“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” was the alleged response twentieth century theologian Karl Barth gave when asked to summarize his life’s work in theology. The astounding simplicity, magnitude and beauty of the love of God has amazed theologians, poets, and ordinary people down through history. However, while it is simple to say, the love of God is not a simple concept to understand or grasp.
The apostle Paul obviously did not believe the love of God was simple or shallow. His prayer for the church was,
“…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19 NASB).
Paul was convinced that the love of God was not only a foundation, but also a vast reality to be explored. But we need help. God’s love is vast and unknowable in its complexity yet comprehensible in ever increasing degrees through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s prayer for our ability to grasp this amazing aspect of God’s nature, indicates not only its importance but its complexity.
I am concerned that in our current culture of sound bites and over generalizations, we have trivialized and distorted this critically important quality of God so that it is no longer a wonder to pursue. Paul challenges us to not only think in terms of its vast magnitude but also of its great complexity. Comprehending God’s love is a central theme throughout our journey of discipleship as we grow in our love for God and our love for others.
However, our journey to understand the depth of God’s love is hindered not only by our contentment with sound bite thinking but also by an inadequate vocabulary. Our single English word “love” covers a huge span of meanings. We “love” pizza, our dog, our children, our spouse, and even God; one word for many expressions of love.
The Old Testament Hebrew language has two main words for love. The word “ahab” is equivalent to the English “to love” in the sense of having a strong emotional attachment to and/or desire to possess an object or be in its presence. It is found in all periods of Hebrew writing and approximately 250 times in the Bible. The other word “checed” is often translated loving-kindness and is a covenant term of relationship between God and Israel. It is a clear demonstration of grace over merit.1
With the revelation of God’s redemptive love in Christ, New Testament writers in Greek needed a new word that didn’t have the emotional, romantic or merit elements. Avoiding the word “eros” (a physical love) and the word “pheleo” (an affectionate love) they chose a common (yet somewhat obscure) Greek word for love (agape). They used it in a specific, focused way “mainly referring to unconditional, self-sacrificing, giving love to all – both friend and enemy”.2
But beyond an expanded vocabulary, theologians down through history have expressed the amazing complexity of God’s love by using various adjectives to describe it including: Intra-Trinitarian3, complacent4, benevolent, compassionate, merciful, and affectionate.5,6
Both the unity and complexity of the love of God can be illustrated by the characteristics of light in the physical world. White light demonstrates unity, but it is actually very complex consisting of all the colors of the rainbow. When white light touches a prism, it is refracted into its various colors. Likewise, when God’s love touches the prism of broken humanity, the complexity of its various “colors” is revealed. We are like a diamond (prism) God is shaping to reflect the brilliance of His love in all its hues.
In the following blogs I want to explore the amazing, beautiful, iridescent expressions of the love of God through the primary colors of what I will call His:
- Creative sustaining love
- Redemptive saving love
- Covenant family love
- Intimate friendship love
We will find that they are interconnected and critical to discipleship on the resurrection side of the cross. Since our love for God is based on His love for us (1 John 4:19), the more we understand the complexity of His love, the greater our love can be in return.
- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
- New World Encyclopedia, electronic version
- Love within the Trinity
- Complacent in classical use does not mean passivity, but a love towards that which pleases
- The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, DA Carson
- James Boyce, Chapter 10 of Boyce’s Abstract of Systematic Theology.