The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Part 3)

We are now looking at the second kind of the love of God found in the Bible. The second kind of love of God is God's 'common' love. In one sense God shows love to all 'equally' by not discriminating in certain kinds of His blessings.

Where do we see this in the Bible?

Matt. 5:43-45

You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
So that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good,
And sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Notice that Jesus says to love your enemies 'so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven'. Do you remember what we learned last time about how the father showed the son everything that he did, and the son did everything he saw his father do. Well, we could say that we are to love our enemies because we must do what we see our Father doing. In other words, the Father loves His enemies!

When you continue on in that passage, you see how God loves His enemies. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. God, by blessing the 'evil' people and the 'unrighteous' people, is actually showing love to His enemies. So God has a 'common' love that He shows to all (Christian or non-Christian).

Have you thought about some of these examples?

- Our favourite sports heroes, are they Christian or non-Christian?
- The most beautiful or handsome people, are they Christian or non- Christian?
- The smartest people, are they Christian or non-Christian?
- The richest people, are they Christian or non-Christian?

The point is, God doesn't only bless the Christians! If you look around, you will see that God has blessed non-Christian too. In one sense, God seems to have an 'equal' or 'common' love for all.

Again, I want to say that all 5 kinds of the love of God are different. God's 'common' love is different from His other kinds of love. If we get them mixed up, you can have confusion, unbalanced, and wrong understanding of the love of God.

It important that we understand these differences correctly!

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Part 2)

Last time, in our introduction of the book "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" (by Don Carson) we discovered that there are 5 kinds of the love of God found in the Bible. They are:

1) The special love the Father has for the Son, and the Son has for the Father
2) God has a 'common' love
3) God loves everyone and desires that they all be saved
4) God has a special love for His chosen people
5) There is a love from God that comes only through obedience

We found out that it is important, when we read or study the Bible, to know which kind of the love of God a verse or passage is talking about. If we don't know which kind of the love of God the verse or passage is talking about, it would be very easy to become confused, unbalanced, or wrong in our understanding regarding the love of God.

So let's get started in studying the 5 different kinds of the love of God found in the Bible.

The 'first' kind of the love of God we are going to look at is the special love between God the Father and God the Son. John 5:19,20 helps us to see this special love.

Then Jesus replied, "I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing..." John 5:19,20 CSB)

In order to understand this verse, we need to understand a little about the culture in which Jesus grew up in. Because a Father loved his son, he would carefully show his son all that he does so that the family tradition would continue. For example, if the father was a carpenter, the father would show his son everything he knew about carpentry. The son would reveal what his father is like because he would do exactly what his father did.

In the same way, you can see this same idea expressed in the following verses:

"For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing..."
"For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way."
"The Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what He sees the Father doing."

When the Son does only what He sees the Father doing, He reveals God perfectly. Since the Father is perfect in every way, and since Jesus is revealing that perfection, the Father loves the Son in a special way. It's the perfect obedience that keeps the Son of God in the love of the Father.

The Father shows His love to the Son by showing Him 'everything He is doing'.
The Son shows His love to the Father by doing everything He sees the Father doing.

The love between the Father and the Son is a perfect love. It is not the same as the 4 other kinds of the love of God found in the Bible.

As we study the 5 different kinds of the love of God, try and remember each kind. When we are done studying all 5 of them, I will sign different verses and passages to you, and I want you to try and figure out which kind of the love of God it's related to.

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Part 1)

In the book "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" (by D.A. Carson), we see 'five' different ways the Bible speaks of the love of God. They are:

1) The special love the Father has for the Son, and the Son has for the Father
2) God has a 'common' love
3) God loves everyone and desires that they all be saved
4) God has a special love for His chosen people
5) There is a love from God that comes only through obedience

When we read a verse or passage about the love of God, we need to make sure which kind of the love of God is being talked about. If we are mistaken about the kind of love of God in the verse or passage, or if we focus on only one kind of love, we can become unbalanced and confused.

Today we begin our video study on "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God".

Part 1 - "Why do we need to study about the doctrine of the love of God?"