What is God's love?

It’s February and we think of Valentine’s Day and along with that ‘love’. What do we understand by that word ‘love’? On the day that the engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana was announced a press conference was held. A reporter asked the couple, ‘Are you in love?’ Diana answered, ‘Of course we are’; Charles said, ‘whatever that is’. This latter response was somewhat disarming not least for the young Diana.

For those who have had even a limited exposure to the Christian faith, they will tell you that God is love, that’s a given. Echoing Charles somewhat, I ask ‘what is God’s love?’ Even the shallowest digging into that statement, ‘God is love’, will reveal difficulties, the first obvious one being, ‘How about all of the suffering and the evils in the world?’

In the Bible there are a good number of ways in which God describes himself. He is the God of truth, of light, of justice, of holiness and yes, of love also. If we take one of these true statements in isolation and sidestep the others, we will rapidly have a distorted view of God and may find ourselves all at sea, which might well shipwreck any semblance of faith we once had.

What can we do if we recognise this is our dilemma and want to know the truth about God? If we describe this wanting as our soul’s hunger and thirst, then we may be assured that God will not leave us empty; that’s why he sent his Son Jesus.

Using symbolism, Jesus says, ‘He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’ And again, ‘Whoever is thirsty, let them come; and whoever wishes, let them take the free gift of the water of life.’

If we take Jesus at his word and entrust our very souls into his care, he will start to reveal to us the true nature of God: his sternness and kindness, justice and mercy, his hates and love. Yes, God’s love - and better than being simply told that he loves us we can know within ourselves that he does.

Weigh up Jesus

Just imagine if I, a relative ‘nobody’, started to get a lot of public attention because of the things I was saying and a number of inexplicable signs and wonders I was performing; things which were engaging the lower classes of society in a way that those in authority were failing to do; authorities that is in terms of local and wider government and more especially the religious hierarchy, which until now had held sway over what was a religious nation.

Now, what if I started to go further and began to make more and more bold claims about myself using those signs and wonders to support what I was saying. To put the tin lid on it, what if the culmination of these words and actions led people to conclude that I was claiming to be equal to God and, when I was challenged about this, I declined to deny it.

If the above were the case, then you would have to make a judgement call about me and who I really am, because the implication of my words are that you would be answerable to me in all matters of your life.

However, I am a relative nobody and I’m making no bold statements about myself. On the other hand, Jesus does just that very thing and so you and I have no option but to weigh him up. The author C.S. Lewis did this and concluded that there are three possible answers that we can come to i.e. Jesus was mad, Jesus was bad or he was God. Indeed, at one point, Jesus’ own family reckoned he was out of his mind, whilst the religious leaders went as far as saying that he was in league with the devil himself (the Gospel of Mark chapter 3).

In 2024 you will doubtless make judgement calls about people who will impact your life and these will include the person of Jesus. In the country of Israel, 2000 years ago, the ‘somebodies of the day’ took the view that it was more expedient that Jesus was put out of the way for good. God, however, had different plans.

Jesus once asked his followers, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ What say you…?

Son of God

Can we know what God is like, or even better, can we actually know him? Such serious questions need more than a lightweight response.

We surely need God’s own self-revelation here.  Christians believe that this is what we have in the Bible. There, in its pages, we read of a Jewish Christian who wrote a letter to fellow Jews saying, ‘in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.’

When we think about God having a son, we mustn’t think in natural terms of a biological father and a biological mother. Rather think of God’s Son as ‘one of the same kind’ or ‘one intimately bound up with him’; like father like son so to speak.

Christmas will be upon us very soon. The central theme for the Advent story is the coming of the Son who is Jesus, the exact representation of God as quoted above; the Son is the radiance of God's glory - so closely bound up are God and the Son, they are as inseparable as is the burning candle flame and the light it is emitting.

So, ‘Can we know what God is like?’ Yes, he is just like Jesus the Son of God, not physically but in terms of his personal character - faithfulness, goodness, kindness, graciousness, likes and dislikes. Did Jesus care about the weak, hurting, needy and outcast? Yes, and so does God. Did Jesus oppose the proud, hypocrites and hard-hearted? Yes, and so does God. Is Jesus concerned that people honour God? Yes, and God is concerned that people honour Jesus in the same way.

Can we actually know God then? Certainly, by knowing Jesus who gives us this assurance: ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.’