So far we have really emphasized God's creative work as a major way to see into His character and nature. We've seen that as the One who created us, He has given special access and even a little bit of His own nature, His image, to us. This is a simple point but, that is good, isn't it? Since God made us, we see that He is good. His love is the fuel that fans the flame of that goodness. It is His very nature to be good and loving. Twice in the first epistle of John the statement "God is love" is used. What we learn from this deceptively simple phrase is that God does not love in actions when He is in a certain mood, but rather that love is the very set of His being. The original Greek word for this God kind of love is "agape,"(pronounced "ah-gah-pay"). It is a unique word in the New Testament, because it was not a commonly used word until the Christians began to use it exclusively of the love of God. It is the kind of love that is absolutely given freely and without condition. It is a commitment kind of love, not having to do with happenings, but with great compassion and giving forth of the one loving. Think Mother Theresa and not Santa Claus. The Old Testament Hebrews had a word for the God kind of love, too. It was "hesed." "Hesed" is the word God used of His own kind of commitment to His friends, those that had a special relationship with Him called a covenant. A covenant, according to Bible teacher Malcolm Smith, is "an agreement between two parties for life or for death." The word that came to describe God's love became known and has been translated as "covenant love." So if you have a love commitment agreement with an eternal being, you have a covenant that will never break down, and a friend who really will "never leave you nor forsake you(Deut. 4:31, Heb.13:5)." So if we put this all together we have an unconditionally loving, totally committed, eternal covenant partner and friend who will never ever leave us or forsake us.
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