LOVE

Cameron Thomas

I'm In My Feelings • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

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Genesis 1:

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Different Types of Love:

Eros - Sensual or Romantic Love

Storge - Family Love, the affectionate bond that develops between parents and children

Philia - Brotherly Love, the concept that brotherly love unites believers.

Agape - God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind.

Love in Creation

Through creation, God reveals his own being.

In Adam, God reveals himself not only as Creator but as self-giving love.

God does this by taking what initially seems “formless and empty” and brings about complexity and organization. But order is hardly the point of it all. It is merely a means to a goal. The goal is the creation of humans in the image of the God who reveals himself.

In Adam, God reveals himself not only as Creator but as self-giving love.

Humans, therefore, are not only loved by God but are created with a capacity to love and reciprocate love.

Humans are created to love God, fellow men, and God’s gift of creation.

Therefore, we were created to be givers.

The Human Problem with Love

Since humanity is founded in love, human existence is one of freedom.

God did not create automations (robots) but beings who are beautiful, interesting, and worthwhile for their own sake. They are able to, of their own free will, reflect the love received.

Love as self-giving implies the possibility of rejection.

The tree in the garden now finds a place in this storyline.

The tree points to the fundamental significance of trust as a vital aspect of love.

The serpent comes with a deceitful promise that makes them doubt God.

Sin is rooted in unbelief , lack of faith. Sin happens when we don’t believe God has our back. We are trying to protect a future that we have created for ourselves.

Sin is rooted in a failed attempt to gain false divine status.

Sin is isolation because it severs one’s ties with everything around.

As inability to trust, isolation leads to enslavement.

Autonomy becomes a curse, a self-creation that affords one no rest.

Love in Redemption

In Paul’s testimony, he declares that he was a captive not to the law, but to his own sin.

The same God who loved us in creation initiates redemption of his sinful creation.

It is in that the writer tells us that it is the same Word that God sends to redeem us.

Christ engages us unconditionally, making himself vulnerable to his own people’s rejection.

According to Athenasius of Alexandria, Christ’s resurrection (unconditional engagement) overcomes the two major human afflictions:

Sin

Death

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.

“I don’t need to bury it, I can bring it.”