3rd lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

THE PURPOSE TO BE LIVED IN "GOD IS LOVE".

Being in God and God in us is a purpose to be lived far beyond what we can describe or imagine.

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” - 1 Jn. 4:8.

God manifests himself to every human being since the day He creates him. The psalmist teaches us that God already sees us when we still are formless substance. The Word of God says that He sees us even before we are conceived. God is love and the Love of God manifests itself to the human being that He created in his image and likeness since the day He created this wonderful universe, for us to have a place to live. The Psalmist writes: “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be".  To know our Father we need to have a fellowship and a living relationship with Him.

GOD CREATES US IN LOVE

 "And we have known and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him" 1 Jn. 4:16. John indicates here that every human being who receives Jesus as Lord and Savior of his life, knows the love of God; this is what he means when he says: "and we know and believe the love God has for us". There is only one way to be in God, and it is to abide in Love. The Word tells us that God is Love, and to be in God, it is necessary to be in Love. A person, who always lives in bitterness, hatred, anger and other feelings contrary to love, does not walk in fellowship with "God is love". The Bible teaches us how to walk and live in “God is Love”.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well," Ps. 139:14. David decided to praise God. He says: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. I praise you because; means he had a reason for it, and he finishes saying: I know that full well. If you will take some time to read the entire Psalm, you will see that the psalmist declares an act of worship to His Creator about all he could understand, see and analyze; living with this wonderful God that he discovered had created him. To come to the conclusion that you are fearfully made, something must have happened in your life. A person only states something so beautiful as this once an incident unchains his understanding to be able to analyse it as such. David wrote many Psalms which were sung. The Bible tells us that he played the harp since he was young of age, David praised God with his instrument, and he had a habit of expressing his thoughts and praises towards God in songs.

It was well known that David sang and wrote Psalms, because when the king Saul needed to be calmed down, David was brought to play the harp for him. 1 Sm. 16: 18,23: "One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him. Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him".

The Bible tells us that God was with David, 1 Sm. 18:12: “Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul”. David only began to declare the wonders of God once he experienced these wonders. We only know the factors once we have had contact enough with it, to discover what is behind it and unravel it. God began to reveal his purpose in David’s life, and David learned to focus his attention on God´s love and care for him. Ps. 119:9-10 says: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands". This Psalm was probably not written by David, but one can tell that David´s life described the same thought line as is written in this Psalm. David knew God, and he served God with love. Love is the relationship the Creator offers His Creation. The Love of God is not a feeling but it is the essence of His being. God can only address its creation if it cooperates correspondingly with Him in this essence of his life.

What is Love?

The Bible tells us that God is love, and He proves his love for us. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners" - Ro. 5:8.

 

According to the Portuguese Dictionary: Love is a Noun, it is real and it is true.

M Noun: Love is a live affection for someone or something: the love of God, love for the neighbor, love for the homeland, love of freedom. We have an understanding of love as a lively affection.

When the Bible says that “God is Love” it does not mean that He is a lively affection, i.e. "God is Love" is much superior to that. It is the Agape Love, which surrenders unconditionally. It is the essence of his being. The Bible uses the Word Agape to describe God's Love towards the human being. The Love of God is a noun. The love we have in ourselves is the verb to love. When we treat others with the same value as we do with ourselves; we show love one to another. To love is putting into action the love that dwells within us. The commandment of God to man is to love God with all our understanding and with all our heart; and our neighbor as our self. The word Love can be used as a noun or as a verb, depending on how one is applying it in a sentence.

The concept of love described in the Greek verbs are:

Agape: “agapaó” is the verb to describe an unconditional love, based on the behavior to others without demanding anything in return. It is the essence in the action of a deliberate choice ... and it is not a feeling. It describes how we are and not how we behave, and not how we feel.

Storge: affection, especially with family and among its members (not shown in the New Testament).

Philos or Phileo: Fraternity is used for reciprocal love. A kind of conditional love, as in "you be good to me and I will be good to you".

Eros: derives from the word which means erotic feelings, based on sexual attraction and lust (does not appear in the New Testament).

The Love of God is unconditional, the love of God is. Since the beginning it is described in the Word that the heart of God ran after the human being he had created. Gods’ desire was to have a future with him, and together fulfill the project which God had prepared. However, God gave an ability to mankind to be able to choose between good and evil. Now you might wonder why is it then that God did this knowing they would choose to go after their own ways? This was actually a factor of Agape Love, which surrenders unconditionally. God did not create us as robots; He gave us freedom of choice. There is another factor involved in this, too: since the human being is created in the image and likeness of God himself, he has the ability to choose between good and evil. However, God had placed in him also the character trait of humbling himself before the eternal Father and submit to him in obedience; as Jesus did when he was here on earth.

A classic example of this is: God acted in love with Saul, but he strayed from this love going after his own understanding. God acted the same way with David, but he corresponded in love as well. The verse quoted above says that David says that his soul knew very well that God had created him in a fearful and wonderful way, and it was because of this that he served God with love. This was the answer that David gave to his God. We read in Acts 13:22, God gives testimony of David saying of him the following: "After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do".

Do you believe that God would give a testimony about us the same way He did about David? To be like God, as it is written that we were made in Gods´ image and likeness, is to be according to the heart of God; having the same aspirations, desires, purposes, and above all the same objectivity in love. We notice in David's life, that he found the purpose to be lived in love. David honoured his God who had fearfully and wonderfully created him. He continues his speech before God analyzing everything he discovered how marvelous God's work is in his life was by saying: "How precious to me, O God, are thy thoughts! And how great is the sum of them! "

As I read these verses I began to meditate: How long do we have to be in Gods´ presence and live with Him in order to be able to talk as David did? I have a close walk with my God for more than forty years and I realize that it is difficult to discern the thoughts of God.  I have learned that God loves me and that He has a great purpose in all that He does with me and for me and to me. But I do not know how to describe God's thoughts as David did. Surely he also received the revelation of God to do it.

 

Antonina Penner

Missionary

Masters inTheology..

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

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