A Holy Relationship
A holy relationship
This post is taken from www.himanintroduction.blogspot.com
What we see in the romance and tragedy of Israel's history is that God loves and is loving, in a committed and jealous way. But the teaching – and ultimately of course the work - of Jesus takes us further into the essence of God himself, such that John can write, 1 John 4, God IS love. This is stronger even than what we have already learnt: not merely that God is loving, or that loves, but that he is, in essence, in his very being, LOVE.
What can this mean? Have a look at Jesus' teaching in John 5:
20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
And in John 14:31
…the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
The father loves the son, and the son loves the father. What he reveals is that God is not just one, but is also three persons: and that that unity is made of love. Jesus prayed to the Father:
I pray also for those who will believe in me…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. John 17:20-21
They are so close they overlap: they live “in” each other. God exists, and has existed from before time began, as a holy relationship – a community of love. Our God, then, we know as the God who is by his nature love.
This post is taken from www.himanintroduction.blogspot.com
What we see in the romance and tragedy of Israel's history is that God loves and is loving, in a committed and jealous way. But the teaching – and ultimately of course the work - of Jesus takes us further into the essence of God himself, such that John can write, 1 John 4, God IS love. This is stronger even than what we have already learnt: not merely that God is loving, or that loves, but that he is, in essence, in his very being, LOVE.
What can this mean? Have a look at Jesus' teaching in John 5:
20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
And in John 14:31
…the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
The father loves the son, and the son loves the father. What he reveals is that God is not just one, but is also three persons: and that that unity is made of love. Jesus prayed to the Father:
I pray also for those who will believe in me…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. John 17:20-21
They are so close they overlap: they live “in” each other. God exists, and has existed from before time began, as a holy relationship – a community of love. Our God, then, we know as the God who is by his nature love.
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