Monday: The Love of God
Daily Lesson for Monday 21st of September 2026
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14, NKJV). With this verse, Paul ends his second letter. Notice that he mentions the three Persons of the Trinity in this order—Son, Father, and Holy Spirit. It is through the work of all three that we can better understand what God is like and what He has done for us.
Read John 3:16-17; Romans 8:37-39; and 1 John 4:8-11. What do these passages tell us about the love of God?
Image © Deb Minnard at Goodsalt.com
1 John 4:8 says that “God is love.” Love is an essential attribute of God. John emphasizes that we can know love in that God gave His only Son to die for us (John 3:16). God sent Jesus on a rescue mission (John 3:17), and this was part of the project of salvation (Acts 3:20-21; 1 John 4:10,14). Jesus referred to the Father several times in the Gospels as the One who sent Him (Matthew 10:40, Mark 9:37).
In a remarkable statement, Paul says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NIV). We can glimpse God’s love in the sweet relationship between husband and wife, as well as parents and their children, in sincere friendships, and so forth. We can also see God’s love in nature. In that regard, Ellen G. White says, “ ‘God is love’ is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green—all testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.”—Steps to Christ, p. 10.
However, nothing is more convincing than God’s giving Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. When we understand that God loved us to the point of sending Jesus to lay down His life for us, our response is willingness “to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16, ESV).
Paul wanted the Corinthians to live in unity. However, without love, there is no unity. That is why he taught them that “love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1, ESV) and that without love, everything is useless and empty (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). So, all we do must be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14), a love that is an extension of God’s love.
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What would we lose in the gospel if Jesus Himself were not fully and eternally God? |
I have a lot of difficulty accepting the Ellen White statement from “Steps to Christ” quoted into today’s lesson at face value:
I see opening buds, fresh spring grass, hear birds sing melodious songs, and so on. But I have also see a Peregrine Falcon snatch a Rainbow Lorikeet out of the air, and the other day I watched a Pied Cormorant swallow a fish alive (I have about 50 photographs recording the event). I often see Kookaburras raid nests to have a chicken breakfast. Nature is beautiful but it is also horrendously cruel. Just seeing the beautiful and ignoring the awful is not really an option.
Of course, as Christians we dismiss the awful as a consequence of sin, but it is more complicated than that and our explanations border on being simplistic if we are not careful. I don’t claim to have an answer that satisfies everyone. Here are a couple of ideas to seed your thinking.
There is indeed a lot of beauty in nature. Flowers, bird song, cute animals, bird flight, amazing insects, and even beautiful spiders show something of creative aesthetics. But I also see the competitiveness of nature; carnivores devouring other animals, mating routines where the most competitive animal wins, often maiming and even killing other suitors; parasitic plants and animals that feed on other plants and animals. Much of this we would like to attribute to the presence of evil. But, even in this I see adaptability; plants and animals adapting to their living conditions in such a way to preserve their species identity. That adaptability speaks of a resilient design. It is not a pretty picture at times, but neither is human history.
There is much more to this discussion than I can summarise in a short comment. I suggest two important principles:
We should not anthropomorphise nature’s suffering. That is we should not make it sound like human suffering. (that statement alone would take many paragraphs to explain)
Secondly, it helps to see the beautiful in nature but at the same time we should not ignore the ugly. I have seen a Peregrine Falcon take another bird out of the air. While I feel sorry for the bird, I marvel at the engineering and natural skill of the Peregrine, and the environmental balance achieved by such behaviour. (And I have the perfect question for my non-vegetarian friends who exclaim, “How awful!” I ask them how many chickens they have eaten in the last week!)
We can still see God in the beauty of nature, but we have to look for it through the veil of the effects of sin with our limited eyesight.
(C S Lewis explores the issue of Animal Pain in his book “The Problem of Pain”. He does not have answers either, but he gives us some ideas to think about.)
In a sense, you are right that we can admire even predatory animals. They aren’t “bad” animals and I give God the credit for the way they are engineered. By that I mean that though I don’t think God created them to kill other beings, He ensured that after sin, creatures would adapt to survive as a species. I think if He did not get involved in this, what Satan would have caused would be utter devastation of everything.
At the same time, I think we all wish that animals wouldn’t die. No, we shouldn’t treat their suffering as human suffering, but those of us with pets know their suffering is real. We can see fear in wild animals too. I don’t think these emotions are nothing. Animals also feel love and grief.
Romans 8:19-21 talks about nature being in bondage and eagerly waiting for its liberation. How much animals understand what’s going on, I cannot speculate on, but it seems they are a part of redemption. After all, God could have started over with new animals after the flood, but He didn’t. I wait for that day with longing.
John 3:16 is the clearest way God demonstrates the magnitude of His love. This verse profoundly shows the object, the nature, the cost and the purpose of God’s love. The magnitude of God’s love is explicitly demonstrated by who did God love. “God so loved the world…” God loves the whole world. God’s love is very broad indeed. Everybody borne on the planet earth is covered by God’s love. The inclusivity of God’s love reveals His character, “God is love” . Both the righteous and the unrighteous are the object of God’s love.
The magnitude of God’s love is also demonstrated by the nature of His love. The quality of God’s love is not a feeling but an action. “God so loved the world that he gave…” God’s love is self-sacrificing for the good of mankind. God’s love did not incline to us because something good was found in us. The Bible is explicitly clear about our moral condition when God loved us. We were dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). When we were still unlovable people, God went a head and loved us anyway!
The magnitude of God’s love is also reflected on cost He paid. God gave His one and only Son. God’s gift to mankind as a “cost” for redemption is extraordinary unique and expensive. Ordinarily, human relationships are valued by the value of the gifts exchanged. Gifts communicate the value of relationships. God did not hold back anything; He gave the best of the heaven to demonstrate magnitude of His love for us. We were not redeemed by perishable things like silver and gold but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:18). Therefore, we believers must not treat the love of God with contempt.
Finally, the magnitude of God’s need to be seen from the perspective of its purpose.“that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God’s love is not mere affection, but it has redemptive purpose. Unlike human love, which is meant for transient happiness, but God’s love aims at redeeming for eternal life. “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” (Jeremiah 31:3, NLT)
On the cross the magnitude of God’s love was revealed and now the whole world is called upon to accept this extraordinary favour to have eternal life.
In reference to The cruel Cross that Christ died upon, I cannot hardly imagine the depth that Our Lord and Savior went through for us! It’s mentality painful to focus upon these precious moments. In Psalms 22:6 the scriptures quotes “I am but a worm and not a man”! I have never truly understood this verse until I saw this shorts and it explains in nature about The Cross and of God’s Love for us! Look here and you’ll grasp a bit of this scenario through nature:
https://youtube.com/shorts/3ey6MkfXIzw?is=buls9zaOUcaeFfuw
Thanks Yolanda , that’s a startling fact that is lost in translation. I recommend the readers to click on the link if you haven’t already.
Excellent illustration. Many thanks for the link Yolanda
I confess the greatest theology of the cross of all time.
Amen!
It is important to point out that in and of ourselves we are incapable of loving as God would have us love!
It is only as God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts do we develop the capacity to love as He loves.
May we ever fix our gaze on Him so that His love will shine through us to others!!!
God’s love is not a fleeting or temporary emotion but a deep and abiding love that endures through all of life’s trials and tribulations. The bible is a testimony that reminds us that God is benevolent, faithful, and loving, continually guiding His people toward a life of purpose and fulfillment. Paul told the Corinthian church, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). This blessing captures the beautiful reality of our faith: God’s grace sustains us, His love transforms us, and His fellowship assures us that we are never alone. Even when we face suffering, failure, or uncertainty, His love remains steadfast, offering comfort, security, hope, and joy. Jeremiah 31:3 declares, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” This everlasting love extends to everyone, regardless of their circumstances or station in life, reminding us that our worth is anchored not in what we possess or achieve but in the God who lovingly calls us His own. Therefore, let us rest in His grace, walk in His love, and remain in fellowship with Him and one another, knowing that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and that His faithfulness endures forever.
God’s Love and Justice in perfect harmony: “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” Psalm 85:10 ESV
John 3:16: “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”.
God is Love:
1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love”
God is Just:
Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he”.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
Through Jesus, God’s mercy was manifested to men; but mercy does not set aside justice. The law reveals the attributes of God’s character, and not a jot or tittle of it could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition. God did not change His law, but He sacrificed Himself, in Christ, for man’s redemption. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19)….
God’s love has been expressed in His justice no less than in His mercy. Justice is the foundation of His throne, and the fruit of His love… But Christ shows that in God’s plan they are indissolubly joined together; the one cannot exist without the other. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Psalm 85:10).By His life and His death, Christ proved that God’s justice did not destroy His mercy, but that sin could be forgiven, and that the law is righteous, and can be perfectly obeyed. Satan’s charges were refuted. 16 The Desire of Ages, 762.
I think Maurice, the challenge is to look for the beauty. I believe it is in the same book “Steps to Christ” that Ellen White recalls a dream, in which a companion and herself are walking through a garden. Her companion surprisingly ignores the beautiful, fragrant flowers of the Garden and bitterly complains about the thorns and briers that are present.
Maurice I have never been married but I am certain for those of you who are married; it has not been exactly “Heaven on Earth”. Nevertheless you focus on the good times {and I sincerely hope that there are/were more good times than bad times}. And you can say I have had a good marriage,
from my time here on this planet, ( I am becoming fully grey) evaluation of a significant number of things, if not most, are on the basis of degrees. Some of my closest and cherished friends have what I consider, significant flaws in their personalities. Of course these flaws are not what I consider “out of bounds”. For example a consistent liar.
This mindset is particularly crucial as one relates to church members or for some, the preferred term, the “Saints”. If one imagines that in his interaction with these “blood-washed, Spirit-possessed Believers he will experience a foretaste of Heaven, that person is enroute to a very traumatic awakening.
Without being naive: my advice is – look for the beauty.
Why Did Jesus Have to Be Fully God?
The depth of God’s love revealed at the cross depends upon God’s own self-sacrifice. Jesus could not merely be a created being. Such a plan would have left the Creator safely distant while someone else bore a debt he did not owe.
Instead, God Himself took responsibility for the redemption of His creation. In Christ, the Judge stepped down from the bench and entered the human family to bear the penalty of sin Himself. The cross therefore reveals not merely that God sent someone to save us, but that God came Himself to save us.
This is why Jesus had to be fully God. Scripture declares: “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” — Isaiah 43:11
Jesus is not God’s proxy or a created intermediary. He is God in the flesh—God with us. The One who created humanity is the One who gave Himself for humanity.
This also explains why our worship of Jesus does not compete with worship of the Father. If a created being had ultimately accomplished our salvation, giving that being our highest devotion would raise a serious question about where our worship belongs. But because the Son is truly God, honoring the Son honors the Father.
The cross therefore answers the question of God’s love at its deepest level: God did not ask another to pay the ultimate price for us. He gave Himself. That is why the grace of Jesus is so profound—it is the grace of God reaching down to save His fallen creation at infinite personal cost.
In the temptation and fall of humanity all of creation changed down to the very DNA of it. Thorns and thistles began to grow on beautiful fragrant flowers. The lion and the lamb that had previously laid down together as herbivores suddenly became the hunter and the hunted. Fear and insecurity replaced peace and stability. It’s as if all of creation now turned upon itself and upon it’s Maker at the same time.
In the parable of the sower we see that in the beginning everything was “good, good, good, very good!” There wasn’t a single design flaw, not even in Lucifer. Yet, how quickly it all changed when Lucifer chose to rebel and become an enemy of God and humanity.
God could have totally annihilated this wayward planet but instead chose to enter into it to restore it and to rescue captured humanity.
That fact more than anything else testifies of the unfathomable love of God. He could have walked away and let Satan have the spoils of his victory over Him and His Creation, but love wouldn’t settle for anything less than total reclamation of what was lost. Of the pantheon of “gods”, only One dared to enter into the suffering of Creation to wrest it back from the enemy’s clutches, so that one day all of creation will be restored to it’s original glory and splendor. If that doesn’t shout of the goodness and love of God, I don’t know what does. We have been created by God and redeemedby Him. We are twice his. “What wondrous love is this, oh my soul oh my soul…”
When reading the title of today’ lesson, before reading the lesson and the comments, I was impressed to think of the Love of God in the context of His Justice. To my surprise, I found Lorrain’s comment to speak to these thoughts, among others, highlighting that God’s Love is formed/expressed through the prism of His Justice – thank you, Lorraine!
Instead of using similar words to express the same thoughts as Lorraine, I want to encourage everyone to consider her comment: “God’s Love and Justice in perfect harmony,” supporting it with Truth found in Psalm 85:10 – “Mercy and Truth are met together; Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other”; as well as her quote from ‘The Desire of Ages”, page 762 which also supports this finding: “God’s Love has been expressed in His Justice no less than in His Mercy. Justice is the foundation of His Throne, and the fruit of His Love.” [DA762.3]
Ellen G. White’s quote is from Chapter 79 – “It is Finished”. I encourage everyone to read the full chapter to more deeply appreciate the full Truth of God’s Love and Justice as the indivisible power of His Glory which, in and off itself, is able to concour death and all its manifestations in this fallen world. “His authority rests upon Goodness, Mercy, and Love: and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God’s Government is moral, and Truth and Love are to be the prevailing power.” [DA 759.1] Our life is in Christ Jesus – God’s Love and Justice personified – “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth” – John 4:24.
Jesus is the center of God’s love and God’s best definition of Himself. What He did for humanity is priceless! Once we understand that, we can surely see the Light!
We understand God’s love most clearly through Jesus, and when we truly receive that love, it should be visible in the way we love, forgive, serve, unite with, and care for others. Without love, even our greatest works for God can become empty. This is a very practical warning for the church: we can be busy doing God’s work while failing to demonstrate God’s character. Therefore, before asking, “How much am I doing for God?” we should sometimes stop and ask, “How am I treating God’s people?” Because ultimately, our service means little if the people around us cannot experience God’s love through us.
So beautiful and moving the image of the crimson worm.