How do you define love? Is all love the same? We love our pet dog, cat, or hamster. We love food, flying, or fraternizing with friends. We love money, possessions, or our political position. We love control, independence, status, or popularity. We love to travel, dance, eat, have sexual relations (making love), hunting, or shopping. We love our wives, children, extended family, or friends. We also love the triune God. Are there different degrees of love or ways to show it? Is it soft and cuddly or expressionless and cold? What is your unique definition of love?
Each parent has her own definition of love. Therefore, each has his own predisposition as to how he wants to raise his children. Different definitions of love often lead to marital strife. Church leaders or church bodies also have different perspectives on what love means. They then teach and lead those in their congregation to understand God and His character, values, and way accordingly. However, what is the Bible’s definition of God’s love?
Without question, the greatest truth found in the Bible is that God is love. How might our definition of love affect our expectations of His love? Does it mean He is like a grey-haired grandfather in Heaven who has a preference of how we should behave? When we misbehave, He then just smiles and says something to the effect, “boys will be boys”? Or is He similar to the proverbial Santa Claus who gives us undeserved gifts?
If you cannot fully accept that God genuinely loves you, you will be incapable of experiencing His joy, hope, confidence, freedom, and all He has planned for your life. And, if your view of God’s love is not comprising the whole of Scripture, you will be limited in how you can relate to Him, including your expectations of His responses to your life choices.
Paul the apostle understood and accepted the heights and depths of God’s love. He wrote I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little (Philippians 4:12, NLT2). He never doubted God’s love when being imprisoned or abused. Before his conversion, he held the robes of those who stoned Stephen, a devote believer. God forgave him for that when he surrendered his rights to God’s control. Interestingly, there are only two occurrences of stoning mentioned in the New Testament—Stephen’s and yes, you guessed it correctly, the apostle Paul’s. We do not know for certain, but his stoning may have resulted in what Paul referred to as his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7). Whatever the case, Paul never doubted all was included in God’s amazing love. I have wondered if, while being stoned, it did not remind him of his own participation in Stephen’s stoning. Forgiveness does not necessarily eliminate the consequences of our bad choices. He did not see his experience as being God’s punishment for his past choices but wrote we know God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28, NLT2). From God’s perspective, love is not ONLY soft and smooth. Tough love is often a greater expression of love than tender love. God loved His Only Son yet planned for His Son to endure the passion week and suffer death.
What level of God’s love have you experienced? Have you been giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20, ESV)? Doing that allows you to experience God’s fullness of joy, hope, and complete freedom.