‘God is love’ (1) “The Nature of God”
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September 22, 2019 |
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 Senior Pastor, Dr. Jaerock Lee
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8
Love is the most essential nature of God. It is in the highest level among all the natures of God. God is love itself. The love that God gives is the love that sacrificed His only begotten Son for us. This love gives up life just as Jesus did.
We received this love, and thus we ought to love God and keep the commandments of God. As we love each other and gradually resemble God, we can eventually reach the level of sanctification.
1. Love ? the most essential nature of God
In the Bible which God wrote, God introduced Himself in various ways.
Such examples are as these; God of patience and endurance (1 Peter 3:20, 2 Peter 3:9) God of compassion, mercy, and forgiveness (Psalm 103:8, Isaiah 54:8, Lamentations 3:22, James 5:11), holy and faithful God (1 Samuel 2:2, Hosea 11:12, 2 Corinthians 1:12, 1 Peter 1:16), righteous God who works according to justice with no partiality (2 Chronicles 19:7, Psalm 37:6, Zechariah 9:9, 1 Peter 2:23), perfect God with no variation or shifting shadow (James 1:17).
At times, God is described as ‘a jealous God’ in Exodus 20:5 and Joshua 24:19. But the jealousy of God is completely different from a man’s jealousy that originates in fleshly feelings. It is an emphatic expression of the heart of God who wants no-single-soul to reach the path to death but to come forth as His true children. It is to tell us that to fear and love God is the duty of a man, and that it is to receive blessings (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
God is the Creator of everything in the universe, and the Governor and the Judge of all things. He is God of justice with no partiality that pays back each person according to what he has done. He commends you for the good things you have done but for the things you have done wrong, God punishes and gives you a trial from time to time.
God does not unconditionally forgive and wait for us only because we are His children. He disciplines us in His justice, and leads us to come out on the path of truth. God treats us with a desire for us enter the everlasting heaven, and come closer to the throne of God. Only when you feel this heart of God can you understand that His justice is from His love.
If you can understand His love, you can also understand God’s nature. If you study the deep heart of God in the 66 books of the bible, you can see all things begin with His spiritual love and end with the spiritual love.
2. The Providence of Human Cultivation began with the Love of God
It was in His love that God created everything in the universe and the first man Adam. God is from everlasting to everlasting. He wanted to share love forever with someone. God wanted true children who could understand His love that is the most essential nature among all else, and love God from the depth of heart.
At His side, God had many spiritual beings such as angels who unconditionally obey God’s commands. But they have no free will which is the most important factor in sharing love. They are like robots; they only obey, but they cannot feel joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. They cannot share love from the depth of heart. That’s why God created man in the image of God so that they can share love together.
God created the Garden in Eden, and equipped it with the best environment that the first man, Adam, and Eve could live in. They, however, were not aware of relativity, which made it impossible for them to realize how much God loved them or just how happy their lives really were.
Although God told them that they would surly die if they eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they didn’t know what the things like misfortune or death were. Over time, they forgot the word of God. When the crafty serpent deceived them, they committed sin, which resulted in making all mankind fall into sin.
The God of love foreknew all of this, but He gave Adam and Eve freewill to make a choice. He didn’t force them not to commit sin because He had already hidden His great providence; that being Human Cultivation. The true children that God wishes to acquire are those who understand the heart of God the Father themselves, obey Him and love Him from the depth of their heart. God knew that only after man experiences hatred, sorrow, pain, misfortune, and so on while being cultivated, can he understand true happiness and love of God.
The first man, Adam, and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin of disobedience, and the human cultivation finally began. Throughout the process of human cultivation, many people became what God wanted them to be, but there were also many who hurt God’s heart by walking away from God’s will. When people became no better than animals, all human beings except Noah and his family died in the Great Flood of Noah.
Yet, this great flood had the secret of God’s justice and love. That is, God allowed for post-flood people to learn a great lesson and look back on themselves through the Great Flood. God restarted the human cultivation through Noah, the righteous man in his time, showed a rainbow as a sign of a covenant so that the children of God would awaken all the time and get reminded of the lesson.
3. God leads man to a level of love through human cultivation
In order to show to the future generations His heart of love and the way of receiving His blessing, God established Abraham as the true example of faith.
By offering Isaac, his only son, who was more precious than his own life, he demonstrated in action his great love for God (John 15:13). God already knew that Abraham would pass the test, but He let Abraham face this test so that love and trust could be well established between God and Abraham.
Abraham was now called a friend of God, and God set him up as the forefather of faith and a good example of human cultivation so that all men could learn from Abraham the way of receiving the blessings God prepared.
God allows tests for churches and individuals. When they pass the test, God gives them blessings. Furthermore, once they set up a complete trust-relationship with God, they can receive whatever they ask for from God.
God can do anything. God can give anything. God can give whatever it is with no strings attached. But He blesses and answers you as much as you come forth in truth through human cultivation. That way, you can feel and experience His love little by little through each blessing and answer.
Even when the answer is slow to come, if you know the love of God, you can understand the heart of God who wants to give you the best thing at the best moment. Once you experience the emotion when you receive the answer, you can fully give glory to God. It is through this kind of process that we receive cultivation on this earth to achieve unchanging true love and come closer to all the more perfect love of our Heavenly Father who is in heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, We should understand that love is the most essential nature of God, and accomplish this unchanging true love. In the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that you may be treated preciously not only on the earth but also in heaven, and that you may come closer to thrown of God in New Jerusalem.
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