The Five Loves of God: Search For Truth Bible Series

By Brian Johnston

Brian Johnston explains the important differences between the five types of God's love displayed in the Bible: God's love within the Godhead, God's providential loving care for all creation, God's love for the whole world, God's love for His children and God's conditional love for believers.  In the bonus book, The Triumph of Christ Crucified, Brian explores the use of Roman imagery in the New Testament.




 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hayes Press
• Release date: Nov 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386615514

Brian Johnston

Born and educated in Scotland, Brian worked as a government scientist until God called him into full-time Christian ministry on behalf of the Churches of God (www.churchesofgod.info). His voice has been heard on Search For Truth radio broadcasts for over 30 years (visit www.searchfortruth.podbean.com) during which time he has been an itinerant Bible teacher throughout the UK and Canada. His evangelical and missionary work outside the UK is primarily in Belgium and The Philippines. He is married to Rosemary, with a son and daughter.

Book preview

Table of Contents

The Five Loves of God

CHAPTER ONE: GOD’S LOVE WITHIN THE GODHEAD

CHAPTER TWO: GOD’S PROVIDENTIAL LOVING CARE FOR ALL CREATION

CHAPTER THREE: GOD’S LOVE FOR THE WHOLE WORLD

CHAPTER FOUR: GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN

CHAPTER FIVE: GOD’S CONDITIONAL LOVE FOR BELIEVERS

BONUS BOOK: THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED | CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER TWO: CONDEMNED TO DEATH

CHAPTER THREE: LED IN TRIUMPH

CHAPTER FOUR: LEADING A HOST OF CAPTIVES

CHAPTER FIVE: TRIUMPHING OVER ANGELS

Further Reading: Amazing Grace! Paul's Gospel Message to the Galatians

Also By Brian Johnston

About the Author

About the Publisher

THE FIVE LOVES OF GOD

AND BONUS BOOK:

THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED

BRIAN JOHNSTON

Copyright © 2016 HAYES PRESS

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, without the written permission of Hayes Press.

Published by:

HAYES PRESS CHRISTIAN RESOURCES

The Barn, Flaxlands

Royal Wootton Bassett

Swindon, SN4 8DY

United Kingdom

www.hayespress.org

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, the New King James Version® (NKJV®). Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved.  Scriptures marked NIV are from New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scriptures marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org).  Scriptures marked RV are from the Revised Version, 1885 (Public Domain).

CHAPTER ONE: GOD’S LOVE WITHIN THE GODHEAD

It has been pointed out that there are five ways in which the Bible talks about God’s love. In this book we hope to explore each of them in turn.  Perhaps it’s worth beginning by saying what we’ll not be talking about. We won’t be saying that God’s love has nothing at all in common with ours. If the Bible encourages us to love one another even as God loves us – and it does (1 John 4:11) – then does that not require there to be some overlap at least between the nature of our love and that of God? There is, of course, a certain kind of divine love which is very different from human love. And this has usually been referred to as ‘agapé love’ after one of the Greek Bible words for love. But that’s an over-simplification – one which forgets the golden rule which tells us we must understand the meaning of any Bible word by its context. In Matthew’s Gospel, sinners are said to love other sinners, and it’s this agapé word that’s used (Matthew 5:46); and on at least one occasion in the Bible when that same word is used for love, the context includes the rape of the young woman concerned – hardly a selfless act (2 Samuel 13:1 LXX).

So there’s nothing about this word that guarantees it’s automatically always going to be referring to a very different divine kind of loving. Rather, its introduction into the Greek Bible was the result of understandable factors which have to do with the changing use of words in general circulation – just as still happens today. Yet, at a later time in history, the introduction of this particular word was seemingly re-interpreted by people whose view was that God’s love was almost exclusively to do with the will – and not about the emotions. But, over against that, there are Bible passages that unmistakably present God’s love to us in terms that loving human parents can easily relate to whenever they are called upon to discipline their children (Hosea 11:8). In other words, God is most certainly not without feelings, although they are not flawed as ours so often are.

No, the old clichés won’t do. The Bible uses different original language words for ‘love’ quite interchangeably when talking about how God loves us – and even of God the Father’s love for his Son. So, let’s follow a rather different approach in our study of God as a God of love: one that acknowledges five different contexts in which it’s meaningful to talk about God’s love.

The first is the love of God within the Godhead itself. The Bible statement that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8) conveys to us that God exists within a relationship in which love is expressed between distinct persons: those being the Father, Son and Spirit, who together comprise the Godhead. John’s Gospel has things