God's Love is Different: A Biblical Theology on the Love of God

By Jeffrey G. Rogers

“The book explores the law, the history, the poetry, the prophets, the gospels, and the letters, endowing awareness and progression of light given throughout the bible to reveal God’s love towards mankind.”

In this selective eloquent discussion of God’s amazing love, Pastor Jeff Rogers challenges us to think outside the box of understanding love and to experience it from a higher perspective.

Pastor Jeff has a long-standing interest in seeing the Church move in the anointing for healing and deliverance and understanding its role in the salvation of Israel and wrote a book on the matter. He appeared on a TV broadcast network (TBN) for over 17 years, speaking about the things peculiar to the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Jeff’s goal is to see lifeless institutional traditions overcome by families ministering together evangelistically in the order and anointing of the Spirit with power gifts, and signs that follow. His latest undertaking with this book is based on appreciating what we have not seen concerning the Love of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385007134

Jeffrey G. Rogers

Jeffrey G. Rogers pastored Christian Fellowship Assembly for nearly 40 years. His Ministry, known as the Christian Fire Assembly, is in Bowie, MD. He has attended various Bible Schools, instructing courses, and training conferences. His ministry is based upon the foundation of Christ’s Work on the Cross with power. Pastor Jeff has been married to his wife, Adrienne F. Rogers over 40 years. He has daughters, Jolethia and Angela (married to Vince), also a son in pastoral ministry in MI, Donnell Wyche (married to Maria) and grandchildren.

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GOD’S LOVE IS

DIFFERENT

A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY ON

THE LOVE OF GOD

JEFFREY G. ROGERS

Copyright © 2023 Jeffrey G. Rogers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James version of the Bible, public domain.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0712-7 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0713-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023917356

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/05/2023

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART ONE: INFORMATION

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF GOD’S LOVE

Chapter 1 Two Testaments, One God

Chapter 2 God’s Anger In The First Testament

Chapter 3 The Foundation Of Charity In The New Testament

Chapter 4 Why Does God Love Us?

Chapter 5 God’s Love Relative To His Eternal Judgment

PART TWO: REVELATION

AN APPROACH TO CHARITY

Chapter 6 God’s Answer To A Fatherless Society

Chapter 7 If God Is Love, What Does That Make You?

Chapter 8 Impartations Of Love Through Ordination

Chapter 9 End-Time Understanding Of An Old Argument

Chapter 10 The Explosion Of Passion

PART THREE: APPLICATION

EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE

Chapter 11 Love Is More Than An Emotion

Chapter 12 The Ultimate Exercise Of Love

Chapter 13 A Thematic Approach To God’s Love - Uncaged

Chapter 14 Testimonies Of God’s Amazing Love

Epilogue

References

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge this: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created". (Revelation 4:11 KJV).

This writing was done at the pleasure of the Lord and ‘for His Pleasure’ is the reason we have all been created. We exist for his pleasure although all that we have done and humanity has done is under a different motivation and not necessarily for his pleasure, but ours. To write and express an awareness concerning this matter of living in the pleasure of the Lord, to exemplify His Love, is an undertaking that one cannot do alone…at least I couldn’t.

Great thanks go to my wife, Adrienne, for her constant encouragement, my daughters, Jolethia and Angela (along with her husband, Vincent), and my son, Donell (along with his wife, Maria), and my entire family. Every reader should also know I thank God for my spiritual family, referring to those of whom I have consistent fellowship; specifically, the leaders in that family who are: both houses of the Joneses, the Ellisons, and the Maupins. I would also like to thank my church family of Christian Fire Assembly in Bowie, Maryland, for their love and support. Next there is my extended church family consisting of my pastors, Eric and Shelia Yarbough, and my previous pastor, who I have known since the beginning, Bishop Clarence Harris. Over the last 20 years, many spiritual leaders, from Dr. Michael Brown and Pastor Joseph Joe Sweet, to Apostle Sam Soleyn have influenced me greatly, as well as many local pastors in our Mid-Atlantic Leadership Coalition, led by Pastor Eric Yarbough, Bishop Henry Joyner, Pastor Lanny Clark, the Chavadas, Pastor Thurlow Switzer, and others. My friendships with Pete Cabrera Jr., Pastor David Miller, and Earl Spence, have been meaningful to me as well, and I would be remiss if I did not mention them. I am eternally grateful for all of these relationships and cherish them all, and they have helped me appreciate the need for relationships in the Body of Christ and how they contribute to each of our abilities to grow in being perfected in the Lord, because no can grow in love in a vacuum.

I thank God for the support that began with an English teacher named Terrance Ingram, offering editing direction and corrections. I would also like to thank Christine Townsend, who offered her services, as well as Emily Crandall-Ford, for her wisdom and insights, Michael Washington for his major editing contributions, and my attorney daughter, Jolethia Rogers, for her final edits.

Again, never forget while you are reading this writing that it is an effort to raise awareness of the Love of God via our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and how he has blessed us beyond measure for His purpose:

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: ⁵ Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Ephesians 1:4-5 KJV).

INTRODUCTION

Before I began writing this book years ago, I thought the subject of love would have produced many volumes of literature. After searching diligently, at that time, I could not find many theological or scholarly books written solely about the love of God. Years later, I discovered a few books that would be considered systematic theology books. Many theological books refer to the love of God as one topic among many, but not many are solely dedicated to God’s love.

Still, some may ask, ‘Why write something about which everybody already knows?’ That’s just it. Many of us think we know, but do we? Consider this: I have been a believer for over half a century and involved in church from childhood, but as recently as a few years ago, I did not know then what I know now about God’s love. While the love of God can be as simple as the song Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so, The reality is that we cannot walk in His love unless He reveals it to us, but our execution of love is limited while God’s is infinite. His Love is Different!

As I see it, God reveals His love to us in many ways. In a certain manner, He unfolds His love before our spiritual eyes, depending on our capacity to receive it. This unfolding truth concerning God’s love positioned me to research this subject in the first place. As I began to study the love of God, I discovered that some mainstream perspectives on this subject are limited and have, furthermore, gone unchallenged for quite some time.

My dilemma is that when discussing the purpose and productivity of God’s love in a public forum, the content must be straightforward enough for the younger audience to process yet scholarly enough for intellectuals to respect. Hopefully, this book will accomplish both goals, but at the very least, I hope it will encourage you to study God’s Word and draw closer to Him in worship. From your studies, exploring God’s love could send you into the world with a new vision and greater perspective of something special, even powerful, about your relationship with the God of the Bible. My sincere prayer is that it will ultimately produce in you a greater understanding of all things, both seen and unseen.

If you believe you have heard everything there is to say about God’s love, you may want to think again. We are talking about the everlasting Father, the Alpha and Omega, the Great I AM, the creator of all things, who is before all things and defies our ability to comprehend what could exist without Him.

Malcolm Gladwell, an author who explored how much experience qualifies someone to be an expert in their field in his book Tipping Point, concluded that 10,000 hours of practice typically results in mastery of a particular skill or content area. Nevertheless, even with 10,000 hours of study, raised to the 10th power, we could still not fully navigate the depth of God’s eternal love. Some may deem that statement debatable, but my desire is for us to seek out the width, depth, height, and length of God’s amazing love through the study and application of scripture.

Anyone who claims they can teach everything about God’s love might reveal how little they truly know about this topic. The information covered in this book will not be comprehensive but selective. At the same time, the book should give readers insight into God’s love and lead them in the right direction of thought and study.

When reading John 14:21, thoughts may cross your mind about Jesus being serious when He says He will manifest Himself to you because you love Him; whether or not your love is merely a display of strong emotions; the major differences between man’s love and God’s love; and how lives are altered and manifested by the presence of Jesus’s love. I hope to address those thoughts in this book.

Men, women, and seekers of God, have we come to terms with what manner of love God has for us? Traditionally, when the church world addresses our walking in the God-kind-of-love, the discussion always involves the saints having to do something or work for His love. While doing something is needful, we must first receive a revelation of who God is—in and through us—before this love can come alive. For now, let’s say that Jesus meant what he said in John 14:21 (KJV) — He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.

Many of us do not know how to process that information. Jesus describes a love whose meaning cannot entirely be discovered through lengthy discussions or ambitious explorations. It may not be clearly articulated with human words nor found or contained exclusively in a book. To a large degree, it must be encountered and experienced on a personal level.

John, the Apostle, states brilliantly the manifestation between man and his love for God. God is more significant than life, imagination, or reality. He exists in a world more extensive than the human eyes can see and more potent than the natural mind can conceive. The writers of the Holy Bible used a variety of adjectives to describe our God. King David, on several occasions, and in an assortment of ways, described the Lord as being good (Psalm 25: 8; 34: 8; 118:1 KJV). Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declared that God is wonderful, mighty, and everlasting (Isaiah 9:6 KJV). In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter described the Lord as gracious (1 Pet. 2: 3 KJV) while Paul, in his unique way, spoke of the Lord as being supremely humble (Phil. 2: 6-9 KJV). God is described in numerous ways, but perhaps the most definitive and well-known description came from the Apostle John, who used a metaphor to describe God simply as love. John furthermore stated that we can know God as much as we know and share pure love (1 John 4: 8 KJV).

John employed another metaphor to describe God when he said, … God is light and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1: 5 KJV). As I see it, he established a sort of transitive connection between his writings in 1 John 1: 5 and 4: 8. For example, in mathematics, the transitive law of equality states that if A = B and B = C, then A = C as well. That is to say, if God is both light and love, then love and light must also