There are times when you find yourself deep in thoughts about things...
I have found myself as of late thinking about God's love. He loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son to die for our sins. I know this concept at times can be hard to wrap your mind around. How can the all-loving God, sacrifice someone who has done nothing, for people who have done a lot and who keep doing things without any regard to how they hurt people.
I believe he did that to give us what the perfect example of love is.
In English we have one word for love - Love... Whereas in many other languages there is more than one way to describe love.. Greek has a few words for it but four come to mind: Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge. Maybe this is why we cannot wrap our minds around it.... We use the word love for everything. There is no distinction between us loving our siblings, our dogs, and our cars. When using the same word for various types, it loses its meaning and its impact... Maybe this is also why we take love for granted...
God, in his infinite wisdom knew that there would be times when we would need to know and feel what love means. He knew that as the world went on, we would become desensitized to the use of the word.... He knew that when we said love, that there would be times when we meant it in an physical manner (eros), or that there would be times when we mean that I love you like a brother, that the love is out of a sense of loyalty because of our shared history and affiliations (philia). He knew that we would go through life over using the word and that we would need an example of what it meant to love someone not expecting anything in return. He knew that we would need an example of what it meant to sacrifice for whom we love... This is Agape love. This is how we should love: Without expecting anything in return, without wondering if the person loves us. We should just love to love....
I believe that no matter how hard God tried, and still tries to tell us he loves us, he had to give an example of the depth of his love. He knew that we would not be able to wrap our minds around this concept so he gave us the example.....
I have found myself as of late thinking about God's love. He loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son to die for our sins. I know this concept at times can be hard to wrap your mind around. How can the all-loving God, sacrifice someone who has done nothing, for people who have done a lot and who keep doing things without any regard to how they hurt people.
I believe he did that to give us what the perfect example of love is.
In English we have one word for love - Love... Whereas in many other languages there is more than one way to describe love.. Greek has a few words for it but four come to mind: Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge. Maybe this is why we cannot wrap our minds around it.... We use the word love for everything. There is no distinction between us loving our siblings, our dogs, and our cars. When using the same word for various types, it loses its meaning and its impact... Maybe this is also why we take love for granted...
God, in his infinite wisdom knew that there would be times when we would need to know and feel what love means. He knew that as the world went on, we would become desensitized to the use of the word.... He knew that when we said love, that there would be times when we meant it in an physical manner (eros), or that there would be times when we mean that I love you like a brother, that the love is out of a sense of loyalty because of our shared history and affiliations (philia). He knew that we would go through life over using the word and that we would need an example of what it meant to love someone not expecting anything in return. He knew that we would need an example of what it meant to sacrifice for whom we love... This is Agape love. This is how we should love: Without expecting anything in return, without wondering if the person loves us. We should just love to love....
I believe that no matter how hard God tried, and still tries to tell us he loves us, he had to give an example of the depth of his love. He knew that we would not be able to wrap our minds around this concept so he gave us the example.....
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
