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Praying the Promises of Go1

The document discusses different aspects of God's love, including His love of benevolence, beneficence, and complacency. It emphasizes that God's benevolent love is universal and extends to all humanity, while His complacent love is reserved for those who believe in Christ. The text highlights the importance of distinguishing between these types of love to avoid misconceptions about God's unconditional love.

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Maricris Contigno - Batistil
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2 views4 pages

Praying the Promises of Go1

The document discusses different aspects of God's love, including His love of benevolence, beneficence, and complacency. It emphasizes that God's benevolent love is universal and extends to all humanity, while His complacent love is reserved for those who believe in Christ. The text highlights the importance of distinguishing between these types of love to avoid misconceptions about God's unconditional love.

Uploaded by

Maricris Contigno - Batistil
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Praying the Promises Of God.

Promises about God's Love


Does God Loves everyone? If you mean God’s goodwill to everyone then yes.

God’s Love of Benevolence


The love of benevolence is the quality of good will toward others. The New
Testament is replete with references of God’s good will to all humanity even in
our falleness.
Though Satan is a malevolent being (one who harbors bad will both toward us
and God), it can never properly be said of God that He is malevolent. He has
no malice in His purity, no maliciousness in His actions. God does not
John 3:16 is showing Gods love of benevolence not saving love,
Ezekiel 33:10-11
“Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and
sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we
[a]

live?”
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn!
Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’

Ezekiel 33:7-9
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word
I speak and give them warning from me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked
person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their
ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for
[a]

their blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they
do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.

even though He decrees it. His judgments upon evil are rooted in His
righteousness, not in some distorted malice in His character.
Like an earthly judge weep when he sends the guilty for punishment, God
rejoices in the justness of it but gets no glee from the pain of those justly
punished.
This love of benevolence, or good will, extends to all people without
distinction. God is loving, in this sense, even to the damned.
God’s Love of Beneficence / Common Grace
This type of love, the love of beneficence, is closely linked to the love of
benevolence. The difference between benevolence and beneficence is the
difference between disposition and action. I may feel well-disposed toward
someone, but my goodwill remains unknown until or unless I manifest it by
some action. We often associate beneficence with acts of kindness or charity.
We note here that the very word “charity” is often used as a synonym for love.
In the sense of beneficence, acts of kindness are acts of the love of
beneficence.

Matthew 5:43-45
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I
[a]

tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may
be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In this passage, Jesus enjoins the practice of love toward one’s enemies.
Notice that this love is not defined in terms of warm, fuzzy, or sanguine
feelings but in terms of behavior. In this context, love is more of a verb than a
noun. To love our enemies is to be loving toward them. It involves doing good
to them.

In this regard, the love we are to display is a reflection of God’s love toward
His enemies. To those who hate and curse Him, He shows the love of
beneficence. God’s benevolence (good will) is demonstrated by His
beneficence (kind actions). His sun and rain are given equally to the just and
the unjust.

We see then that God’s benevolent love and His beneficent love are
universal. They extend to the whole of humanity.

God’s Love of Complacency or Saving Love


His love of complacency is not universal, nor is it unconditional. Sadly, in our
day, the glorious character of this type of divine love is routinely denied or
obscured by a blanket universalization of the love of God. To announce to
people indiscriminately that God loves them “unconditionally” (without
carefully distinguishing among the distinctive types of divine love) is to
promote a perilous false sense of security in the hearers.
But how about 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.

His love is for everyone who believe in Jesus.

John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not
see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

God’s love of complacency is the special delight and pleasure He takes first of
all in His only-begotten Son. It is Christ who is the beloved of the Father,
supremely; He is the Son in whom the Father is “well pleased.”
Matthew 3:17
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well
pleased."

By adoption in Christ, every believer shares in this divine love of


complacency. It is the love enjoyed by Jacob, but not by Esau.
Romans 9:13
Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Malachi 1:2
"I have loved you," says the LORD. But you ask, "How have You loved us?" "Was not
Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet Jacob I have loved,

This love is reserved for the redeemed in whom God delights — not because
there is anything inherently lovely or delightful in us — but we are so united to
Christ, the Father’s Beloved, by faith that the love the Father has for the Son
spills over onto us. God’s love for us is pleasing and sweet to Himself
1 John 4:19
19
We love because he first loved us.
God is eternal and so His love

Jeremiah 31:3

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:


[a]
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose.
[i]

Romans 8:29
For those God foreknew / God Love he also predestined to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Romans 8:30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also
justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
The promise of Gods love for us is rooted in our faith to Him the reason
Gods love us is not when we first put our faith in Him but God so love us
that is why we put our faith in Him our faith is the result of Gods love.

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