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The Christian Life 4: The God of the New Testament

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love…And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. (1 John 4:8, 16)
This is a basic truth about God. He is love. Over the years, I have heard from people who think that the God of the Old Testament is a God of anger while the God of the New Testament is a God of love. There is a Hebrew word that is translated many ways in different English Bibles: mercy, steadfast love, and lovingkindness. From the Ten Commandments: “And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments” (Exodus 20:6 KJV). The American Standard Version consistently translates this word as lovingkindness one hundred and seventy times, applying it to God. God does not change. He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:7). Let us thank God that He is love.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8)
God is love; therefore He loves. God does out of what and who He is.

The Bible defines love clearly in two places:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:4-13)
1 John defines love in action, and 1 Corinthians defines it in quality.

Let us thank God for His love for us.

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