Shabbat Thought: God’s Love
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Christian hope, Grace, Love, Sabbath, Spiritual Disciplines
The Sabbath in the Bible was a day of many things. It was a day of rest. It was a day of family. It was a day celebrating God’s creation. It was a day celebrating redemption from slavery. It was a day of togetherness. It was a day that showed Israel what the world to come would look like.
Shabbat was also a day of basking in divine love with all of God’s creation. A day to remember love, God’s Love, Yahweh’s love. Maybe we moderns do not “remember” that earth shattering love nearly enough.
God loves you. God loves me. And God loves the entire creation, the whole universe and everything in it, unconditionally.
God’s love is not predicated upon our love for God.
God’s love is not granted if we worship God.
God’s love is not parceled on the basis of our righteousness.
God’s love is not proportionate to our obedience to God.
God’s love is not reciprocal (that is he will love us if we love God).
God’s love is infinite,
God’s love is eternal,
God’s love is unconditional
This truth is so astonishing, so radical, that Christians themselves routinely immediately try to qualify God’s love or qualify it with a “but” some where along the line (usually along the entire line).
The only “but” is, But God’s love is unconditional. It is actively shown to every creature in creation.
“Go show your love to your wife again,
though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.
Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites” (Hosea 3.1).
“God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us … while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5.8,10).
“the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3.22-23)
“You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and you did not forsake them, Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves” (Nehemiah 9.17-18).
“This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 3.10)
“you are precious in my sight,
and honored,
and I love you” (Isaiah 43.4)
“For God so love the world [the whole world] that
he gave his one and only son” (John 3.16)
“For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever!” (Ps 117)
We should spend less time trying to qualify God’s infinite, unconditional love and more time in meditation on it, more time praising God for it, more time being astonished by it. We just might find ourselves deeply transformed and moved to simply worship the God of Infinite Love. A revolution might happen in our churches if we did.
Go Read Psalm 136 slowly. Read the refrain audibly.
July 22nd, 2023 at 8:49 am
Nice!
July 25th, 2023 at 8:23 am
A wonderfully thoughtful piece; all so true and correct. I read Psalm 136, slowly, and was blessed.
I note that the sabbath was written about in the past tense. As if it is no more, a thing of the past.
It occurred to me to read Psalm 119, again. Upon seeing verse 89, I was again reminded of God’s unchanging, eternal nature: “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens”. Verse 97 in the ESV says, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day”.
If only our people today would have reverence for His Word, all of his word, with sentiments that might be reflected by what is expressed in verse 136: “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law”.
Yes, God loves us, and all of his creation, unconditionally. About this there can be no doubt. And as was blogged here, “This truth is so astonishing, so radical, that Christians themselves routinely immediately try to qualify God’s love or qualify it with a “but” some where along the line (usually along the entire line).”
In reading about God’s love for us, I remembered that he desires that we love him in return. About that much is written, much more than can be plunked-in here! I read John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And John 14:21-24. And 1 John 2:3-5. And 1 John 3:4. And 1 John 4:8 and John 1:1. And 1 John 5:2,3. And 2 John 1:6. And Matt. 22:36-40. And 1 Cor. 7:19. And Rom. 13:10. And Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:8-11.
Would it not be equally appropriate to suggest also “This truth is so astonishing, so radical, that Christians themselves routinely immediately try to qualify our love for God or qualify it with a “but” somewhere along the line (usually along the entire line)”?