God's Love

What is Love? If you look up the word in a dictionary you'll get some skewed results. The Bible says that God is love, but which definition of love is that? Are we talking about romantic love, family love, the "like" love? I could say "I love Owl City" and people wouldn't blink an eye. I could also say I loved a girl (we won't go in to names here) and people would probably say "awwww...." (depending on the girl). I could say I love my mom, and people would say how sweet our family is. But I get the feeling God's love is a little different than any of the types that come to mind when you or I say it.

     You could look at what God commanded the Israelites to do in the Old Testament and say "How is God love? He just ordered this king to annihilate a whole nation, not sparing women, children or livestock!" This is because of people's misconception of what God's love is. God's love is holy and jealous, and when a country is devoid of holy men, God will take action. And also understand this, before the Jews rejected Jesus, God's love was reserved first and foremost for the Jews. (However, they forfeited this exclusivity when they would not accept Jesus as the Messiah.) His love for the Israelites is what drove him to rid the surrounding land of any trace of heathens. And the killing of the livestock shows this; when a king killed livestock, he's not in it for the spoils, he's in it because God said he better be. 

    Look at it this way. If you had a staph infection on your arm, you obviously wouldn't want it to spread, and possibly take a limb, or kill you. And you wouldn't be concerned about just keeping it localized. You'd want to kill it with antibiotics immediately. You would most definitely be concerned with the little bacteria that were just formed, they're just as harmful. As harsh as it sounds I believe this is how God treated the heathen that surrounded Israel.

    

Now for God's love after Christ, here's our guide:

Love never gives up. 

Love cares more for others than for self. 

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. 

Love doesn't strut, 

Doesn't have a swelled head, 

Doesn't force itself on others, 

Isn't always "me first," 

Doesn't fly off the handle, 

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, 

Doesn't revel when others grovel, 

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 

Puts up with anything, 

Trusts God always, 

Always looks for the best, 

Never looks back, 

But keeps going to the end. (1 Corinthians 13, The Message)

Now that's a long list, and if you're like me, you probably didn't read it all. I forgive you. Even looking at the top 5 I can see that there are very few people I love according to these standards.
   This is pretty interesting; you can use syllogisms and universal affirmatives to find out things about God. Check this out:

All of God's Attributes are Perfect.  (Major Premise)
One of God's Attributes is Love.     (Minor Premise)

Therefore, Love is Perfect.              (Conclusion)

God's love is perfect. Men are not perfect, we're sinners. We cannot love perfectly. Only God can. So does that mean we should despair and give up on loving people? Heck no! Some person wiser than I said it like this: "God's standards are set unattainably high so that we have no excuse to become complacent."