Sunday: Creation, an Expression of Love
Nature in its present condition carries an ambiguous message that mingles both good and evil. Rosebushes can produce lovely and fragrant roses but also harmful and painful thorns. A toucan can impress us with its beauty and then dismay us by assaulting the nests of other birds and eating their frail chicks. Even human beings, who are capable of kindness one moment, can be vicious, hateful, even violent in the next.
Image © Dave OConnell at Goodsalt.com
No wonder that in the parable of the wheat and the tares, the servants asked the field owner, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” (Matthew 13:27, NKJV) And the owner replied, “An enemy has done this” (Matthew 13:28, NKJV). Likewise, God created the universe perfect, but an enemy defiled it with the mysterious seeds of sin.
Read 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16. What can the certainty that “God is love” tell us about the nature of His creative activities?
The fact that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16, NKJV) conveys at least three basic implications. First, love by its very nature cannot exist closed in itself but must be expressed. (What kind of love is not expressed?) God’s love is shared internally among the Three Persons of the Godhead, and externally in His relationship with all His creatures. Second, all that God does is an expression of His unconditional and unchangeable love. This includes His creative works, His redemptive actions, and even the manifestations of His punitive judgments. Actually, “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.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 762. And third, since God is love and all He does expresses His love, He cannot be the originator of sin, which is in direct opposition to His own character.
But did God really need to create the universe? From the perspective of His sovereignty, one could say “No,” because it was a decision of His free will. But from the perspective of His loving nature, He wanted a universe as a means of expressing His love. And how amazing that He created some forms of life, such as humans, not only capable of responding to God’s love but also capable of sharing and expressing love, not just to God but to others, as well. (See also Mark 12:30-31.)
| Look around at the created world. In what ways can you see in it reflections of God’s love, despite the ravages of sin? How can we learn to draw lessons of hope from the expression of God’s love revealed in the Creation? |
There are several Greek words translated as love – which concept applies to the LORD?
One of the best feelings in the world, without question, is love. We use the word “love” in many different contexts- the love for our parents, best friend, romantic partner, grandparent, sibling, job, automobile, etc
Eros (romantic, passionate love)
The first kind of love is Eros, named after the Greek God of fertility.
Eros is passion, lust and pleasure.
The ancient Greeks considered Eros to be dangerous and frightening as it involves a “loss of control” through the primal impulse to procreate. Eros is an intense form of love that arouses romantic and sexual feelings.
Philia (affectionate love)
The second type of love is Philia, or friendship.
Plato felt that physical attraction was not a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word platonic to mean, “without physical attraction.”
Agape (selfless, universal love)
The third is Agape, selfless universal love, such as the love for strangers, nature, or God.
This love is unconditional, bigger than ourselves, a boundless compassion and an infinite empathy that you extended to everyone, whether they are family members or distant strangers.
Storge (familiar love)
Storge is a natural form of affection experienced between family members.
This protective, kinship-based love is common between parents and their children, and children for their parents.
Storge can also describe a sense of patriotism toward a country or allegiance to the same team.
According to the lesson the LORD’s love also includes justice – do you agree? How is that possible?
The LORD’s love includes His creative works, His redemptive actions, and even the manifestations of His punitive judgments. Actually, “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.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 762.
The term “justice” seems to be used often as an “facet” of God’s Love. How is justice being defined in the light of God’s Love?
Hopefully we will discover the answer this quarter.
I believe part of the answer is how did the LORD react to Satan’s rebellion.
Justice, when understood in view of God’s character of Love, we will understand that His Justice and His Mercy are one in the same. Neither must be removed for the other to take place.
What it takes for God to be Just are the same requirements AND same results of God being merciful. Justice and Mercy are synonyms.
The judgement of human kind during Jeus’ crucifixion was the manifestation of God’s love to a perishing humanity. Through repentance and the resurrection of Christ, we are pardoned and born again. THsi is mercy.
I agree with the lesson writer’s statement that: “God’s Love is shared internally among the Three Persons of the Godhead, and externally with all His creatures.”
Also Ellen White’s statement expresses Truth wonderfully: “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.”
Our Creator Father expresses His Love through order and unchangeable harmony, no matter how evil intents may try to assail it. Lucifer and fallen humanity, who’s spirit was tainted by his act of rebellion, gives testimony to this, but the Creator’s unfathomable depth and breadth of His Love expressed in His Creation keeps His Creation as He designed it from the beginning. Harmony became established through the mutual co-operation by the Trinity.
Justice, spiritually defined, is another difficult word to understand because we relate the definition to our own, societal use of it. I consider God’s expressed Law of His Love to be the perfect symbiosis of that which governs matter and spirit. Unconscious matter will unquestionably follow God’s Law, but sentient beings with free will need to make a ‘decision’ before they choose which ‘way’ they will go; which law they will follow.
Justice is part of the expressions of the symbiosis of God’s Law governing His Creation; it is the foundation of His Authority(Throne), formulated and expressed by the Spirit of His Love. Without free will would therefore be no need for justice.
I think that our Creator Father decided to create physical, intelligent, sentient beings on earth and other worlds with the capacity to express His Spirit of Love in order to elevate them for inclusion to live in His heavenly realm, expressing loving dedication when living together with those already present.
As an aside – Remember, there is no marriage in heaven, nor is there ‘man’ or ‘women’ to increase the numbers of those who live in the heavenly realms.
God made everything perfect. We chose otherwise. We are the ones to be blamed for disruption of the divine way. But in His perfection, God made a plan to save humanity from itself, which is Jesus!