Knowing God

J I Packer

Class notes – #7, November 28, 2007

1. Evening Prayer
   
   

2. Review from last week – Questions, comments and general discussion.
   
   Chapter Twelve – The Love of God
   
   

3. Four different words for ‘Love’ in Greek:

1. Storge -  Storge means family affection. Storge means the love of a parent to a child and a child to the parent. Storge talks about family affection between family members.

2. Eros - Eros speaks of physical love. It is physical love and physical affection as between a man and a woman. Eros is a beautiful and God-given gift to men and women. It is no more ‘evil’ or wrong then is storge – however it has, perhaps as much as any other area of God’s creation – been perverted by the devil and twisted in to misuse and abuse.

3. Phileo – Phileo speaks about friendship love. It talks about friendship that is established between various people. It can even go to the extent of a friend that is closer than a brother. So phileo speaks of friendship love. And it is a very broad word. It covers everything that has to do with the relationship of one person to another person with a friendly affection. Phileo speaks of being endeared, as a friend just like I am endeared to the whole church and the church would be endeared to me.

4. Agape - Agape love is something different from all the others.

                                                               i.      The other loves are all loves of emotion – a feeling or physical intimacy (in the case of eros) that essentially ‘felt’.

                                                             ii.      This type of love is where the lover seeks the highest good for the person loved. This is the kind of love that seeks the best out of the person. It seeks the highest good, the best, whether the person is evil or good.

                                                            iii.      The New Testament authors were struggling for a word to describe this kind of love. Agape love is that love which can look at a criminal, evil, or unloved and unloveable person and still ask the question: “What is the best good that I can do for this person?”

5. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life

                                                               i.      ‘For God so agape the world…”

1.      God’s love is universal

2.      God’s love is eternal

3.      God’s love desires the best for His creation.

4. Why is God’s love so important to our understanding of him?
1. Pp 119 – “when we looked at God’s wisdom, we saw something of his mind; when we thought of his power, we saw something of his hand and his arm; when we considered his word, we learned about his mouth; but now, contemplating his love, we are to look into his heart. We shall stand on holy ground; we need the grace of reverence, that we may tread it without sin”.
2. Pp 118-119 – Paul’s lesson to the Corinthians was that other gifts given by God were secondary and worth nothing without love.
   
   
5. Are there limitations to God’s love?
1. No – he loves all of his creation, including those we might deem ‘unloveable’.
2. Yes – and yet, God’s love is not freedom from Him. His agape love that desires the best for us comes with the requirement that we be righteous as he is righteous. Failure to be so has consequences, both in the present and, if we fail to seek repentance, in the eternal.
   
   
6. What other two statements does Packer tell us must be remembered along with “God is Love”?
1. God is spirit pp 120-121

                                                               i.      God is without parts or human (uncontrolled) passions. God is unchanging, constant and dependable.

2. God is light (1 John 1:5) pp 121

                                                               i.      Light is a symbol of the goodness, the holiness, the purity, the righteousness of God.

                                                             ii.      Darkness means evil, and moral perversity.

7. If God loves righteousness and hates inequity, what are the implications for the people He loves? Pp 122)
1. He is not indifferent to moral distinctions
2. His love is ‘Holy love’
3. It is ‘stern’
   (recognizing that these are our emotion laden words that express human emotions – God’s love is constant and uncompromisingly good).
   
   
8. pp 122 What does Packer mean when he writes “ ‘God is love’ is the complete truth about God so far as the Christian is concerned”?
1. The statement “God is love means that his love finds expression in everything that he says and does” – in other words, everything that God does to us, with us or for us is for our good and will have the best possible outcome – no matter the short term anxiety or discomfort we may bear.
   
   
9. pp 125 – Packer says that God has “in effect resolve that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours” What does he mean with this?
1. God’s love is like that of a father for a son

                                                               i.      When that son is wayward he is still loved and the father desires the sons return

                                                             ii.      Even a sinner will find his most fulfilling love in God – if that love from God is never returned he will never reach his fullest potential

                                                            iii.      “God saves not only for his glory but for his gladness” – he is happiest when we love him.

                                                           iv.      Pp 126

10. pp 127 – what are the results of our own self-examination at found at the end of this chapter?
    
    
11. Next Class – Chapter 13 The Grace of God
1. Big Question – What is the grace of God? How can a person experience it?