You may remember that last time we looked at part of this verse in Romans 11:22 “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God.”  Last time we looked at the sternness aspect of God’s nature as we looked at his wrath against sin and evil. Today I want to look at the other side of this and explore the kindness and the love of God. If we are to have a true picture of God in our heads then we need to have this balance. With many things, as imperfect human beings, we can veer to one side or the other and emphasise one to the neglect of the other. The more we read the bible – the whole bible – with an open mind the more we get a balanced picture. Again as I said last time do not fall into the old falsehood that the God of the OT is a God of wrath and the God of the NT is a God of love. Both aspects of his nature appear in both testaments.

One of the few lines I remember of Shakespeare which comes from one of his tragedies - King Lear – is spoken by a character reflecting on the difficult circumstances and the seeming cruelty of life. “As flies are to wanton boys, so are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.”  We may have gone through difficult times, we may have found the heavens silent when we have prayed in earnest for something in particular, we may have heard news that makes us wonder if there is a God there who is sovereign and good; or maybe sometimes we have been overcome by the sheer grace of God and a recognition that he is good and we are undeserving of his mercy. Whatever our situation it is good to reflect on the scripture’s testimony that we worship a God who is kind, who is good and who is loving, who does not toy with us or kill us for his sport, as indeed was, and is still, the pagan understanding of the gods who always must be placated. I want to explore what we mean when we say, as the Bible does in 1 John 4, that God is love.

Wayne Grudem defines God’s love simply in this way – “God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.”  To say that God is love means a number of things I think.

1.It is in his nature eternally to love.  We see evidence of this in the community that we call the Trinity. Before we came on the scene God had a self-love within himself - the Trinity of persons who are the godhead. Before he had us to love, love existed in God already. Each person of the Trinity embraces the other and glorifies the other. John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand”.  John 14:31  “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”  At Jesus’ baptism a voice comes from the heavens: “This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased”.   In John 17:24 Jesus prays -  “Father I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

I find it reassuring that going back into eternity that within God’s nature, in the essence of his being, in his inner being - he is good, he is kind, he is friendly, he is loving. This really helps me. For God is so big, so awesome, so transcendent that we can be tempted to think of him as some large impersonal force, and his creation, and we as humans are just subject to his whims and his intentions toward us could be evil. The bible, God’s word, keeps assuring us that at the heart of God He is loving.

Yes he is to be feared, for he is mighty and holy, but he is also to be loved for he is love. AW Tozer puts it well when he says “The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but his goodness encourages us not to be afraid of him. To fear and not be afraid – that is the paradox of faith”.

God’s essence is love and that goes from eternity to eternity. That in itself is reason for rejoicing, that in itself is good news is it not.

2. God’s love is a steady love. Our love tends to fluctuate, but God’s love is a steady love. When we speak about real love it is a love that sticks with us. Love is an act of the will, it loves the unlovely, it loves though the good times and the bad times. This is the kind of love God has for us. His love endures forever (2 Chron.7:6), his love is unfailing (Ps.33:18), his love is faithful (Ps.89:24).  Whatever our attitude towards God his love exudes towards us constantly. Yes he may get angry with us, he may despair of us or be saddened by us but his love is constant towards us. He delights in us as a father or mother delights in their child. Yes our children can annoy us but we never stop loving them.

3. God’s love is a universal love. God loves all of his creation. Jesus says in Matt.5:44 “I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”.   God’s love is shown to all, his common grace and goodness is available to all. In Acts 14:17 Paul is preaching and says to the crowd “God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy”.  As men and women we are made in the image of God and he has love for all his creation but especially for human beings for we are made in his image.

The most famous verse in the NT reminds us that “God so loved the world”. But this love of course is heightened when we respond to it. While we were yet sinners God sent his son, but God wants his love to be reciprocated. Therefore…

4. God has a special love for believers. God loves all universally but he has an increased love for those who are his children. In Deut.7:6-8 God says to Israel -“The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection upon you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you…” So here we see that God may love all people universally but he has a special love for Israel, and he has a special love for the church.

1 John 3:1  “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends now we are children of God.” So in these verses we see a differentiation is made by God between the world and the church. God loves the world, but he loves the church even more for it is made up of his children. I have used the illustration before of a school panoramic photo of all the school pupils. When you as a parent get that photograph home what is the first thing that you do? The first thing you do is look at the faces and you try and spot your child. You do not rest until you have spotted your child for your child has a special place in your heart. Yes, you in a sense love all the children – you bear them no ill will, but you have a special love for your offspring – they are your treasured possession, your delight, your joy.

God’s love is a universal love but within that he has a special love for those who have trusted in his Son, who have come to faith and who can call God Abba, Father, dear father, dad.

Or to turn it around the other way and think of two special seasons of the year – Christmas and Easter. Many people will enjoy these seasons, many people especially enjoy Christmas, the giving of presents, the season of god will, the parties, the good food. All can enjoy these things but for the believer, for the christian, they hold a special place as we remember God coming into the world for us, God’s Son dying on a cross for me. Many people enjoy the general benefits of the season, but there are fewer who reflect on the goodness of God in saving us. Fewer for whom God is their life, their reason for living, their hope in dying. God’s love is offered, (“For God so loved the world”) but only some will reciprocate that love in trusting belief, worship and in obedience (“that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life”).

God’s love is eternal, it is steady, it is universal, it is special for his children.

5. God’s love is lavish and generous. The nature or type of God’s love is a generous love. It does not hold back, it is lavish. Rom.5:5 “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us”. That word poured could be translated tipped out, or flooded. God’s love has flooded our hearts. The amazing thing is that even though we were God haters, or at best indifferent toward God, he gave his Son to us. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” His love is so generous that he takes the initiative, before we had asked for forgiveness, before we realised how obnoxious we are, before we saw our need for mercy, before we realised how far short we fall of God’s glory, he reached down, he came in the form of a human being and he offered us his gracious forgiveness and the chance of a close relationship with him. At heart of love is sacrifice and God made the biggest sacrifice of all. This is the God we worship.

Before he died John Newton said that he realised two great things – that he was a great sinner and Jesus was a great saviour. The writer of Amazing Grace knew how amazing God’s love was, how lavish it was.

6. God’s love is a tough love. By this I mean that it is not a soft love that winks at sin. It is a love that disciplines. God cares enough you see that he does not want us to ruin our lives in sin. The book of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those he loves. (Hebrews 12:5-11) It is not a case of saying I am God’s child and I will live as I please for he loves me. Yes he loves us but that love wants the best for us. God is a father to us. Yes he is a forgiving Father but he also wants us to grow more and more into his likeness, to love as he loves, to be perfect as he is perfect.

God’s tough love can have three aims. It can be a corrective discipline – we need correction or even punishment for we have gone wrong and harm will be done to us or others. God’s discipline can be preventative: he can say no to a prayer or put obstacles in our way or like Paul send a thorn in the flesh to keep us humble and dependent on him. This can be preventative discipline. Or it can be educational love or discipline. He needs to teach us more about himself and his nature or about how he works. If our earthly fathers need to discipline us how much more our heavenly; if our earthly fathers want the best for us how much more our heavenly Father.

But when all is said and done we need to remember that he is a God who delights in us, who is glad in us, who treasures us. In the words of the prophet: “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph.3:17) – We see here a self giving God who displays an eternal love, a steady love, a universal love, a special love, a lavish love, a tough love. This is the God we worship.

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