God is love. 1 John 4:8, 16
Yet, what is love?
What does it mean to say Someone IS Love?

We use the word "love" quite freely, yet "love" isn't about "loving" chocolate cake; love is a complex, powerful and often hard to grasp reality
Following are questions we may be wrestling with concerning love and justice.

Is love a principle, an action, a feeling, a character, what is love?
Does God's love only give like an outflowing river, or does it also receive?
Is divine love purely self-sacrificial, or might God's love find delight in a relationship love?
Is God's love emotional, or a just a holy principle, or can it be both?
Does God really care about humans?
Can God's love be rejected or forfeited?
Does God enter into a back-and-forth love relationship with creatures?
Is anger and/or displeasure incompatible with love?
Does love punish?
What is Justice?
How do love and justice go together?
How does the way we display love and justice differ from God's love and justice?
If God is love, why is there evil in the world, and so much of it?
Why do "good" people who believe in Him suffer? Why does God heal some and not others?
Can humans love the way God does? If so, what would that look like? And how can we achieve it?

Love is a word often used by people, but it is a very complex subject.
The hope of these lessons is that many of the above questions (and countless more) can find Biblical answers as we explore these and other questions throughout this quarter.

And that we will realize that God's love is far greater than we might think. God's love as depicted in Scripture is far superior to the ideas that pass for "love" in much of our world today.

In the coming weeks, we will look more closely at some of the most prominent and beautiful aspects of God's love that are revealed in the Bible.

Covenantal Love

It's an interesting adjective to define Love.
A covenant is an agreement. A serious agreement where the parties make binding promises.

God promised: Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

In turn we are to: (Duet. 6:5) love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
God keeps His covenant but we all end up breaking our part of the covenant.

At this point people usually start arguing as to whether God's love is conditional on our part upholding our end of the agreement?

But notice the subject of the question has changed.
God's love is not conditional, it is everlasting, drawing us to God, even when we we turn our backs on God. God's love is tirelessly working to win us back. Christ will weep over the rejecters of His mercy, for He loves everyone of them, but just like He wept over Jerusalem saying, "how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not! And thus He could not grant them the covenantal promises, and wept saying, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. (Matt. 23:37-38)
It's not God's love that is conditional, He loves every person, far beyond our capability to ever love.. His love is everlasting, faithful and true.

But what about the covenant promises? Is the covenant conditional or are the promises conditional?
We probably need to define "covenant" as well. But, yes, God will fulfil His promises,
yet who actually partakes of the blessed promises, that is conditional on whether we accept Him and respond to the transforming light .

Love is relational.
Scripture defines God's relationship with us in terms we understand in a close relationship setting.
Scripture speaks of God as our Father.

Matt. 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven
Romans 1:7 Grace to you and peace from God our [b]Father
Phil. 4:20 Now unto [b]God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Thess 2:16 God, even our Father, which hath loved us,

Jesus becomes our brother
Hebrews 2:11 he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
John 20:17 Jesus *said to her, ?Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ?I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.?
Matt. 28:10 Jesus said to them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

God is likened as a husband unto us.
Isaiah 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name
Jeremiah 31:32 my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Jesus is likened to a bridegroom and His church as the bride.
Isaiah 62:5 [as] the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
Matt. 9:15 the bridegroom is with them, but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
John 3:29(John the baptist spoke) He that has the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which stands and hears him, rejoicing greatly
Rev. 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Hosea depicts the suffering husband who loves his wife, but she is unfaithful, till finally he has to let her go, divorce her, but he doesn't stop loving her. When she is in desperate condition due to the destructive life she chose, he is seeking her, (going out to seek and save her) he finds her, and buys her back and wins her back.

God's love is everlasting.
Love doesn't stop even when God has to back away, or even let go, of someone who keeps telling God to stay out of their lives.

His covenant is an everlasting covenant. Heb. 11:20
That covenant was already agreed upon by the heavenly trio, before anything was created. As plans were laid to create intelligent beings, the question of free will needed to be addressed. If these intelligent beings would be given free will, would they freely walk in the ways of God, or would they chose to disobey and doubt God with all its disastrous results?
God could have stopped creating intelligent beings, they realized the risk was great. How could there be a universe filled with love, if sin was allowed to manifest itself?
Mankind could be pre- programed to always do the right thing. But that isn't love, that is robotic behavior.
The everlasting covenant was a plan by which these intelligent beings not only had the ability and freedom of choice, but were also given the ability to love. They were free to worship with genuine love pouring out from their hearts in gratitude to the Creator! It was a plan in which all could fully know and experience the goodness of the LORD and be in a relationship that was deeply meaningful with God and with each other.

Yet it also included a negative -- it included great pain both for God, requiring of Him a great sacrifice, and also pain for the created. It included seeing the absolute terrible consequences which sin brings. Somehow, to remove the deceitful desire for sins' very temporary pleasures, sins' true reality needs to be demonstrate in it's utter destructiveness and miserable reality. In contrast would be seen God's great love to restore and redeem people from that evil power. But the plan was an expensive one -- one of great sacrifice for God, and a lot of pain for a fallen race. Yet the result will be eternal life, happiness and love. A complete, everlasting restoration for all who turn from sin in belief in God's redeeming love. A universe where love reigns, and where sin will never manifest itself again.