How Does The God Of The Bible Love?

It is very difficult to talk about love nowadays, because even the verb "to love" has become very popular and overused. People use the same word to say they love cheeseburgers, they love the rain, they love their wives or they love their parents. Love does not have the same meaning for everybody; for Hollywood stars it means something, for terrorists who kill out of love for their god means another thing, and for a mere person it means something else. Therefore, it is right to believe that the God of Christianity loves differently than everyone else does.

There are some aspects presented in the Scriptures, through them Yahweh reveals Himself, and they are shockingly different from the love promoted in the secular society. One of these aspects is found in the unconditional nature of His love. Even people observed that egocentric and selfish feelings or behavior are unhealthy for themselves, for the relationships and for the society in general. The secular psychologists found a practical alternative for these issues: unconditional acceptance. This is a passive way of accepting the others, however, the unconditional love promoted by the Scriptures is much more than passive unconditional acceptance. It goes beyond, in an active way in the sense that those who accept others unconditionally stop attributing worth to a person for what he/she does. But God who loves unconditionally does not only accept people without any condition, he also demonstrated acts of passionate love for those who don't deserve it.

The Scriptures say that He is the one who gives rain and sun over the evil ones, and more than that, they breathe, live and move on the expenses of His energy and will. According to him, people do not have to do anything to earn his love; He simply prefers to lavish it on them. Nevertheless, the Bible also states that this love would not endure forever for everybody. For those who accept it and decide to follow Him and His way of life it will endure forever. But for those who mock and do not take it serious, a day comes when He will stop manifesting it towards them. That would also be a sign of love, because it will reveal God's respect for people's free will.

Another shocking aspect of the Christian God's love is His ultimate sacrifice. People sometimes sacrifice things or different aspects of their live for the one they love. The braver ones sometimes even sacrifice their own lives for the ones close to them and whom they love. But who would ever willingly sacrifice his life for someone who only shows them hatred and despise? No one, until God himself did it.

The Scriptures state that Jesus Christ, who is God's only Son, gave up His glory for a while to come to earth. He lived here rejected; he was beaten, mocked, crucified and then died in order to satisfy the wrath of God which was to fall upon humanity. He did not do this to save a people who loved and cherished him, but to save the entire humanity filled with hatred and all kinds of malice and then to give them a new life with new chances as well as an eternal inheritance, new earth and skies when this world would end. The wonder comes from the fact that God did not need the worship or the love of people. He simply loved them and decided to bring forth the ultimate sacrifice in order to regain their lost status as children of God and to be able to lavish all his graces on them.

Something else worth mentioning and pondering upon is the fact that throughout Jesus' teachings one can see that the love He was talking about was deep and not only at the surface. He considered a crime not only the physical attempt but also the negative thoughts about a person. By this he forwarded the idea that love is transparent and it is manifested not only in actions but also inside the being, in the inner thoughts and feelings.

In conclusion, the Scriptures present a new different meaning to the word love and they also say that only the Christian God possesses and manifests this kind of love in a totally perfect way.