Is God Loving?

In our “Is God” series, we’ve been tackling some of the hard questions of the faith. One question that often pops up is whether God is really loving. We’re told God loves us but often can’t help wonder if that’s really true. Is that love real, and does that mean his love is for us?

How far does this love of God go?

The Love of God is Enduring

One thing I appreciate about the Bible is the ability to see the entire span of life. It starts with the beginning of life in Genesis, and how life will be restored and made new in Revelation. A common theme throughout is the love of God.

Looking at the entire picture, we see a loving God. Not an angry God, a cruel God, a temperamental God, an indecisive God or a passive-aggressive God, but a God who truly loves. One place where this really stands out is in the book of Psalms.

God’s Love in Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalm 100

Think about this passage for a moment. What do you see? What kind of picture do you get of God in these words?

The Psalmist speaks of a God worthy of worship, a God we can praise and come before with joyful songs. He’s a God who created us and who cares for his creation, that he sees us as the sheep of his pasture.

We see that God is good. What really stands out is his love endures forever.

God’s love in Psalm 117

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 117

Once again, we see a God worthy of worship who loves his people. There’s greatness and power in his love. It’s not a love that’s merely present or barely existant, but is great and endures forever.

God’s Love in Psalm 136

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of Gods, his love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, His love endures forever.
To him alone who does great wonders, his love endures forever.
Who by his understanding made the heavens, his love endures forever.
Who spread out the earth upon the waters, his love endures forever.
Who made the great lights, his love endures forever.
The sun to govern, his love endures forever.
The moon and stars to govern the night, his love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1-10

This Psalm goes on for another 16 verses, affirming the love of God and that it endures forever.

As we dwell on these Psalms, there’s a recurring quality: An enduring love. It’s a long-lasting love that keeps us going.

When I think of endurance, I think of running a race. I never had that sense of endurance one needs to be a good runner. By comparison, my friend Harold was fantastic. It wasn’t about his ability to run, but his ability to endure. He could keep running whether he was hot, uncomfortable, or tempted to quit. That helped him build a sense of endurance that kept him going. Endurance was a quality that allowed Harold to run well.

The Psalmist is telling us that God has this quality about his love. His love won’t stop.

How many people do we know that need to know of God’s enduring love? How many have a misconception that God’s love is flaky, temporary, or fragile, or that might change if we’re not acting right? We need to let them know about a love that endures, will not give up and quit, and that God’s love will follow you and chase you down.

And there’s nothing you can do about it.

The Love of God is Consistent

As a California boy, there’s something gross about Colorado’s cold winters. A favorite drink of mine is Hot Chocolate, because it can help me feel better about the cold.

Have you noticed that not all hot chocolate tastes the same? Sometimes it’s heaven in a cup, but other times it can taste like chalk. How does that even qualify as a drink, you know?

Sometimes our experience with what we think of love creates a point of reference. It’s like that hot chocolate that tastes like chalk. We begin to think that’s what God’s love must be like. Maybe it’s temperamental or conditional like other love we have known.

But God’s love has a different quality to it. It’s resilient, tough, and relentless. It’s not only enduring, but it’s consistent and ever-present. It is not a “here one day and gone the next” kind of love. You don’t have to go into a new day wondering if it’s there. You don’t have to fear that maybe this was your last strike.

The Love of God is Multi-Dimensional

Paul talks in Ephesians about having a new relationship with God, and a new lifestyle that comes with following Jesus.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all God’s holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Paul’s prayer is that our understanding of love is more than just knowing, but that it fully grasps the dimension of His love. He doesn’t want us to just know that God’s love is wide, long, deep and high. He wants us to know how wide it is, how long it is, how deep it is, and how high it is.

I was a lifeguard at a sports camp for a couple of summers during college. One part of the certification for lifeguards was they would drop a weight in the deep end of the pool. You had to swim down, get the weight, hold it up against your chest, and bring it back. This simulated rescuing a child or person who might have sunk to the bottom.

You could stand at the side of the pool and see the weight. You could tell it was deep. But once you dive in, swim to the bottom, grab that weight and try to bring it back up, the depth has a whole new meaning and experience to it. That’s when you really understand just how deep that pool was.

That’s what Paul is trying to get across to us. He wants us to fully experience that depth that is related to the love of God. He wants us to know what’s below the surface, to truly know and experience the full depth of God’s love.

The Love of God is Part of His Nature

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins

1 John 4:7-10

If you don’t know God, you don’t know love. John makes the point here that God is where love comes from. He is the source of love.

One commentary says that it means more than simply God is loving, or that his love is sporadic. It means that love is God’s nature. His love doesn’t depend on us, but on who he is. That’s the kind of God he is: God is love.

This is the gospel itself, that God is love. This passage has two parts. One is the display of love, how God shows his love. The second part is a definition: This is love, not that we loved but that he loves and sent his son.

God’s love isn’t about returning our love. It’s not about God checking and saying, “Are we good? Do you feel the same way that I do?” Instead, it’s about God saying “It doesn’t matter how you feel about me, because I know my love for you and I’m going to act out of my love.”

It doesn’t matter if we reciprocate God’s love. His love is still enduring, consistent, multi-dimensional, and unconditional.

The Love of God is Unconditional

Unconditional love is foreign to us. It’s not part of our nature. We’re accustomed to conditional love: “I love you because you do this,” or “I love you when you do this.” Sometimes it’s “I don’t love you when you do this or don’t do that.” Our experience with love often has conditions.

But God’s love works outside of those conditions. It’s not dependent on what you’re good at or what you do. God’s love exists because it exists.

We learn early in life that we can earn love by doing certain things. If we’re well-behaved, or talented at something, or we succeed at certain things. We learn that if we want to be loved, we have to be lovable.

When we say God’s love is unconditional, it means that it doesn’t matter what you’re good at. It doesn’t matter what you know, or what your talents are, or whether you have weaknesses. God’s love is ever-present.

You cannot gain more of God’s love, and you cannot lose it. You are fully loved, to the point that it’s not possible for God to love you more. Unconditional love means no strings are attached.

Why is it important to understand God’s love?

We’ve seen that God’s love is enduring, consistent, ever-present, multi-dimensional, and unconditional. Why is it so important to have such a thorough understanding of the love of God?

It’s because it impacts how we approach God, and how we approach others. It impacts both our horizontal and vertical relationships.

Understanding God’s love impacts how we relate to God

The vertical relationship means our relationship with God.

If we know God as an angry God, that impacts how you approach him. You will avoid being too close. You’ll walk on pins and needles, being afraid of upsetting or offending him. You don’t want to make him angry.

If we see God as only caring about rules, that impacts our relationship with him. It will look less like connecting with him, and more like making sure you’re doing everything right.

If we see God as only a passive God, you may wonder what the point is of connecting with him in the first place. People often walk away from God because of an inaccurate understanding of who He is.

But when you know God as a loving God, you have the freedom to get close to him. You feel free to approach him, and you want to approach him. God becomes your safe place, your refuge and your strong tower. Knowing God as a loving God impacts how you relate to him.

Understanding God’s love impacts how we relate to others.

Our perception of God’s love impacts the horizontal relationships: How we relate to one another.

If you think that God only cares about rules, or that he’s angry or temperamental, it can change how you relate to people. You may not feel like telling them about God. It could make you hesitant to connect.

However, grasping the love of God frees you up to relate to others. Knowing he is loving helps you be loving yourself. You can be patient because you know God cares for them. It inspires you to let others know about a God who loves them as well.

Understanding the nature of God’s love isn’t just an intellectual thing. It shapes the way we live our lives, and how we relate to others.

We can know that our God is a loving God, and live well because of that knowledge.