God Is Love

THE DAILY WORD
By Jim Seekamp

Friday March 6, 2009

James 1:16,17 (NIV)
16. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 17. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

EVERY good and perfect gift is from God!!! If there is anything good on the earth, it is from God!

Acts 10:38 tells us that it is satan who is causing the oppression, and Jesus walked the earth healing those under satan's oppression:

Acts 10:38 (NIV)
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

According to the passage above, Jesus did GOOD! And He walked the earth as an exact representation of the Father:

Colossians 1:15 (NIV)
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Hebrews 1:3a (NIV)
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

The disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy the people who would not welcome Jesus:

Luke 9:53,54 (NIV)
53. but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them ?"

But Jesus gave a profound answer:

Luke 9:55 (KJV)
But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

The "spirit we are of" is love; there is no hate or evil or destructiveness in God.

When Jesus walked the earth, He NEVER caused any sickness, any disaster, or anything that could even be remotely called "bad". That's because He is the EXACT REPRESENTATION of the Father's being, and the Father has never done evil and never will:

James 1:13,14 (NIV)
13. When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14. but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Many people make the mistake of using the Old Testament as a guide to God's nature, but unfortunately the Old Testament Hebrew was all translated in the causitive sense rather than the permissive, so it always looked like God was the one responsible for doing evil, when actually He was only permitting it-- because He HAD to!

Dr Robert Young, author of Young's Analytical Concordance and Hints To Bible Interpretation, points out that in the original Hebrew (the Old Testament was written in Hebrew), the verb is in the permissive rather than causative sense.

The Bible is also progressive revelation; some of the writers proved their own wording to be wrong, and the people in Old Testament times believed that God was responsible for everything. The book of Job is a prime example. The devil is plainly described as the one who caused Job's destruction, yet God was blamed for it by the people involved.

But with the appearance of Jesus as the exact representation of the Father, and the advent of the New Testament, we can now clearly see that God is LOVE, and LOVE NEVER does evil!

1 John 4:7,8 (NIV)
7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8. Whoever does not love does not know God, because GOD IS LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

PRAYER
Thank You Father for Your Word that tells me so much about You. Thank You for being entirely good and uncorruptable. Help me understand Your Word so I can allow You to govern my life in every way.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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