God is Loving and Compassionate
But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.
Nehemiah 9:17
Whether or not there is a God is not the burning question on most people’s minds. There are very few atheists who don’t believe in God, but there are many who believe that His existence has little or no impact on how they live. “What difference does it make if there is a God?” and “Does He really care?” are the primary questions these people are asking. Those who have no personal relationship with God usually have a distorted concept of Him, and sadly so do many who profess to believe in Him.
The truth about God is that He is compassionate and patient with us. Nehemiah testifies to this reality as he recalls the time when Aaron got tired of waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, so he and others created their own god by building a golden calf (see Exodus 32:1-6; Nehemiah 9:18). Even in their rebellion, God did not desert them. Nehemiah praised Him for this: “But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (verse 17).
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). The reason God loves us is because God is love. It is His nature to love us, and that is why His love is unconditional. God’s love (agape) is not dependent on the object, which sets it apart from brotherly love (phileo).
It is natural to love those who love us, but it is divine to love those who don’t. Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. . . . But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:32-33,35).
Throughout the Gospels, we read of instances in which God was moved by compassion. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them” (Matthew 9:36). “Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people’” (15:32). “Jesus said . . . ‘Go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy [hesed], not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). The word hesed in the Old Testament is translated as “God’s loving kindness.” Aren’t you glad that you serve a God who is moved with compassion?
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That should be all the proof we need, yet many believers question God’s love for them. God presupposed this when He inspired Paul to write, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
a few questions to ponder:
Why do you think so many people question God’s love for them?
How has God demonstrated His love for us?
How is God’s love (agape) different from brotherly love (phileo)?
What has caused you personally to question God’s love for you? How can that be rectified?
In what ways have you failed to love someone (do what is right on their behalf) because you didn’t like them?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.