God is Love

1 Corinthians 13

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

I didn’t really set out to start a series here, but after last week’s talk about what God hates, I wanted to look at another part of His nature: God is love.

There’s a song by Jeremy Riddle called “Furious” that describes the love of God like this:

  His Love is deep, His Love is wide, and it covers us
  His Love is fierce, His Love is strong, it is furious
  His Love is sweet, His love is wild, and it’s waking our hearts to life

God’s love is limitless. There’s no point where His love runs out. 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us that love never fails. That’s the ‘agape’ love, the love He has for each of us, and that John is talking about when he tells us “Beloved, let us love one another.” (1 John 4:7)

Just a few verses before, in 1 Corinthians 13 4-7, Paul lists a series of characteristics of love. This list is often recited at weddings, but it’s not just talking about romantic love, it’s talking about the agape love. I’ve heard that a good barometer for judging where you are is to insert your own name into the list. “Matt is patient, Matt is kind…” and see how well you measure up. But everything Paul says about love applies to God, because God is love. (I freely admit now, some of these worked out a lot better than others. Don’t get me wrong, all are true, I just had an easier time explaining some of them so they made sense.)

God is patient.
We’ve mentioned that God is a God of second chances. (And someone will invariably start adding “and third, and fourth…”) He sees the best in us. He wants us to succeed, and as long as we’re willing to pick ourselves back up, He’s willing to give us more opportunities to do so.

God is kind.
I’ve heard God described by some who are disillusioned with the church as ‘sky bully.’ Even we as Christians have this idea that God’s going to smite us if we step out of line. But He’s not like that at all. His mercy endures forever. It outlasts all of our pity parties or rebellious streaks. There’s nothing that will separate us from His love.

God does not envy.
He owns the cattle of a thousand hills and paves His streets with gold. Who does He have to be envious of?

God does not boast, He is not proud.
Even after creating everything that exists, He simply responds with ‘it is good.’ We even see in Genesis 2:18 that God isn’t ashamed to say “I can do better” when there’s more to be done.

He does not dishonor others.
We always see God giving words of encouragement. Even when He’s delivering bad news, there’s some sort of hope attached.

He is not self-seeking.
God doesn’t look out for Himself. Simply put, He’s perfection – he doesn’t need looking out for. Instead, He watches out for us. Encouraging, guiding, sometimes disciplining, but always for good cause.

He is not easily angered.
See above, where we talked about ‘patient’ and ‘kind.’ Even where we see God’s wrath enacting, it was a reaction to long standing circumstances, and after numerous warnings.

He keeps no record of wrongs.
When we take our shortcomings to God, He casts them into the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. There’s another song, this one by The Waiting, called “How Do You Do That?” The bridge goes:
  You know the hairs on my head, and You named every star
  But I’m bowing my knee at how forgetful You are
It’s not that God forgets all this stuff like we forget where we put our keys. No, God chooses to forget. When we give it to Him, it’s like it doesn’t even exist anymore. 

 

God does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
God’s holiness cannot abide evil, and He Himself is the truth.

He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Our God is forever faithful.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the gold standard in love. The highest bar that could ever be set. On our own, we have no hope of measuring up. But here’s the best part, we can let God love through us, and that’s when we’re at our best.

What God Hates

I was reading this week about the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Westboro Baptist Church’s “protests” at the funerals of soldiers. I’m not going to get into the politics of whether it was the right decision or not, but it grieves my spirit that these people claim to speak on behalf of my God. Instead of speaking words of life, words of encouragement, they spew hate-filled bile. In 2007, they spent $200,000 flying to funerals of soldiers and celebrities spreading, in their own words, “God’s hate.”

This idea unsettles me. Yes, God is a Holy God, He cannot abide sin. But God doesn’t hate any person. Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:14 “your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” Taking it a step further, John tells us “whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (I John 4:8)

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 6:16-19 about seven (and only) seven things that God hates. Here are the "six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion” (MSG)

1. haughty eyes/a proud look
    Simply put, thinking that you’re better than someone else. It’s only by God’s grace that any of us isn’t as bad, or worse, than the worst of the worst. A proud look implies you think you don’t need a savior. Romans 3:23 tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The first step on the road to salvation is admitting you need a savior.
2. a lying tongue,
    One of the top ten. For many of us, this is the first sin we commit. No, I didn’t eat any cookies. Tommy broke the lamp, not me. And it’s socially acceptable. The movie Liar, Liar is all about a man who lies constantly, but has to tell nothing but the truth for 24 hours. But it shows us all these situations where we “have” to lie, and it’s completely accepted. But lies build distrust. If you lied to me once, how do I know you won’t do it again? Or that you haven’t already?
3. hands that shed innocent blood,
    Also in the top ten. But a slight variation. God says ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ but sometimes He would allow the army of Israel to wipe people out. David killing Goliath was not shedding innocent blood. David killing Uriah (albeit indirectly) certainly was. Remember, anything we do to the ‘least of these,’ we do to God.
4. a heart that devises wicked schemes,
    This is anything that hurts someone else for personal gain, even if that personal gain is nothing more than smug satisfaction. We see it often in the Bible: Haman and Mordecai, Joseph and his brothers, Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth. It’s a way of getting our way when the cards seem stacked against us. Rather than trusting in God’s plans, we try to do things our way.
5. feet that are quick to rush into evil,
   Ever hear some juicy piece of gossip and can’t wait to tell someone? Hear about a sultry scene in a movie and go out and watch it to see for yourself? Or even going out to do something just because someone told you not to? Granted, we’ve all sinned, so at some point we’re going to fall into something we shouldn’t. But this is more talking about going and looking for it, in outright defiance to God’s word.
6. a false witness who pours out lies
    Here we are, back at lying. Now, if two things in the list of what God hates involve the same activity, we might want to avoid it. This one, however, is more about giving a false report about someone else. Think of how many courtroom dramas have someone lying under oath and getting caught. Or giving a false representation of who God is. Think of the men who followed Paul around, saying that, to follow Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit, first you had to be found righteous under the law. False witness destroys the character and reputation of someone.
7. and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
   “Beloved, let us love one another.” There are countless scriptures about unity, how the best things happen when we work together. Then someone comes along and tries to ruin the whole party. Maybe they’re upset they didn’t get their way. Or maybe they’re stirring up trouble just for trouble’s sake. There are some people in the world who like to argue, and will pick a fight just because they want a fight. But it sets us back. Our fight isn’t with each other, but when we turn our eyes against each other, that allows the enemy of our souls to slip about unnoticed.