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God is Love
Started by Marc Proctor on 19 November 2008 - 5:04am
| 19 November 2008 - 5:04am | |
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I recently read 1 John 4 and it struck me that we may have gotten our discovery of God backwards. I'll use a simple mathematical approach to lead in: 1. God is Love v.8,16 2. Love is Selfless Giving v.9-10(love defined by the example of Jesus) If we love we are discovering God, because God is love. But we cannot love without a community, because to love is to give selflessly. You cannot give selflessly without another person to give to... so to to fully discover God requires a group of people around you. I think we may have it backwards because the first things we point to when asked "how do I seek God?" are this, "read your bible, and pray." (I'm not laying an ultimatum defining the church, more of a generality.) Yet, the act of reading the bible and praying are, mostly, individual pursuits. As if we pursue God on our own to give him to our community. But, what if our greatest discovery of God is found in our community to be given to us individually?? If God is love, this implication hit me pretty hard. What do you think? Are there better ways to discover God? Is the statement God is Love the ultimate definition of God? Or do you think it is only a partial definition of His character? Do all things come from Gods Love or are they equal and separate? What do you feel the implications of this are? |
This is why I have found small groups to be of great benefit. For me as an individual and also for my parish as a whole. This strikes a chord with me too (it's in my signature!) and you're right - the best way to pursue God is in communion with other people, for the added protection of fellowship, support and accountability. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs, not individually. The images of the vine (apart from me, you can do nothing) and the whole human body (the hand can't say to the eye "I'm gonna be an eye today and go off and see things - bye, bye") are great parables on this theme.
It is possible to pursue God in solitude though - look at figures like John the Baptist and Jesus in the desert, but the fruits of that individual time is that the person embraces the local community and witnesses from within it, not from the outskirts.
I think a healthy balance of alone time (eg: whenever you pray, go to your room and close the door - I will hear) and group time is the key (eg: wherever 2 or 3 are gathered...). God will have specific things for us as unique people that we need to hear privately, yet these should also be shared with others to check authenticity and also be inspired as to what God is working at in the lives of people around us.
The love that we experience from those in our congregations can remind us off the one-to-one love that God extends to each one of us too and deserves private reflection as well.
I remember hearing that above all, God is holy. Isaiah realised this truth that he triples the holiness factor in Isaiah 6.
Yes God is love, but it's a holy love. He can be angry, but it's a holy anger. His justice is a holy one, even his jealousy is holy....his joy for us is holy etc.
It's interesting that this is in the trinity thread - and fitting too. The love that God expressed within Himself from Father to Son to Spirit was so great that it had to be shared not just as one person but among three...and even then that was not enough - for God's love had to be shared beyond the persons of the trinity and into his creation and over us, his people.
The Beatles were right when they said that "all you need is love", they just didn't realise that St John had defined it better than them ;)
http://uk.myspace.com/lorenzotunes
John 3.16 --> 1 Jn 3.16 Here is love.
It is interesting to consider the example of God’s love as expressed through the trinity! I recently heard it defined this way, I’m summarizing but will try to get it right:
The trinity has these constant interactions of selfless love/giving between the Father/Son/Spirit; it is an uncontainable energy of selfless giving which is at the center of the definition of God via the trinity; it was this fact that drove Christ to the cross, and through Christ that we enter into this communion of Father/Son/Spirit and learn to also give how God does.
I’m not trained in any theology, but it is these kind of thoughts which make me want to sign up for seminary to learn more about this God we serve! How crazy is this?