February is commonly referred to as the month of love. Hearts are hanging in every retail store as we prepare to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Many of us plan ways to shower those we love with gifts and sweet words of adoration. Some of us decide we’ll hide away and watch blow-‘em-up movies to counteract all the mushy stuff floating around.
I have one child who happily invests in heart stickers and “val-um-times” cards. I have another child who tends to hug me only when I offer enticing bribes. Consequently, I completely understand how polarizing February can be.
However, I am a sucker for celebrating and I believe we all have something to commemorate. I’ve been challenging you to know The Word, Jesus Christ, more intimately. February’s focus on love offers us a sweet opportunity to examine a few of Jesus’ characteristics that flow from His love for us.
The Word Love in the Bible
God’s Word is very clear about the truth God loves you. The entire Bible is the story of God’s love for us. According to Christianity.com the King James version of the Bible uses the word love 310 times. The New King James version uses love 361 times. The English Standard version uses love 551 times, and the New Living Translation uses love 645 times!
Admittedly, God’s Word wasn’t written in English. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek. Even so, just like we have synonyms for the word love, both the Hebrew and the Greek used different words that are all translated to our word love. They have similar meanings, but slightly different connotations.
We use words like affection, devotion, infatuation, passion, tenderness, cherish, delight, enchanted, adoration, compassion, and treasure to replace the word love. The Hebrews used words like ahavah (also ahab), hasaq and hesed. The Greeks used words like philia and agape or agapaeo.
I am not a Hebrew nor a Greek scholar, so I’m not going to delve into the variances of each of the words. If you are curious, the Bible Project has a couple of videos on some of the words that are excellent.
We do need to be aware that the word love, even though it’s a common word, is complex. It holds nuances that are affected by how it is used and when. For example, I love coffee and I love my sweet Pastor husband. I obviously do not mean the same thing when I say those two phrases. I appreciate and delight in the flavor of coffee. However, I am devoted and committed to my sweet Pastor husband because he is a treasure I adore and respect.
Scripture Helps Us Comprehend God’s Love
There are a multitude of scriptures that tell us about God’s love and help us define what it is.
John 3:16 ~ God loves us so much He sacrifices His son
Zephaniah 3:17 ~ God’s love can calm our fears
1 John 3:1 ~ God loves us enough to claim us as His children
Psalm 86:15 ~ God’s love is steadfast
Romans 8:37-39 ~ God’s love is powerful
Ephesians 2:45 ~ God’s love is great
Jeremiah 31:3 ~ God’s love is everlasting
1 John 4:7-8 ~ all love originates with God; God is love
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ~ love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love is not irritable or selfish. Love cares about justice and truth and it is always hopeful, enduring through every circumstance.
More Than an Emotion
God’s love is more than an emotion. God’s love is an action, a choice of His will. When we look at the story of the Israelites, regardless of the number of times they worshiped other Gods and disobeyed God’s commands, God continued to keep His covenant with them. He stood by what He had promised because He loved them.
This idea that God’s love isn’t based on our behavior is also emphasized in the New Testament.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Romans 5:8 NLT
“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 NLT
God’s love motivated Him to send Jesus to pay the price for our sins. Yet, God’s love is more than a motivation for His actions. Love is literally who God is, just like it says in 1 John 4:7-8. Therefore, everything God does flows from love.
God’s Love vs Human Love
We are the lucky beneficiaries, the recipients of this outlandish gift. Even though we have God’s Word to teach us all about God’s love, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend and accept. The reason for our struggle comes from the fact that human love is different.
We tend to think of love as another person making us feel better about ourselves. This other person (who loves us), compliments us, does nice things for us, buys us gifts, and treats us to fun experiences. Our focus is on how wonderful the other person makes us feel. Too often, love becomes all about what is in it for us.
The Distinctiveness of God’s Love
God’s love is all about saving us, redeeming us, and restoring us to a right relationship with the One who created us and knows us best. In Exodus, God declares to Moses who He is. One of the characteristics God emphasizes is His love.
“The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, ‘Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generation. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected – even children in the third and fourth generations.”
Our culture sees the love in the first half of God’s statement. However, when God states He doesn’t excuse the guilty, we want to argue that’s not love. Nevertheless, since God is love, it can’t be anything but love. And so, we struggle at times with how God loves.
Looking Forward
There are three more Mondays in February. Each week I will discuss a characteristic I discovered about Jesus in studying the book of John. We will look at how that characteristic reveals God’s love to us. Our goal is to know Jesus more intimately and grasp a fresh awareness of the wonder of His love.
May I challenge you this week to read a passage of scripture every day that confirms God’s love for you? You can Google verses to read, you can sign up for a devotion series on the YouVersion app, or you can follow the plan I’ve attached below. This month, let’s celebrate the idea of love by focusing on The Word. May we rejoice in the truth of how much God loves each of us.
Read the assigned passage for the day. Answer the following three questions:
What jumped out to you and why?
What do you learn about God and specifically how He loves you?
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