LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

THE LOVE OF GOD:

THE COMPELLING POWER OF THE LOVE OF GOD

Submitted by
Neal Price

THEO 525-B13
 Dr. Dennis R. McDonald
October 17, 2010
THESIS STATEMENT

Love is at the very core of the being of God; therefore, He requires of His followers to

love Him with all their hearts, love others as themselves, and spread that love by serving those in

need.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

THESIS STATEMENT ................................................................................................................. 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 4

LOVE AS AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD ......................................................................................... 4

THE LOVE OF GOD TO HIS PEOPLE ....................................................................................... 6

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT ................................................................................................ 8

Love God ........................................................................................................................... 8

Love People ..................................................................................................................... 10

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................ 14

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 INTRODUCTION

“God is love. (1 John 4:8, 16)” No simpler words were penned by John in his letters.

Although simple in structure, no phrase carries more weight than this. To understand the nature

of the love of God and how that love is communicated to the human race is to understand one of

the greatest mysteries known to man. How could a perfect and holy God love a people who are

sinful and unworthy to receive the love that He has for them? God communicates His love to

His people through actions and His Word. Grudem stated, “God’s love means that God eternally

gives of Himself to others.”1 There has been no greater expression of the love of God than when

He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins (John 3:16; Rom 5:8; Eph 2:4-7).

During Jesus’ ministry on the earth, He told many parables and challenged the people in

the nation of Israel to give all they had to follow Him. He was the Word made flesh to dwell

among the people (John 1:14). When asked by a Pharisee what the great commandment of the

law was, Jesus’ reply was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all

your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like

it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law

and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-31)” In order to completely fulfill these two

commandments that Jesus gave, it is necessary for the Christian to understand the nature of the

Love of God and how to express that love to others through giving of themselves by acts of

service.

LOVE AS AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD

Erickson stated, “God’s primary quality or attribute is love; it is the fullest expression of

1
Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
(Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994),
198.

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his relatedness to the world.”2 Love is at the center of God’s essence.3 It is from this centrality

of His nature that springs His love and goodness toward His people. Love is seen as a subset of

the attributes of God. Love is brought forth from the goodness of God, or His moral qualities,

which is of the concept that God is a moral being.4 Of the moral qualities or attributes, Duffield

and Van Cleave state, “Perhaps all God’s Moral Attributes are encompassed in these two: His

Holiness and His Love. In His Holiness He is unapproachable; in His Love He approaches us. In

His Holiness He is Transcendent, in His Love He is Immanent. But, there are not two Lords, but

One Who is both Holy and Loving.”5 Lloyd-Jones asserts that the terms “goodness” and “love”

of God are “more or less interchangeable” in the Scripture.6 In regard to the relationship of

holiness and love as attributes of God, Strong states, “Love indeed is nothing but the self-

communication of holiness.”7

The love of God is a moral quality of the attributes of God. The love of God has several

basic dimensions: benevolence, grace, mercy, and persistence.8 Benevolence is seen as “God’s

concern for the welfare of those whom he loves.”9 Benevolence could be seen as compassion.
2
Erickson, Millard J., Christian Theology. 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book
House, 1998), 305.
3
Walter A. Elwell, ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2001), 709.
4
Erickson, Christian Theology, 311.
5

Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology

(Los Angeles, Calif.: L.I.F.E. Bible College, 1983), 77.
6
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Great Doctrines of the Bible. (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway
Books, 1996), 1:74.
7
Strong, Augustus Hopkins, Systematic Theology (Bellingham, Wa.: Logos Research
Systems, Inc., 2004), 297.
8
Erickson, Christian Theology, 318.
9

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Jesus was moved by compassion or benevolence when he saw the crowd who was hungry (Matt

15:32; Mark 8:2). This action of love through benevolence caused Jesus to perform a miracle to

meet the needs of the people. Grace, as defined by Henry, is “God’s undeserved goodness…that

reflect(s) His unmerited love made manifest in specific acts and relationships.”10 Jesus came that

we might experience the grace, or unmerited love, from the Father (Rom 5:17; Eph 2:5). Mercy

in the legal sense may “involve such acts as pardon, forgiveness, or the mitigation of penalties.”11

Mercy is also seen as acts of compassion or forbearance.12 Jesus showed mercy on the

adulterous woman in John 8:3-11 as He could have released her to the accusers, but instead He

forgave her and let her go. Persistence, or long-suffering, is the “withholding of judgment and

continuing to offer salvation and grace over long periods of time.”13 The nature of the love of

God as an attribute of His character helps the Christian understand how God related to His

people in His Word and how He continues to express that love to us today.

THE LOVE OF GOD TOWARD HIS PEOPLE

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are replete with examples of the

expression of the love of God to His people. In his article, Richard Patterson expounds on the

parent-child metaphor that is a theme of the entirety of the Word of God.14 God was very clear

Ibid., 318.
10

Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway
Books, 1999), 6:349.
11
Walter A. Elwell, ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed., 761.
12
Ibid.
13

Erickson, Christian Theology, 322.

14

Richard D. Patterson, “Parental Love as a Metaphor for Divine-Human Love,” Journal

of the Evangelical Theological Society 46, no. 3 (June 2003): 204-216.

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that His law should be taught from one generation to another through the father teaching the son

(Deut 32:46). Patterson shares the example of the powerful picture of God’s love to His son,

Israel (Hosea 11:1-8).15 Through this passage, God is communicating as a Father about His Son

whom He loved but has now turned his back on Him. Patterson also gives the example of God’s

language about His son, Ephraim, in Jeremiah 31.16 Although God loves His child very much,

He is still very concerned about His turning away from Him. In Deuteronomy 32:11-14 and 18,

God is seen as a mother figure to the nation of Israel. He nurtures and cares for His people as a

mother would her children.17

Patterson also uses examples from the New Testament to show the parent-child

relationship to His people. Jesus Himself referred to God as His Father (John 17:1) and spoke of

the nature of the love that the Father had for His Son (John 3:35).18 In regard to the nature of the

love of God toward His children, Patterson stated, “Carried over into the NT, the parent-child

metaphor assumes two dominant forms. Believers are termed both ‘sons’ (υἱοί) and ‘children’

(τέκνα) of God. Those who have received Jesus are God's children (John 1:12).”19 Patterson

takes the metaphor even further when he stated, “Paul declares that as God's children believers

have become full co-heirs with God's own Son, Jesus Christ (Gal 4:1, 7).”20

There is no way to fully understand the expression of the love of God toward His

children, both in the Old and New Testaments. Paul stated, “For I am sure that neither death nor
15
Ibid., 210.
16

Ibid., 211.
17

Ibid.
18

Ibid., 214.
19

Ibid., 215.
20

Ibid.

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life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor

depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ

Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39)” Perhaps the most beautiful example of the love of God to the

world is in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever

believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” As the great hymn states,

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.21

THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

Love God

Jesus stated, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You

shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:37-39)” We must love God first and foremost. We

love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). In closer examination of the love to which Jesus

was referring in this passage, one finds that in the original Greek language that Matthew used to

pen his gospel, the word for love used here was agapao, or “to have a warm regard for and

interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love”.22

The three ways in which Christians are to love God are with the heart, soul, and mind.

21

From the hymn, “The Love of God”, written by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917. Public
Domain.
22
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of
the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2000), 5.

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The Greek word for “heart” in this passage is kardia, which, as defined by Shedd and Gomes, is

“will, as authentic to understanding.”23 The Greek word for “soul” is translated as psyche, which

means “the breath of life”.24 Dianoia is the Greek word for “mind” as used in Matthew 22:37. It

is translated as “the faculty of thinking, comprehending, and reasoning, understanding,

intelligence”.25 It becomes apparent that Jesus expected the love that Christians are to have for

God was to include every portion of our being. Our will is to worship God, as well as the very

substance of our life, and our intellect is to be involved as well. Nothing escapes the command

to love God.

Jesus followed this first commandment with another, which He says is “like it”;

therefore, as passionately as the first is to be followed, the second should follow suit. Jesus

stated, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:38)” Interestingly, in this

commandment, Jesus uses the same word for love; therefore, we are to love our neighbor with

the same type of affection as we love God. The word neighbor used in this passage is the Greek

word, which is translated as “neighbor or fellow human being”.26 After having examined the

actual wording used by the Savior in this passage, attention will be given to the second part of

the Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love People

The author of the fourth Gospel, John, tells the story of the Great Commandment slightly

23

William Greenough Thayer Shedd and Alan W. Gomes, Dogmatic Theology. 3rd ed.
(Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub., 2003), 516.
24
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of
the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed., 1098.
25

Ibid., 234.
26

Ibid., 830.

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differently. He places the story in the setting of the Last Supper. In John 13:34-35, He tells His

disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved

you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if

you have love for one another.” John later elaborates on this theme in his letter. In 1 John 4:20-

21, John states, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does

not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this

commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” In this

passage, the bar has been significantly raised. Grudem draws the parallel to Matthew 5:23-24,

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something

against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and

then come and offer your gift.”27 So, it is seen from these passages, that God expects us to love

our fellow disciple and show the world that example of true love only made possible by the

power of the Holy Spirit.

In Galatians 5:13-14, Paul states, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not

use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the

whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The word that

Paul used in verse 13, “serve”, is the Greek word douleuo, which is translated “be a slave; be

controlled by.”28 Jesus gave us the ultimate example of this type of love through his life and

ministry. Jesus loved the sinners, tax collectors, and anyone who would come to Him. If

Christians are to love with the same measure as Christ loved, it will take more than human

27

Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 1011.

28

Johannes P. Louw, and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament : Based on Semantic Domains. Electronic ed. of the 2nd edition. (New York: United
Bible societies, 1996), 2:66.

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power.29 It is important to note that “your neighbor” does not only include fellow Christians, but

it also includes unbelievers and sinners.30 Swindoll and Zuck stated,

“Unbelievers or sinners are still our neighbors, and therefore we are to love them also
(Matt. 22:39). Loving unbelievers or sinners as Christ did requires receiving them but not
their sin or sinful lifestyle. We should not use the qualification, “but not their sin or sinful
lifestyle,” as a hypocritical cover-up for an attitudinal rejection of sinners. Jesus’ love and
acceptance of others was genuine in action and attitude.”31

Jesus’ example of service to others came in His washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:4-

11). He in turn told His disciples that they were to follow His example (John 13:14-15).32

Therefore, the Christian is to love his neighbor as himself, whether that is a fellow Christian or

unbeliever, and share that love through acts of service as commanded by the ultimate example,

Jesus Christ.33

CONCLUSION

Although love is central to God’s attributes, most Christians struggle to comprehend the

love that God has for them. The concept of grace and mercy is difficult for most to understand

when comparing their sinful nature to the most holy God. Until one accepts the power of the

love of God, he or she cannot fully receive that love and understand the nature of God.

Jesus stated in Matthew 22:37-39, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a

second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Most Christians stop on the first
29

Charles R. Swindoll, and Roy B. Zuck, Understanding Christian Theology, (Nashville,

Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003), 1005.
30

Ibid.
31

Ibid., 1005-1006.
32

Ibid., 1028.
33

Ibid.

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and great commandment and forget the second like it – love your neighbor as yourself. Once

one receives the love that God has freely given in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Christ-

follower is then to lavish love on the Savior and serve Him only. The second commandment will

be fulfilled in following the desire to emulate His behavior in being a servant to the people. As

Christians serve others in need around us and prefer others to themselves, Christians will fulfill

that second commandment of loving their neighbor as themselves.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Roman church in 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His

goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to

repentance?” The gospel of the love of God should be shared with all that need to experience the

life-changing power of His love. One of the attributes of the goodness of God is His love.34

When Christians share the goodness of God, it will draw men to repentance. The church as a

whole has done a poor job of sharing the goodness of God in expressing love to one another. A

revival of love needs to sweep across the church in order for men and women to be drawn to the

Cross of Christ through the expression of the church. Only when this revival of love takes place

will we begin to see the Great Commandment fulfilled through the Great Commission (Matt

28:18-20).

34

Erickson, Christian Theology, 318.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2000.

Duffield, Guy P. and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Los
Angeles, Calif.: L.I.F.E. Bible College, 1983.

Elwell, Walter A., ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2001.

Erickson, Millard J. Christian Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998.

Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester,

England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994.

Henry, Carl Ferdinand Howard. God, Revelation, and Authority. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books,
1999.

Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Great Doctrines of the Bible. 3 vols. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway
Books, 1996.

13
Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament:
Based on Semantic Domains. Electronic ed. of the 2nd edition. New York: United Bible
societies, 1996.

Patterson, Richard D. “Parental Love as a Metaphor for Divine-Human Love.” Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society 46, no. 3 (June 2003): 204-216.

Shedd, William Greenough Thayer and Alan W. Gomes. Dogmatic Theology. 3rd ed.
Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub., 2003.

Strong, Augustus Hopkins. Systematic Theology. Bellingham, Wa.: Logos Research Systems,
Inc., 2004.

Swindoll, Charles R. and Roy B. Zuck. Understanding Christian Theology. Nashville, Tenn.:
Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

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