{"id":3032,"date":"2017-07-19T11:19:44","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T11:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redeemedman.org\/?p=3032"},"modified":"2017-07-19T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T11:19:44","slug":"god-is-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/?p=3032","title":{"rendered":"God is Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Scripture\">Love is<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> patient<\/span>, love is <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">kind<\/span>. It does <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not envy,<\/span> it does <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not boast,<\/span> it is <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not proud<\/span>. It does <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not dishonour<\/span> others, it is <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not self-seeking<\/span>, it is <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">not easily angered<\/span>, it keeps<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> no record of wrongs<\/span>. Love does<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> not delight in evil<\/span> but <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">rejoices with the truth<\/span>. It always <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">protects<\/span>, always <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">trusts<\/span>, always <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">hopes<\/span>, always <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">perseveres<\/span>. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline;\">Love never fails<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"passage\">1\u00a0Corinthians 13:4-8<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"httP:\/\/redeemedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/velazquez_christ.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3000 alignleft\" src=\"httP:\/\/redeemedman.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/velazquez_christ-98x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"114\" height=\"174\" \/><\/a>God is love, this a fundamental trusim <span class=\"passagei\">1\u00a0John 4:8<\/span>; \u00a0this is not a romantic love, but a much deeper love, a holiness, righteousness, faithful, trustworthy and, yes, a fearfulness &#8220;<em>Through\u00a0fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom&#8221;<\/em> (<span class=\"passagei\">Psalm 111:10<\/span>). A love so deep that he sacrificed his one and only son for sinful, and faithless us (<span class=\"passagei\">John 3:16<\/span>). This is a vast topic, to big to summarise here. So let&#8217;s look just a few aspects of love.<\/p>\n<p>What is &#8220;Love&#8221;? Having looked at my Bible, my trusty Harper Colins Bible Dictionary (HCBD), my Lion Book of the Bible, dictionary.com and Google, I can still say I don&#8217;t know. Most of the above references say, there are two types of love. \u00a0Agape and Philia.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Agape, (according to the HCBD), when used to refer to God is the unmerited love God shows to mankind in sending his son as a suffering Redemeer. When used of human love, it means selfless and self-giving love.<\/li>\n<li>Philia (or eros), is sexual love, and as far as I can tell from my researches it only applies to mankind??<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the passage above we can substitute &#8220;God&#8221; is patient, kind, does not envy nor boast, he is not proud (in fact he opposes the proud <span class=\"passagei\">(Jamesm 4:6)<\/span>) He does not dishonour us rather <em>&#8220;<b>in all things<\/b>\u00a0God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose<\/em>. <span class=\"passagei\">(Romans 8:28)<\/span> this also shows He is not self seeking. He is not easily angered <span class=\"passagei\">(Exodus 34:6)<\/span>. He keeps no records of wrongs &#8220;<em>as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.&#8221;<\/em> <span class=\"passagei\">(Psalm 103:12)<\/span>. God is Holy <span class=\"passagei\">(Isaiah 6:3)<\/span> so can not even tolerate the presence of evil, nor can He lie. So we can see God is the very definition of love.<\/p>\n<p>Even before God sent Jesus as sacrifice for our redemption, when we were &#8220;Dead in our sins&#8221; God still loved us, he loved us so much that he &#8220;gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.&#8221; <span class=\"passagei\">(John 3:16)<\/span>. We are made in the Image of God <span class=\"passagei\">(Genesis 1:26-27)<\/span>, so our aim is to love as God loves us. or as Jesus puts it:-<\/p>\n<p class=\"Scripture\">\u2018\u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.\u201d This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: \u201cLove your neighbour as yourself.\u201d All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.\u2019<br \/>\n<span class=\"passage\">Matthew 22:37-40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>God is so wonderful, so marvellous, so indescribably Agapian. God IS LOVE and He LOVES US and <span style=\"color: #ff0000; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-style: wavy; font-size: large;\">LOVE NEVER FAILS<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3032"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3087,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeemedman.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}