Love of God. Next in our continuing study of the characteristics of God is love. If you have missed some, the archives are available here.

1 John 4:16

16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

It’s so easy to misunderstand the love of God, since we usually equate love with emotion. But God does not love us with the mushy emotional love that we think of. As believers, God loves us no matter how we fail, and no matter what we do!

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Since God is eternal and immutable (unchanging), His love for us never changes based on whether we deserve it or not. His love is perfect; it does not depend at all on the response that He gets from us. Very few people have the ability to love someone consistently when there is no positive response to their love! Yet we OFTEN are apathetic or antagonistic to God. Thankfully, His perfect love for us never changes because of that. His love for us depends not on us or on our response, but on HIS character and integrity.

Jeremiah 31:3

3 The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying,

"I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

One of the hardest issues to understand is that we are to love others the same way that God loves us!

1 John 4:10-11

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

…

19 We love, because He first loved us.

Remember, God loves us because of who and what He is. It is based strictly on His character, not on whether we deserve it or not. We are to love others based on the understanding we have of how God loves us. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it! Well remember that when God gives us a command, He always gives us the means to accomplish it.

Romans 5:5

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

An understanding of the love of God, including how He loves us unconditionally, and that He has given us the ability to love others the same way, will go a long way towards solving any kind of relationship problems you may have.