19-22). The psalmist’s hate is based on their defiance against God and is conceived as virtuous alignment with God’s own hate of evildoers (Psalm 5:4-6; 11:5; 31:6; Proverbs 3:32; 6:16; Hosea 9:15). But as strange as it may seem, this hate does not necessarily result in vengeance. The psalmist leaves that in God’s hands and even treats these hated ones kindly. This is seen in Psalm 109:4, 5 and 35:1, 12-14. There may be two ways to justify this hate. On the one hand, it could sometimes represent a strong aversion toward the ill will that seeks the destruction of person. On the other hand, where there is a will for destruction expressed, it may represent the God-given certainty that the evil person is beyond repentance with no hope of salvation and therefore under the just sentence of God expressed by the psalmist (compare 1 John 5:16). Besides these more religious dimensions of love, the Old Testament is rich with illustrations and instructions for love between father and son (Genesis 22:2; 37:3; Proverbs 13:24), mother and son (Genesis 25:28), wife and husband (Judges 14:16; Ecclesiastes 9:9; Genesis 24:67; 29:18, 30, 32; Proverbs 5:19), lovers (1 Samuel 18:20; 2 Samuel 13:1), slaves and masters (Exodus 21:5; Deuteronomy 15:16), the king and his subjects (1 Samuel 18:22), a people and their hero (1 Samuel 18:28), friends (1 Samuel 18:1; 20:17; Proverbs 17:17; 27:6), daughter-in-law and mother-in-law (Ruth 4:15). Especially worthy of note is the Song of Solomon, which expresses the wholesome delight in the sexual fulfillment of love between a man and a woman.

Man’s Love for Things

There are a few instances in the Old Testament of simple, everyday love of things: Isaac loved a certain meat (Genesis 27:4); Uzziah loved the soil (2 Chronicles 26:10); many love life (Psalm 34:12). But usually when love is not directed toward persons it is directed to virtues or vices. For the most part, this sort of love is simply an inevitable fruit of one’s love for God or rebellion against God. On the positive side, there is love for God’s commandments (Psalm 112:1; 119:35, 47), his law (Psalm 119:97), his will (Psalm 40:8), his promise (Psalm 119:140) and his salvation (Psalm 40:16). Men are to love the good and hate evil (Amos 5:15), love truth and peace (Zechariah 8:19) and love mercy (Micah 6:8) and wisdom (Proverbs 4:6). On the negative side, we find people loving evil (Micah 3:2), lying and false prophecy (Psalm 4:2; 52:3, 4; Zechariah. 8:17; Jeremiah 5:31; 14:10), idols (Hosea 9:1, 10; Jeremiah 2:25), oppression (Hosea 12:7), cursing (Psalm 109:17), laziness (Proverbs 20:13), foolishness (Proverbs 1:22), violence (Psalm 11:5) and bribery (Isaiah 1:23). In short, many people “love their shame more than their glory” (Hosea 4:17), which is the same as loving death (Proverbs 8:36). The sum of the matter is that satisfaction is not to be had in setting one’s affections on anything but God (cf. Ecclesiastes 5:10; 12:13).

Love in the New Testament

What makes the New Testament new is the appearance of the Son of God on the scene of human history. In Jesus Christ we see as never before a revelation of God. As he said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9; cf. Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3). For in a real sense, Jesus was God. (John 1:1; 20:28).

But the coming of Christ not only brings about the revelation of God. By his death and resurrection Christ also brings about the salvation of men (Romans 5:6-11). This salvation includes forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7), access to God (Ephesians 2:18), the hope of eternal life (John 3:16), and a new heart which is inclined to do good deeds (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:14).

Therefore, when dealing with love, we must try to relate everything to Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection. In the life and death of Christ we see in a new way what God’s love is and what man’s love for God and for others should be . And through faith, the Spirit of Christ, living in us enables us to follow his example.

God’s Love for His Son

In the Old Testament we saw that God loves his own glory and delights to display it in creation and redemption. A deeper dimension of this self-love becomes clear in the New Testament. It is still true that God aims in all his works to display his glory for men to enjoy and praise (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14; John 17:4). But what we learn now is that Christ “reflects the very glory of God and bears the stamp of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “In him dwells all the fullness of deity” (Colossians 2:9). In short, Christ is God and has eternally existed in a mysterious union with his Father (John 1:1). Therefore, God’s self-love, or his love for his own glory, can now be seen as a love for “the glory of Christ who is the likeness of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4; cf. Philippians 2:6). The love that God the Father has for the Son is expressed often in the Gospel of John (3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 15:9, 10; 17:23-26) and occasionally elsewhere (Matthew 3:17; 12:18; 17:5; Ephesians 1:6; Colossians 1:13). This love within the Trinity itself is important for Christians for two reasons: First, the costly beauty of the incarnation and death of Christ cannot be understood without it. Second, it is the very love of the Father for the Son which the Father pours into the hearts of believers (John 17:26). The ultimate hope of the Christian is to see the glory of God in Christ (John 17:5), to be with him (John 14:24) and to delight in him as much as his Father does (John 17:26).

God’s Love for Men

In Romans 8:35 Paul said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?” In verse 39 he says, “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This change from “Christ” to “God in Christ” shows that under the heading “God’s love for men” we must include Christ’s love for men, since his love is an extension of God’s. The most basic thing that can be said about love in relation to God is that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16; cf. 2 Corinthians 13:11). This does not mean that God is an old-fashioned name for the ideal of love. It suggests, rather, that one of the best words to describe God’s character is love. God’s nature is such that in his fullness he needs nothing (Acts 17:25) but rather overflows in goodness. It is his nature to love. Because of this divine love, God sent his only Son into the world so that by Christ’s death for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18) all those who believe might have eternal life (John 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 John 3:1; Titus 3:4). “In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God, but his love for us, when he sent his Son to satisfy God’s anger against our sin” (1 John 4:10). Indeed, it is precisely God’s wrath from which believers are saved by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 5:9). But we must not imagine that Christ is loving while God is angry. “ God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It is God’s own love which finds a way to save us from his own wrath (Ephesians 2:3-5). Nor should we think of the Father forcing the Son to die for man. The repeated message of the New Testament is that “ Christ loved us and gave himself for us” (Galatians 2:2; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 3:16). “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1; 15:9, 12, 13). And the love of the risen Christ guides (2 Corinthians 5:14), sustains (Romans 8:35) and reproves (Revelations 3:19) his people still. Another misconception that must be avoided is that the love of God and Christ can be merited or earned by anyone. Jesus was accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 11:9; Luke 7:34). The answer he gave was, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:17). At another time when Jesus was accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 15:1, 2) he told three parables of how it gladdens the heart of God when one sinner repents (Luke 5:3-32). In this way, Jesus showed that his saving love aimed to embrace not those who thought they were righteous (Luke 18:9) but rather the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3) like the tax collector who said, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). The love of Jesus could not be earned; it could only be freely accepted and enjoyed. Unlike the legalism of the Pharisees, it was a “light burden” and an “easy yoke” (Matthew 11:30). The reason Jesus demonstrated a love for those who could not merit his favor is that he was like his Father. He taught that God “makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45), “he is kind to the grateful and to the selfish” (Luke 6:35). Paul too stresses that the unique thing about divine love is that it seeks to save even enemies. He describes it like this: “While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). While it is true that God in one sense loves the whole world in that he sustains the world (Acts 14:17; 17:25; Matthew 5:45) and has made a way of salvation for any who will believe, nevertheless, he does not love all men in the same way. He has chosen some before the foundation of the world to be his sons (Ephesians 1:5) and predestined them for glory (Romans 8:29-30; 9:11, 23; 11:7, 28; 1 Peter 1:2). God has set his love on these chosen ones in a unique way (Colossians 3:12; Romans 11:28; 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; Jude 1) so that their salvation is sure. These he draws to Christ (John 6:44, 65) and makes alive (Ephesians 2:4, 5); others he leaves in the hardness of their sinful heart (Romans 11:7; Matthew 11:25, 26; Mark 4:11, 12). There is a mystery in God’s electing love. Why he chooses one and not another is not revealed. We are only told that it is not due to any merit or human distinctive (Rom 9:10-13). Therefore, all boasting is excluded (Romans 3:27; 11:18, 20, 25; Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 2:12, 13), it is a gift of God from start to finish (John 6:65). We deserved nothing since we were all sinners, and everything we have is due to God who has mercy (Romans 9:16). The way one finds oneself within this saving love of God is by faith in the promise that “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Then Jude 21 says, “ Keep yourself in the love of God” and Romans 11:22 says, “ Continue in God’s kindness.” It is clear from Romans 11:20-22 that this means keep on trusting God: “You stand fast only through faith.” So one never earns God’s saving love; one remains within it only by trusting in the loving promises of God. This is true even when Jesus says that the reason God loves his disciples is because they keep his word (John 14:23), for the essence of Jesus’ word is a call to live by faith (John 16:27; 20:31).

Man’s Love for God and Christ

Jesus sums up the whole Old Testament in the commandments to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). The failure to love God like this characterized many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day (Luke 11:42). Jesus said this was the reason they did not love and accept him (John 5:42; 8:42). He and the Father are one (John 10:30), so that loving one with all the heart involves loving the other, too. Since the “greatest commandment” is to love God, it is not surprising that very great benefits are promised to those who do. “All things work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). “No eye has seen nor ear heard … what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9; cf. Ephesians 6:24). “If one loves God, he is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:3). “God has promised a crown of life to those who love him” (James 1:12; 3:5; cf. 2 Timothy 4:8). But on the other side there are grave warnings to those who do not love God (2 Timothy 2:14; 1 John 2:15-17) and Christ (1 Corinthians 16:22; Matthew 10:37-39). Now the question arises: If the same benefits depend on loving God and Christ which at the same time depend on faith, what is the relationship between loving God and trusting him? We need to recall that love for God, unlike love for a needy neighbor, is not a longing to supply some lack on his part by our service (Acts 17:5). Rather, love for God is a deep adoration for his moral beauty and his complete fullness and sufficiency. It is delighting in him and a desire to know him and be with him. But in order to delight in God, one must have some conviction that he is good, and some assurance that our future with him will be a happy one. That is, one must have the kind of faith described in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” Therefore, faith precedes and enables our love for God. Confidence in God’s promise grounds our delight in his goodness. There is another way to conceive of loving God: not just delighting in who he is and what he promises, but wanting to please him. Is there a place for this love in the life of the believer? Indeed, there is (John 8:29; Romans 8:8; 1 Corinthians 7:32; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1); however, we must guard very closely here against dishonoring God by presuming to become his benefactors. Hebrews 11:6 shows us the way: “Without faith it is impossible to please God. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he becomes the rewarder of those who seek him.” Here the faith which pleases God has two convictions: that God exists and that to find him is to be greatly rewarded. Therefore, in order to love God in the sense of pleasing him, we must never approach him because we want to reward him , but only because he rewards us. In short, we become the source of God’s pleasure to the extent that he is the source of ours. We can do him a favor only by happily accepting all his favors. We best express our love for him when we live not presumptuously, as God’s benefactors, but humbly and happily as the beneficiaries of his mercy. The person who lives this way will inevitably keep the commandments of Jesus (John 14:15) and of God (1 John 5:3).

Jesus’ second commandment was, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31, 33; Luke 10:27). We already discussed what this meant in Leviticus 19:18. The best interpretations of it in Jesus’ own words are the Golden Rule (“As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them,” Luke 6:31) and the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). It means that we should seek the good of others as earnestly as we desire good to come our way. This is the most frequently cited Old Testament commandment in the New Testament (Matthew 19:19; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:28; James 2;8). After this commandment, probably the most famous passage on love in the New Testament is 1 Corinthians 13. Here Paul shows that there can be religiosity and humanitarianism without love. “If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). This raises the question of what this love is if one could sacrifice his life and still not have it. The New Testament answer is that the kind of love Paul is talking about must spring from a motivation which takes into account the love of God in Christ. Genuine love is born of faith in the loving promises of God. Paul says that “whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). More positively he says, “Faith works through love” (Galatians 5:6). Or as John puts it, “We know and believe the love God has for us …. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:16, 19). Therefore, Christian love exists only where the love of God in Christ is known and trusted. This profound link between faith and love probably accounts for why Paul mentions the two together so often (Ephesians 1:15; 6:23; Colossians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:3; 2:2; Titus 2:2; 3:15; cf. Revelations 2:19). But why is it that faith always “works through love”? One of the hallmarks of love is that it “seeks not its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5). It does not manipulate others in order to win their approval or gain some material reward. Rather, it seeks to reward others and build them up (1 Corinthians 8:1; Romans 14:15; Ephesians 4:16; Romans 13:10). Love does not use others for its own ends; it delights to be a means to their welfare. If this is the hallmark of love, how can sinful men, who by nature are selfish (Ephesians 2:3), ever love each other? The answer of the New Testament is that we must be born again: “the one who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). To be born of God means to become his child with his character and to be transferred from death to life: “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). God himself abides in his children by his Spirit (1 John 3:9; 4:12, 13) so that when they love it is because his love is being perfected in them (1 John 3:7, 12, 16). Paul teaches the same thing when he says love is a “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22; Colossians 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:7), that it is “from God” (Ephesians 6:23) and is “taught by God,” not men (1 Thessalonians 4:9). The fact that love is enabled only by God is seen in Paul’s prayers also: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men” (1 Thessalonians 3:12; Philippians 1:9). Now we are in a position to answer our earlier question: Why does faith always work through love? Faith is the way we receive the Holy Spirit, whose fruit is love. Paul asks, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of law or by hearing with faith” (Galatians 5:2)? The answer is clearly faith. This means that the essential characteristic of the person who has been born again and is being led by the Spirit of God is faith (John 1:12, 13). Therefore, while love is a fruit of the Spirit, it is also a fruit of faith, since it is by faith that the Spirit works (Galatians 3:5). To understand fully the dynamics of this process, another factor must be brought in: the factor of hope. Faith and hope cannot be separated. Genuine faith in Christ implies a firm confidence that our future is secure (Heb. 11:1, Romans 15:13). This essential oneness of faith and hope helps us grasp why faith always “works through love.” The person who has confidence that God is working all things together for his good (Romans 8:28) can relax and entrust his life to a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19). He is free from anxiety and fear (1 Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6). So he is not easily irritated (1 Corinthians 13:5). Rather, he is freed from self-justifying, self-protecting concerns and becomes a person who “looks to the interest of others” (Philippians 2:4). Being satisfied in God’s presence and promise, he is not bent on selfishly seeking his own pleasure, but rather delights “to please his neighbor for his good to edify him” (Romans 15:1, 2). In other words, having our hope pinned on the promises of God frees us from the attitudes that hinder self-giving love. Therefore, Paul said that if there were no Resurrection hope, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). If God has not satisfied our deep longing for life, then we may as well try to get as much earthly pleasure as possible, whether it is loving to others or not. But God has in fact given us a satisfying and confident hope as a basis for a life of love. Therefore in Colossians 1:4, 5, hope is the ground of love: “We always thank God … because we have heard of … the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in Heaven.” Thus, we conclude that faith, when understood as a deep contentment in the promises of God, always works through love. Therefore, the way to become a loving person is to set our hope more fully on God and delight more fully n the confidence that whatever is encountered on the path of obedience is for our good. The love that is born of faith and the Spirit is especially manifest in the Christian home and in the community of believers. It transforms husband-wife relationships on the pattern of Christ’s love (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33; Colossians 3:19; Titus 2:4). It is the fiber in the Christian community that “knits everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14; 2:2; Philippians 2:2; 1 Peter 3:8). It enables the members to “endure one another” in meekness and lowliness when wronged (Ephesians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 13:7). But more importantly it is the force behind positive deeds of spiritual edification (Romans 14:15; 1 Corinthians 8:1; Ephesians 4:16) and the meeting of material needs (Luke 10:27-37; Romans 12:13; Galatians 5:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Hebrews 13:1-3; James 1:27; 2:16; 1 Peter 4:9; 1 John 3:17, 18). Love is not to be—cannot be—restricted to friends. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:27). This same concern was carried into the early church in verses like Romans 12:14, 19-21; 1 Corinthians 4:12; Galatians 6:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9. The great desire of the Christian in doing good to his enemy and praying for him is that the enemy might cease to be an enemy and come to glorify God (1 Peter 2:12; 3:14-16; Titus 2:8, 10). Toward friend and foe, love is the attitude that governs the Christian in “all things” (1 Corinthians 16:14). It is the “most excellent way” of life (1 Corinthians 12:31). And since it does not wrong anyone, but seeks the good of all, it fulfills the whole law of God (Romans 13:19; Matthew 7:12, 22:40; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8; compare Romans 8:4 and Galatians 5:22). But it is not automatic; it can cool away (Matthew 22:12; Revelation 2:4). Therefore, Christians must make it their aim (1 Timothy 1:15) to “stir one another up to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). We must pray for God to cause our love to abound more and more (Philippians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13). We must concentrate on the examples of love in Christ (John 13:34; 15:12, 17; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 3:23; 2 John 5) and in his saints (1 Corinthians 4:12, 15-17; 1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 1:13; 3:10). In this way, we will make our call and election sure (2 Peter 1:7, 10) and bear a compelling witness in the world to the truth of the Christian faith (John 13:34, 35; 1 Peter 2:12).

On the one hand, the New Testament teaches that the things God has created are good and should be enjoyed with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:3; 6:17). But on the other hand, it warns against loving them in such a way that our affections are drawn away from God. The great danger is that the love of money (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:14; 1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Timothy 3:2; 2 Peter 2:15) and earthly pleasures (2 Timothy 3:4) and human acclaim (Matthew 6:5; 23:6; Luke 11:43; 3 John 9) will steal our hearts from God and make us insensitive to his higher purposes for us. John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15-17). And James echoes this: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity toward God” (James 4:4; cf. 2 Timothy 4:10)? The “world” is not any particular class of objects or people. It is anything which lays a claim on our affections to be loved other than for Jesus’ sake. Saint Augustine offered a prayer that catches the New Testament spirit on this issue: “He loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee which he loves not for thy sake.”

New Resources in Your Inbox

A digest from Desiring God

Are Motorcycles for Fools?

Understanding the Love of God

God’s love is one of the most important aspects of Christianity. A proper understanding of the agape love of God is crucial to a balanced Christian life. This article explains what God’s love is and what are the extents of God’s love.

Main Points

• God’s love is not a mushy feeling.
• God’s love was demonstrated in Christ sacrificing Himself for us. 
• He sheds that love abroad in our hearts.
• We demonstrate love by keeping God’s word and sacrificing ourselves for others.

DOWNLOAD FREE CHAPTERS FROM OUR NEW BOOKS

Balance is the key

Some Christians underestimate God’s love. This is evident whenever they worry about losing their salvation or about being punished by God. This is because they don’t understand the extent of God’s love that he demonstrated in Christ on Calvary. Catholics underestimate God’s love, and this is why they pray for their dead loved ones supposedly in purgatory. If they understood Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, they would never believe in purgatory.

On the other hand, it is possible to overestimate God’s love. Have you ever heard someone ask, “How could a loving God send people to an eternal hell?” or “how could God create someone gay then judge them for it?” These people totally misunderstand what God’s love is all about. God’s love is not the same thing as acceptance. God loves everyone but he does not accept everyone. God’s love is unconditional, but his acceptance is very much conditional.

God’s love for us

There is a tendency among Christians nowadays to refer to God as “Daddy”. Now I am not saying that is wrong. The Bible does refer to God as our Father. But the modern western concept of “daddy” is different from the Biblical concept of “father”. When Absalom wanted to see his father, David (the king), he bowed to the ground when he approached David’s throne (2 Samuel 14:33). He did not run and jump on his daddy’s lap.

So when we refer to God as “daddy”, I wonder if we are trivializing the reverence that we are supposed to have to God, and making that relationship way more cuddly and cozy than it was meant to be. The bible presents God as a loving heavenly father, but not as a doting daddy who would spoil us with stuff even though we are ungrateful brats.

There are some worship songs that treat the love of God as a lovey-dovey hollywood type relationship. For example,

So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss And my heart turns violently inside of my chest I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us

What nonsense is this? This is not how the love of God is portrayed in the Bible. God did not demonstrate his love for us in terms of romantic feelings. That’s not agape.

Extent of God’s love

The Bible is very clear on the extent of God’s love. Romans 5:6-8 tells us that God demonstrated his love, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. That is how God demonstrated his love. So when people ask “how could a loving God send people to an eternal hell?”, they are mixing up love and acceptance. God’s love was extended to that individual long in advance – by dying for them and providing unmerited salvation free of charge.

But if that person rejects God’s unconditional love, they are gambling their eternal future on God’s conditional acceptance. Christianity is not about acceptance. It is about God’s love. But if that love is rejected, acceptance does not apply.

Love vs Like

The English word love is very broad. It can encompass anything from love of ice cream to love for a member of the opposite sex you barely even know to love for your children. The Greek word agape however is very narrow. The bible tells us that God is love ( 1 John 4:8 ). Love is not something that God has, but something He is. It goes on to say that this love was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit ( Romans 5:5 ).

Agape is a quality of a person, such that he/she cannot help but love. Like on the other hand is dependent on the object of one’s affection. You like someone because that person has qualities that you find appealing. You love someone because love is in your heart. That’s why Christians are commanded to love their enemies ( Matthew 5:44 ) – it has absolutely nothing to do with them or the qualities they possess.

Our love for God

We live in what I call the meme generation. Try having any meaningful discussion on the Bible on Facebook and nobody is interested. Post a colorful meme saying “Type Amen if you love Jesus”, and you won’t be able to control the responses. The Bible speaks of an itching ears generation. Well this is an itching eyes generation. “I don’t care too much for God’s word, just show me some nice colors.”

How do we demonstrate love for God? The bible says that if you love God, keep his commandments ( John 14:15 ). If you hate your brother whom you see, how could you say you love God who you cannot see? ( 1 John 4:20 ). The terms of God’s love are so clear.

Love for God is not demonstrated by long tears during praise and worship whenever you feel overwhelmed by emotion. That has its place, but some of the biggest hypocrites in church cry longer tears than anyone when they pray. God’s love is supposed to transform that way we live. If you claim to love God, then your lifestyle is supposed to reflect that. You are supposed to want your life to please God and to overcome sin.

Our love for others

If God’s love is in your heart, then you are supposed to love others the way God does. God demonstrated his love by dying for their sins. And just as Christ presented himself as a dying sacrifice, Romans 12:1 , 2 requires us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Our lives are supposed to be self-sacrificing service to others. That’s what agape means.

Of course that does not mean we are to be walkovers. Our focus should be on living our lives so that others see Christ in us, and so that they may benefit SPIRITUALLY. The bible did warn us about casting our pearls before swine. We must know the difference between those who want to be helped spiritually, and those who just want to take advantage of us.

Parent child illustration

One of the best human examples of self-sacrificing love is the love some parents have for their children. Interestingly you don’t see that same unconditional love being demonstrated between husbands and wives. In the US, over 50% of marriages end in divorce . This statistic clearly indicates that the love being demonstrated by most husbands and wives is not unconditional. But when last have you heard of a parent divorcing their children? It does not happen.

Yes there are bad parents who abuse and neglect their kids. But that’s not what I am talking about. I am referring to single parents who divorced their spouses because of “irreconcilable differences” , but would sacrifice everything including their own happiness for their kids. It is amazing to me that these people hate their ex-spouses because of the unhappiness they caused, but if you really look at it, their kids cause them so much more trouble yet they love them unconditionally. Yes they should sacrifice for their kids, but if they had loved their husbands/wives the same way, they would not have got divorced.

This is just a small example of the love that God has for us. God sacrificed his only begotten Son so that we could have eternal life. We never deserved it, yet God did it for us. Then you would think that God expects us to love him in return. But God knows that we were not even capable of that, so He shed his love abroad in our hearts. Thus He enabled us to love the same way that He does.

This love is not just supposed to fill us with emotion, but is supposed to be our motivation for serving God and loving others. This is why we can forgive our enemies and sacrifice ourselves for others. I pray that we will not take for granted God’s great love for us. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we can be called the children of God ( 1 John 3:1 ).

Get our books on Amazon

•  share
•  Tweet

Does the Holy Spirit “Take Over” our Church Services?

If you attend a Pentecostal / charismatic church, you may have witnessed or experienced a…

Should We Sing Hillsong and Bethel Music in Church?

I recently looked at a YouTube video by a group called ReformedWiki that said we…

Is Solomon in Hell?

The Bible teaches that Solomon was blessed with immense wisdom and riches. But he married…

Why Did God Reject King Saul?

God said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” But during difficult times, we…

Bible Quiz – Which Bible character do you pray like?

  Take our Bible quiz to find out which Bible character you pray like. Answer…

Are speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts still for the church today?

  In this article we will examine the claims made by cessationists that the 1…

Can Witchcraft work against Christians?

How much power does the devil really have? What can and can’t he do? And…

Is homosexuality a sin?

Although gay marriage has been legal in Canada, parts of Europe and many US states…

Copyright © 2021 Bible Issues - All rights reserved

Follow us:           

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Numismatics
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Social History
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Acquisition
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Religion
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Legal System - Costs and Funding
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Restitution
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Strategy
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business and Government
• Business and Technology
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Social Issues in Business and Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic Systems
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Social Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Sustainability
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• Ethnic Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Politics of Development
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Qualitative Political Methodology
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Disability Studies
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

Within the Love of God: Essays on the Doctrine of God in Honour of Paul S. Fiddes

Tutorial Fellow in Pastoral Studies and Community Learning

Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture

• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

This book examines the doctrine of God from a variety of perspectives, stimulated by but not restricted to the work of Professor Paul S. Fiddes, to whom it is offered as a Festschrift . The chapters in it have all been specially commissioned and represent a variety of theological approaches. The first section of the book looks at sources for the doctrine of God in Scripture and experience; the second looks at a range of metaphysical issues underlying and raised by the Christian doctrine of God; the third section examines some of the implications of, and influences upon, the doctrine of God in theological anthropology, moral and political theology, theology and literature, inter-faith dialogue, and contemporary science. This book also contains a full bibliography of Fiddes’s published works.

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

• Religion & Spirituality
• Religious Studies

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the authors

Uncontrolling Love: Essays Exploring the Love of God, with Introductions by Thomas Jay Oord Paperback – June 24, 2017

• Print length 406 pages
• Language English
• Publication date June 24, 2017
• Dimensions 6 x 1.02 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 0692884947
• ISBN-13 978-0692884942
• See all details

Products related to this item

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ SacraSage Press; First Edition (June 24, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 406 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0692884947
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0692884942
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.51 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.02 x 9 inches
• #48,810 in Theology (Books)

About the authors

Duncan reyburn.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

T. C. Moore is a graffiti artist and theology nerd. He’s the lead pastor of Roots, a Moravian community, and serves court-involved youth and young adults with restorative justice practices. Since Jesus liberated him from gang-life as a teenager, T. C. has developed mentoring programs, planted churches, and worked in community-based nonprofits all across the country for over two decades. He’s a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for Urban Ministerial Education in Boston and he lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife, Osheta, and their three children.

Website: TCMoore.net

Instagram: @tc_moore

Threads: @tc_moore

Facebook: @revtcmoore

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 80% 12% 0% 9% 0% 80%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 80% 12% 0% 9% 0% 12%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 80% 12% 0% 9% 0% 0%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 80% 12% 0% 9% 0% 9%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 80% 12% 0% 9% 0% 0%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Essay on God’s Importance In Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on God’s Importance In Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on God’s Importance In Life

Understanding god’s role.

Many people believe in a higher power known as God. They see God as a guide who helps them choose right from wrong. When life gets tough, thinking of God can give comfort and hope.

Learning Through Stories

Religious books are full of stories about God’s love and power. These tales teach kids about bravery, kindness, and honesty. They often look to these stories for lessons on how to live well.

Prayer and Strength

Praying to God is like talking to a friend. It can make you feel strong and calm. When you’re scared or sad, praying might bring peace and a sense of not being alone.

Belonging to a Community

Believing in God can connect you with others. Many gather in places like churches or temples to worship together. This can create a feeling of family and support among the people.

250 Words Essay on God’s Importance In Life

Learning right from wrong.

God is often seen as a teacher of what is good and what is bad. Different religions have their own rules that God has given them. These rules help people decide how to act and treat others. With God’s teachings, they learn to be kind, honest, and fair.

Finding Strength in Tough Times

Life can be hard sometimes. When people face problems, they may pray to God for help. They believe God listens and gives them strength to get through tough times. This belief can make them feel less alone and more able to handle life’s challenges.

Bringing People Together

Belief in God can bring people together. In churches, temples, mosques, and other places of worship, people gather to pray and celebrate their faith. This creates a sense of community and belonging, which is very important in life.

Hope for the Future

Thinking about God can give people hope for the future. They believe that God has a plan for them and that everything will work out for the best. This hope can keep them going when things are difficult and can inspire them to work towards a better future.

500 Words Essay on God’s Importance In Life

Many people believe in a higher power known as God. They see God as a source of strength, guidance, and love. In this essay, we will explore why God plays a significant role in the lives of believers.

Comfort in Tough Times

Guidance for right choices.

Every day, we make choices. Some are easy, and some are hard. Believers turn to God for help in making the right decisions. They may read holy books, like the Bible or the Quran, to learn what God teaches about living a good life. By following these teachings, they feel they can choose the path that will make them and the people around them happy.

Feeling Loved and Valued

Everyone wants to feel loved. Believers find this love in God. They think of God as a parent who loves them no matter what. This love gives them confidence. It makes them feel important and valued. When they know God loves them, they also learn to love themselves and others.

Learning to Forgive

We all make mistakes, and sometimes we hurt others. God teaches about forgiveness. Believers try to follow this teaching by forgiving those who have wronged them. They also ask God to forgive their own mistakes. This helps them live without anger and bitterness.

Building a Community

Believing in God often brings people together. They gather to worship, celebrate, and help each other. This creates a community where people care for one another. In this community, they share their love for God and find friends who support them in their beliefs.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Featured Essay The Love of God An essay by Sam Storms Read Now
• Faithfulness of God
• Saving Grace
• Adoption by God

Most Popular

• Gender Identity
• Trusting God
• The Holiness of God
• See All Essays

• Best Commentaries
• Featured Essay Resurrection of Jesus An essay by Benjamin Shaw Read Now
• Death of Christ
• Resurrection of Jesus
• Church and State
• Sovereignty of God
• Faith and Works
• The Carson Center
• The Keller Center
• New City Catechism
• Publications
• Read the Bible
• TGC Pastors

U.S. Edition

• Arts & Culture
• Bible & Theology
• Christian Living
• Current Events
• Faith & Work
• As In Heaven
• Gospelbound
• Post-Christianity?
• The Carson Center Podcast
• TGC Podcast
• You're Not Crazy
• Churches Planting Churches
• Help Me Teach The Bible
• Word Of The Week
• Upcoming Events
• Past Conference Media
• Foundation Documents
• Regional Chapters
• Church Directory
• Global Resourcing
• Donate to TGC

To All The World

The world is a confusing place right now. We believe that faithful proclamation of the gospel is what our hostile and disoriented world needs. Do you believe that too? Help TGC bring biblical wisdom to the confusing issues across the world by making a gift to our international work.

To Experience God’s Love

More by colin smith.

Many Christians live at a great distance from a felt experience of the love of God. So much Christianity in the West is shallow and satisfied. It affirms a creed, but it so often lacks spiritual life. Across the country there are millions of people who have a faith, who’ve been brought up in the church to believe Jesus died and rose, but they have no living experience of God’s love.

We need this prayer from 2 Thessalonians 3:5: “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience.”

This is a prayer for Christians. Paul is writing to the church. It’s a prayer that God will do something in us who believe but do not always feel that God loves us.

I don’t want to be there! And neither do you. People who are not Christians endure great pain and carry great sorrows. They do it by gritting their teeth. They do it in Britain with a stiff upper lip. Paul is saying to these believers in this verse, “I want something better for you. I want your soul to be filled with the love of God.”

Testimonies of Experiencing God’s Love

Let me give you some real-life examples of the love of God flooding a person’s soul, so that you will be encouraged to pray for more of this love yourself.

John Wesley

Wesley was a pastor. He had preached on two continents—in England and in Georgia. Something happened to him on Aldersgate Street in London on May 24, 1738, while he was listening to a man read the preface to Luther’s work on Romans. Here is Wesley’s description of what happened:

About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Amazingly, Wesley had been preaching in church for years, but now he tasted the love of God. He had a new sense of its sweetness. His life and ministry were transformed.

Jonathan Edwards

In 1737 Edwards rode out into the woods for a time of prayer and wrote of his extraordinary experience: “I had a view, that was for me extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God . . . and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love.”

He went out into the woods, tied up his horse, and saw the love of Christ in a way that he had not seen it before. He had a “view” of it. He got a glimpse of it. Its sweetness came home to his soul.

Blaise Pascal

One of the most intense descriptions of this kind of experience comes from Blaise Pascal. Pascal is especially interesting because he was a mathematician and a scientist. It would be easy for some of us to dismiss this loving call by saying that there are certain more emotional types of people who have these experiences.

Pascal had an extraordinary experience of the love of God that lasted for about two hours. He scribbled some notes of what happened to him, and then he sewed them into the inside of his coat, where they were found after his death:

This day of grace 1654 From about half past ten at night, to about half after midnight Fire! God of Abraham, God of Isaac God of Jacob Not of the philosophers and scholars. Security, feeling, joy, peace God of Jesus Christ . . . Greatness of the human soul . . . Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy . . . Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ May I never be separated from him.

What happened to Pascal? His heart was “directed into the love of God and the patience of Christ.”

These testimonies show an amazing work of God in the hearts of men, causing them to experience God’s love and Christ’s patience in a new way.

Power to Know God’s Love

Recently, a seminary professor asked 120 of her students this question: “Do you believe that God loves you?” Out of 120 Christian students preparing for ministry, how many do you think said, “yes”?

The rest gave answers like this: “I know I’m supposed to say, ‘Yes’ . . . “I know the Bible says he loves me . . . but I don’t feel it,” or “I’m not sure I can really say I believe it.”

How can this be? Jonathan Edwards used a simple analogy to get to the heart of this problem: “There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness.” You can know honey is sweet, because someone tells you, but you don’t really know its sweetness until you’ve tasted it.

You can know God loves you because your Sunday school teacher told you, but you don’t really know God’s love until you’ve tasted his love.

Here are concrete steps to experience more of God’s love.

Become dissatisfied with your present spiritual experience.

Cultivate a holy discontent. The person who prays this prayer is looking for something more than he or she already has: “Lord, direct my heart into your love.”

We live in a “been there, done that” culture, and the great danger is in developing a “been there, done that” form of Christianity: “I know God loves me, that Jesus died for me and that my sins are forgiven. So, what’s next?” Then one day someone says, “Do you really believe that God loves you?” And your shallowness is exposed.

A. W. Tozer says in  The Pursuit of God ,

We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found him, we need no more seek him. . . . In the midst of this great chill there are some who will not be content with shallow logic. They want to taste, to touch with their hearts the wonder that is God. I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God.

Some of you think God is cold and aloof and harsh and demanding, and these thoughts are deeply rooted in your mind. You need this prayer: “Father, direct my heart into your love!” Ask God, and go on asking, until like the snow that melted in the warmth this week, your heart begins to thaw in the warmth of the love of God.

Gaze into the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

People who don’t like each other will glance at one another. People who like each other will look at one another. People who are desperately in love will gaze at each other.

Isaac Watts used another word to say the same thing in his famous hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” Survey, gaze, ponder and meditate on the love of God. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience.

Two Responses

Something in this article may awaken in you—deep calls to deep. Maybe you’re thinking, I want more of what he’s talking about .

Settle it today, in your heart and in your mind, that you will pursue a sweeter taste, a deeper experience, a clearer glimpse of the love of God and the patience of Christ. Go after it. And don’t ever stop.

For others, this message does not so much sound like a church bell drawing you in as an alarm clock waking you up.

If you have no response to the love of God, shouldn’t you be concerned about the condition of your soul? I hope you’ll ask, “What is wrong with me? I have no interest in the love of God. Why am I so satisfied, when others are hungry and thirsty for God?”

Perhaps God will use this article to awaken you from the deadness of spirit in which you have been sleeping for far too long.

Why Do So Many Young People Lose Their Faith at College?

New Testament professor Michael Kruger is no stranger to the assault on faith that most young people face when they enter higher education, having experienced an intense period of doubt in his freshman year. In Surviving Religion 101 , he draws on years of experience as a biblical scholar to address common objections to the Christian faith: the exclusivity of Christianity, Christian intolerance, homosexuality, hell, the problem of evil, science, miracles, and the Bible’s reliability.

TGC is delighted to offer the ebook version for FREE for a limited time only. It will equip you to engage secular challenges with intellectual honesty, compassion, and confidence—and ultimately graduate college with your faith intact.

Colin Smith (MPhil, London School of Theology) is senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church , a multi-site church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. He is also committed to mentoring next-generation pastors through The Orchard School of Ministry . Colin and his wife, Karen, have two married sons and five granddaughters.

Now Trending

1 quality christian music: 15 artists to watch, 2 darby, dispensationalism, and the rise of evangelical antisemitism, 3 how one liberal theologian found jesus, 4 the 11 beliefs you should know about jehovah’s witnesses when they knock at the door, 5 the good news of scary jesus.

How Hellion Teenagers Sparked Revival in a Small West Virginia Town

In the summer of 1999, a handful of party boys got saved. Then they got ahold of the keys to the church.

How the GOP Became Pro-Choice

Think Biblically About Relational Boundaries

Don’t Fear the Marks in Revelation

Pastoral Prayer After the Failed Assassination of President Trump

What Does the Bible Teach About Divorce and Remarriage?

‘Of the Civil Magistrate’: How Presbyterians Shifted on Church-State Relations

Latest Episodes

Trevin wax on reconstructing faith.

Salvation and Assurance in Christ: 1 John 5:4–21

Examining the Current and Future State of the Global Church

David Brooks Explores the Amazing Power of Truly Seeing Others

Welcome and Witness: How to Reach Out in a Secular Age

Introducing Season 4 and the Center for Gospel Culture

Gaming Alone: Helping the Generation of Young Men Captivated and Isolated by Video Games

Church, Equip Parents to Disciple Kids

Faith & Work: How Do I Glorify God Even When My Work Seems Meaningless?

Let’s Talk Reunion: The Blessings of Bible Study with Friends

Getting Rid of Your Fear of the Book of Revelation

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: A Sermon from Julius Kim

Introducing The Acts 29 Podcast