A Truth to Believe

What does it mean that God is loving?

God is not only loving; he is love (1 John 4:8). Put another way, love isn’t merely something God does—it is who he eternally is. Because God is love, everything he does is a perfect expression of love and reveals what true love is. To say that God is loving means that he freely, benevolently, and infinitely gives himself and from himself for the good of others. His affections, purposes, plans, thoughts, promises, and actions are all expressions of his love, ultimately designed to lead people into the enjoyment of himself.

In his very essence, God is inclined to share himself for the benefit of others. His love toward creation is rooted in the eternal love that has always existed within the Trinity between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (John 3:35; 17:24). God’s love is his free and gracious disposition to do good to his creation, especially to his redeemed people. As the God of love, he freely shows common kindness, patience, generosity, and care to all his creatures, while setting his special love upon his redeemed people, securing their eternal salvation through Christ (Gal. 2:20).

God's love is eternal, steadfast, sacrificial, and unfailing. It is most clearly shown in sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for undeserving sinners (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10). In response to such love, God calls His people to love Him above all things (Matt. 22:37–38), to love one another (John 13:35; 1 John 4:11), even to love their enemies (Matt. 5:43–48), and to express that love by obeying His commands (1 John 5:3). God's greatest acts of love are not merely the blessings he gives but the gift of himself to those who deserve nothing but judgment.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8)

Something about Living

I recently found something I wrote down after Levi's two months in the ICU due to his brain abscess, brain surgery, and parainfluenza. I wrote,

Things I have learned since being in the hospital for two months and almost losing Levi so many times:

• Life changes in the blink of an eye

• God will care for you

• God will provide for you

• God's truths will be enough

• Life is really fragile and short

• So much in life is petty

• People are invaluable and, under Christ, most important

• God will supernaturally enable you

• Sorrow and uncertainty are a season

• Kindness and joy help in suffering

Although suffering is often unpleasant, it almost always can provide us with perspective and clarity. Sometimes that perspective comes in the midst of that hardship, and other times it comes as we look back and reflect on it.

Don't waste your suffering. God has good purposes within it.

A Quote

"Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not."

C. S. Lewis

A Resource

One of our favorite Puritan books is The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. It is an explanation of Matthew's description of Jesus as the Servant of the Lord in Matt. 12:20, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory." It is a wonderful exposition of God's tender love and care for his people.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a preacher in the mid-twentieth century, wrote this about the book, "I shall never cease to be grateful to...Richard Sibbes who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil...I found at that time that Richard Sibbes, who was known in London in the early seventeenth century as The Heavenly Doctor Sibbes; was an unfailing remedy...The Bruised Reed...quieted, soothed, comforted, encouraged and healed me."