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God Is Love
God is love (1Jn4:8).
His nature, His supreme character is love and
Through His sacrifice He expresses His love (1Jn4:9) and
He watches over those who love Him until the end (Ps145:20).

Faith is receiving God’s love and knowing what kind of love it is (Eph3:18-19) and
The life of this faith is loving the Lord, His name, the church, His law, brothers, neighbors etc (Ps18:1, 69:36, 26:8, 119:97; Rm12:10, 13:9).

For love is human nature that makes humans human
Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, and literatures, arts, ideologies etc all come from it.
If there were no love, the world history would have been completely different.

The Bible contains the story of God loving mankind.
The history of the Bible is the process of God revealing His love
Like parents not sparing the rod until the young child matures to understand their heart.

Because of their ancestor Abraham
Israel became the people loved by God (Ge22:2-12) and so were
Redeemed from the land of slavery of 400 years (Dt7:8).
The Law that they received commanded them
To love their LORD God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their strength (Dt6:5), and
Always keep His requirements, decrees, laws and commands (Dt11:1).
As such, under the spirit of slave to fear, a tutor (Rm8:15; Gal3:24),
They were disciplined and chastened with a rod of love (Pr3:11-12).

Not wanting this, however, they worshipped other gods and went further away
So the prophets continued to cry out for them to return and
It was God leading them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love (Hos11:1-4).
But because they refused to turn from their ways
Israel continued to suffer in ruins being tossed from one nation to another (Hos11:5).

Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-21),
No longer a tutor (Gal3:24-25) but the Son of Man will receive the rod in place of mankind (Is53:5),
No longer for only a special people but in place of all men He will pay the price of sin (Mt20:28)
So that the love of God that sent the One and Only Son be known.

Those who believe Him will be saved and have eternal life so they may love God (Jn3:16-17).
This was the completion of the greatest commandment of the Law and the Prophets (Mt22:36-40).

As He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), and
Forgave those who accused Him (Ps109:4), and declared that He:
1) Died according to the Father’s command revealing that the Father loves Him and He loves the Father (Jn10:17, 14:31);
2) Judged the devil who separated God and mankind (Ge3:4-6; 1Jn3:8); and
3) Gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for all men (1Jn4:10).
In the beginning — the Word — God/ love — became flesh:
- His death/ an atoning sacrifice — confirmed God’s love — judged the devil (Rm5:8)
- His blood/ for children of God — to dwell in the Father’s love

He resurrected and ascended to the kingdom of the Son He loves (Col1:13).
He who has God’s love poured out into his heart through the Holy Spirit (Rm5:5)
Knows what kind of love he received so
He willingly keeps Christ’s commands (Jn14:15, 15:12):
1) No trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…or anything else in all creation can separate him from the love of God (Rm8:35-39);
2) He loves the name Yeshua;
3) He loves the house of Lord, the Church;
4) He loves the law of the Lord, the Truth;
5) He loves his brothers — carries the love out in action — the completion of the Law (Rm12:10, 13:9)
Infinitely forgives the mistakes of his brothers (Mt18:21-35);
Shares the suffering of his bothers (Rm12:15).
6) He has the Father’s heart
Seeks the prodigal younger brothers who left home (Lk15:11-32);
Waits patiently for the immature brothers to grow up (1Co13:1).

O Lord,
The cross of shame and suffering! The love of God that sent the One and Only Son!
How could this human fully express the depth, the breadth and the height of Your love?
All I can do is wail before Your love….
Amen.