Subject: Help! |
Bible Note: Dear Indy, Thanks for taking me to 1Cor 13, love is definitely the greatest gift. I see 1Cor 13 as stating the characteristics of love but not a method. My Webster's Dictionary says method implies an orderly logical effective arrangement usually in steps. Am I understanding you if I sayyou think love is a decision obtained through method, according to Webster's thought on method, are you saying love has an orderly logical effective arrangement found in steps? I believe God is love, and He has given us love freely by allowing us to have freewill. Freewill to make a choice to love Him and others as ourself or not to love Him. He tells us His will in the Bible and how He wants us to be and what He wants us to do, but I haven't seen Scripture that says start here. Just like I have never found love in the same manner twice. I don't believe love is "warm fuzzies", I believe love is something we find when we give our full mind, heart, body and soul to understanding the gifts our Father has bestowed upon us through the Son within His Word. I am always happy to hear from you. Bless you, Love Fountain LOVE LOVE (Heb. 'ahaba; Grk. 'agape). Chiefly represented in the Scriptures as an attribute of God and as a Christian virtue. Its consideration, therefore, belongs to both theology and ethics. An Attribute of God. According to the Scriptures, God has feeling, affection, although rationalistic theologians (e.g., Schleiermacher, Bruch) have asserted the contrary. We must derive our conceptions of God from the special revelation that He has given of Himself, and this declares His love as strongly as His existence. It is held by some to be inadequate to speak of love as a divine attribute. "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16). The Scriptures contain no equivalent statements with respect to other qualities of the divine nature. Love is the highest characteristic of God, the one attribute in which all others harmoniously blend. The love of God is more than kindness or benevolence. The latter may be exercised toward irrational creatures, but love is directed toward rational, personal beings. The eternal love of God has never been without its object, a fact upon which we receive some light from the Scripture revelation of the threefold personality of God (see Trinity; see also Matt 3:17; John 15:9; 17:23-26). The gracious love of God to men, even to sinful men, is most strongly declared in both the OT and NT (e.g., Ex 34:6; Isa 63:9; Jer 31:3; John 3:16; 1 John 4:10). The love of God underlies all that He has done and is doing, although many facts exist that we cannot reconcile with His love on account of our limited understanding. The highest disclosure and most complete proof of divine love is in redemption (see Rom 5:8; 8:32-39; 1 John 4:9-10). The reality and power of this love are properly apprehended only under the influence of the Holy Spirit. "The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom 5:5). (From The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.) |