Is God Love?

God, Christ, & The Holy Spirit
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Homer
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Is God Love?

Post by Homer » Fri Oct 29, 2021 10:38 pm

The scriptures inform us God is Love. And several verses inform us He is immutable. If God has never changed, as the scriptures indicate, then how could God have been "love" prior to His creating actions? If there was nothing in existence but God for any moment then it would appear during that moment God was not "love" for "love" (agape) requires an object. And if God creates man, for example, He can then be "love" but then His attribute is depended on what He has created.

All this is solved if God is a triune God; "love" is shared among the Trinity.

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darinhouston
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Re: Is God Love?

Post by darinhouston » Fri Oct 29, 2021 11:10 pm

I believe we have addressed this in some detail, most recently in a similar post you created (see here)

https://www.theos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6249

and also at great length in one created by Matt Rose (see here)

https://theos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4660

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darinhouston
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Re: Is God Love?

Post by darinhouston » Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:52 am

If you want to explore a new avenue of this inquiry, then how about: "Can one truly love one's self?" If so (and it seems clear that the Bible assumes this), then why can't that (logically) be perfectly embodied in a single "person" and a truly monotheistic God ? Just like God might "want" to create or "want" to have relationships with a mankind of His making without being "incomplete" or "imperfect" before having done so, then couldn't the same be said of a desire to "share" that love with another? It seems to me placing love as a first principal of essential properties of God does injury to the context in which He is described. Totally "other" or "holy" seems to me to be the most fundamental essential property of God, even if love is the overwhelming way in which He is described in His dealings with us through Christ. Only that makes sense of the significance of the Fall and the need for that loving grace through Christ.

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Paidion
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Re: Is God Love?

Post by Paidion » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:18 pm

Yes.

Or "God is love" may mean that God is the personification of Love—the expression of its very essence.
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

Avatar shows me at 75 years old. I am now 83.

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