God is love, all of us or most Christians know this but what sets Him apart from us? God does not just love; He is LOVE personified. How so God is love? Considering the horrible things happening today, this is a complicated question one can rightly ask. Thousands are dying daily because of sickness and diseases; wars and bloodshed are plaguing the world with hundreds of thousands of ‘Innocent lives ‘being lost. Natural disasters are getting worse, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Millions of people are bedevilled with misfortunes mostly not of their making. Terrorism too has gripped the world with alarming impunity. In all of these, it’s quite difficult to see God’s love shining through but the love is there.  Give yourself a momentary pause and you will see God’s love firm and unwavering. To comprehend why all these evils in the world you will have to take a long journey to understand sin and its intended consequences, the actions of mankind and their related effects.

Understanding Love as God’s Nature

The truth to emphasise here is that we CANNOT fully comprehend the depth of God’s love as ordinary human beings. God’s love is unconditional; He does not love us because we love Him, in fact, He ‘first loves us’ even when we are wallowing in a pool of sins: “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5: 8, NIV. He proved His sacrificial love to us through Jesus Christ, while we were yet sinners Christ died and was resurrected to bring humankind closer to God.

God’s love is not just general (proven by giving His Son Jesus Christ for the world), it’s also personal. Yes, God loves you and me, your skin colour does not matter, your ethnicity does not matter, your political or religious affiliation does not matter, your social status does not matter, whether you are a saint or the worst sinner—He does love you. Yes, God does love sinners too no matter the depth of their sins. The Bible says, “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” Ezekiel 18:23, ESV. He wants everyone to come to His full knowledge and live. What sin does is to separate us from God’s love and not separate God’s love from us.

Now, it might surprise you to know that God does not personally get involved in punishing sinners, He is LOVE! Everything is divinely fixed so that what you sow is what you reap. Actions have consequences, your sins have consequences, and your thoughts and deeds have consequences. Even saints in Christ are not immune from the consequences of their deeds (good or bad). what the saints in Christ do constantly is to seek God’s mercy to shield us from our human weakness, correct us from our errors, and protect us from the consequences of our foolishness. Even the righteous can and do occasionally fall into sin in our long dangerous journey of life. The glorious thing is that there is grace in Christ for the fallen saint to rise again, the Bible says, “For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” Proverbs 24:16, NIV.

Reading the Old Testament can paint a God so wrathful, vengeful and constantly punishing His children for their idolatry. The inspired writers wrote from the human perspective as a warning—no one has seen God’s anger. Their sins separated them from God’s love into the waiting hands of evil forces waiting to pounce on them. God does not share our human emotions and sentiments. Nothing fizzles Him, no amount of sin or wickedness can make Him cringe, you can’t move Him, make Him jealous (human-like jealousy) or make Him anxious. He is LOVE PERSONIFIED, always CALMED, always GENTLE, absolutely PERFECT! He has never been in a hurry so you can’t ‘hurry Him up’, you can’t escape Him. You can’t make Him feel any sense of loss, so He can’t ‘lose’.

Do you know that every soul lost to sin and death from the beginning of the world He can bring them back to life with just a snap of fingers? Satan and all the forces of evil (devils and demons) are TERRIFIED of Him, just a word from His mouth can make them cease to exist in the blink of an eye. God is just AWESOME, the GOD ALMIGHTY.

Read more on: https://christwriters.net/love-gods-defining-attributes/

Samuel is a prolific and talented writer and media artist and a minister of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. He has built a career as a professional writer, content creator, graphic designer, web designer, photographer, videographer, and computer tutor. https://trilovemedia.com/samuel-olusegun-akinola/