Lesson 1: God Is Love
 
In this series about the Character of God, this study is about how God is Love.

 Now maybe it is just me, and maybe I am just getting older, but has anyone noticed how strange things are getting? I mean, just when you think you have seen or heard it all, something even stranger comes along. Have you noticed? I am not just talking about the strange things in the world. I can understand that. I am talking about the strange things that go on in Christian churches. Let me show you what I mean. It is strange:

1. How we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says
2. How we can be more worried about what other people think about us than what God thinks.
3. You cannot find a word to say when you are praying, but you have no trouble thinking of what to talk about with a friend.
4. How two hours seem so long at a Church service and how short they seem when you are watching a good movie.
5. How difficult and boring it is to read one chapter of the Bible, but how easy it is to read one hundred pages of a popular novel.
6. How we need to be informed about a Church event two to three weeks in advance so we can see if it fits into our schedule, yet we can adjust at the last minute for other events.
7. How difficult it is to learn a fact about God to share with others, but how easy it is to learn, understand, extend and repeat gossip.
8. How someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow satan, who by the way, also "believes" in God.
9. How someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.
10. How everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says.

 That is some pretty strange behavior. Believe it or not, I have discovered something even stranger than that. We as believers in Jesus often act like practical atheists! Oh, we say we believe in God, but half the time, by our lips and by our lives, we act like He is not there. And this not only keeps us from growing in our own walk with God, but it also keeps others from believing in God.

 1 John 4:7-10 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

 The Bible is clear. God is not just loving or lovable. He is love itself. Stop and think what that means. That means that every single thing God has ever done or will ever do is a perfect act of love because God is Love. But we have a problem. We live in a world that has a warped view of what true love is. Most people, when you mention the word "love", think it refers to doing something sexual. But God demonstrated what true love is by doing something sacrificial. He sent His Son to die for our sins. That is love! But we have become so numb to this amazing act of God's love that we have lost any appreciation for it. Therefore, in our next 27 lessons we will study this characteristic of God.

Thought Question: Have you considered how you treat Jesus, who loves you so much that He gave everything He can to have a personal relationship with you?
Verse to consider: Romans 12:1