God Is Love!

God Is Love!

"God is love!" (1 John 4:16).

This is a truth which cannot be learned from nature. For though we see the bright, the beautiful, and the benevolent in nature - we see also the dull, the dreary, and the frightening. If we see the smiles of infancy- we see also the wrinkles of old age. If we hear the laugh of health - we hear also the groans of suffering. Walk through a large hospital; stand on the shore and witness a dreadful shipwreck; or read the horrible details of the ravages of plague, and famine - and who would from these conclude, that God is love?

Neither creation nor providence without the Bible, would teach us that God is love. It is God in Christ - that is love. Here God can speak the most loving words, and wear the most loving smiles. Here He is pure, unmixed, and infinite love; because in Christ, His justice has received satisfaction for man's sin, and His law has been magnified and made honorable. In Christ, God has to ask nothing of man, except that he yield to him his heart, for he has received all that as the moral Governor, and Judge of all - He could require. In Christ He asks us to be friends, beseeches us to be reconciled, offers us the richest, choicest, blessings, and rejoices to do us good.

Look at God in nature - and you see some of His greatness, goodness, and power. Look at God in providence - and you see something of His beneficence, wisdom, and justice. But look at God in Jesus - and you see all of His glorious perfections, and all His divine attributes - but especially you see His LOVE. Love to sinners shines above every other perfection of His nature, and sheds a glorious luster on them all.

All that He does for His children - is in love! All that He withholds from us - is in love! All that He requires of us - is in love! His precepts are from love - as much as His promises! His warnings are as much from love = as His invitations! His prohibitions are from love - as His permissions! His love uses the rod - as well as gives the kiss! His love withholds - as well as gives! All, all, is in love! "The Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son!" (Hebrews 12:6).

"God is love." That is, in Christ, God is love. Let me therefore always looks to God in Christ. Let me deal, and worship God in Christ. I must know God in His beloved Son. I see the Most High God as the God of peace - speaking peace to coming  sinners; as the God of patience - exercising patience toward weary saints; as the God of all comfort - comforting those who are cast down; as the God of all grace - giving grace and glory to all who apply in the name of Jesus. How can I fear a God of love? How can I be justified in complaining of any of His dealings? In Jesus, all His thoughts are loving thoughts; all His words, are loving words; and all His works are loving works.

In giving, or withholding - He manifests His love. In giving and afflicting - He manifests His love. In afflicting and restoring - He displays His love. Every storm, and every sunbeam is from love.

O my soul, never indulge a hard thought of God. Never listen to satan's insinuations against God. Never judge of the Lord's ways by your feelings, or by sense; but believe the testimony of His Word, and rejoice in the well proved fact, that "God is love!" Holy Spirit, give me clearer views of God in Christ, help me so to believe, as always to realize, let whatever will happen, or let my circumstances be what they may, that "God is Love!"

~James Smith~

(The End)