question.
So I was just having some awesome late-night conversations on msn (thanks Kailey and Jason) and now it's 4:30 am and I'm sitting here at my computer playing mindsweeper and pondering. I just had this question pop into my head and I thought I may as well throw it out there in case any of you have been craving some discussion:
Does God love us because of who we are or because of who he is?
There you go. Maybe I'm just too tired to see the answer right now... it is 4:30 am...
Miss you.
-Charis.
Does God love us because of who we are or because of who he is?
There you go. Maybe I'm just too tired to see the answer right now... it is 4:30 am...
Miss you.
-Charis.
posted by charis at 12/23/2005 04:30:00 a.m.
12 Comments:
who he is, he made us in his image...
That sounds like a line right from a newboy song. But I would have to say that he loves us because of who he is. Like who would want to love someone who continual mess up, we all do. It's Ginuwine love to love someone who hurts you all the time.
I'd have to agree
yuppers thats it
God loves us because of who he is.... he's a God of love right? I don't think God could love us for who we are because we screw up so much and are so sinful and he isn't. It is because him that he loves us. so basically I agree with hepting.
Not to menchin that by him loving us, he sets the best ecample of loving your neibour and how we should love.
If God were to love us for who we are, that would mean that there is something in us that he needs: companionship, affirmation, character traits, even love. Some people think that God made us because he was lonely, or to make him feel good about himself like a craftsmen shaping the perfect table. Or maybe he made us so he could feel what it is like to be loved. But that thinking reduces God from who he really is, like making him in our image instead of the other way around. He is absolutely complete in and of himself, and is in need of nothing. It is true that he desires our friendship and absorbs our praise, but he does not need them. This is how complete his love is for us: that he created us because he wanted to, in spite of all the pain and grief we would bring to him. That he would be genuinely pleased with our feeble worship and adoration even though he needs them less than most North Americans need Christmas presents. He loves us entirely because that is who he is.
... and by the way charis... it's minesweeper.... not mindsweeper.... you're so cute!
So i agree that God loves us because of who He is, but does it end there?...I think that God can watch us growing and struggling and be filled with love, and that He can love the things we do and offer, and so in loving those things(our actions), is He loving us? Because if it is, then is He loving us for who we are as well? There is no doubt that God loves us because of who He is, but does that mean that He also loves us because of who we are as well?
well, he obviously doesnt like the bad actions....im talking about the good ones.....just thought id throw that in there.....
To add onto what Kailey's saying, I don't think God loves us just in spite of ourselves like a dog owner loves his dumb dog (haha, cats rule). Sure, it takes genuine love to keep on loving us even while we're screwing up. He created us, he made us in his own image, put us in charge of the earth, gave us free will, which is more than what he gave his angels. So while this seem like an attempt to put humanity on a pedestal, it's really not. But I really think God also loves us because of who we are (in other words, who he has made us to be). Just throwin that out there to be chewed on.
Well this is tough becuase I think I mostly agree with just about everything that's been posted so far... oh, and Anonymous, don't judge me for my spelling, I was tired. Two responses to Jason's comment: First off, that dog analogy was the one I told you! Second, I believe angels do have free will... how else did Satan happen? As for the initial question... If God partially loves us for who we are it's only because he chose to make us that way, so in a way that's still loving us because of who he is. I don't think we can deserve God's love any more than we can deserve Christ dying for us. But for me that opens up a whole lot more questions that people never really seem to really deal with... Does God like us? Is it bad to want God to like me? Does God care about the smaller detalis of our lives? Does he really care about individuals or is he always just willing to sacrifice them for the good of the whole (I thought I had that one figured out and then I wrote a paper on how many people God murdered in the Pentateuch). The reason I was awake for most of that night was because, even though I want to, I can't seem to manage to really fully believe a lot of the answers I've been told in response to questions like those. It seems like people just keep throwing cliches at me instead of really looking at what the Bible says. And sometimes, the things that the Bible says, especially in the New Testament, seem honestly so out of character compared to the God of the Old Testament. I like the god that I've got all figured out in my head a lot better than the God that Scripture seems to be talking about. My god's safe. He's nice. He's tame... The god that I've been raised to believe in, the one that I think I'm following in my daily life, is a God that loves me for who I am. But I don't think Yahweh's actually like that. I think you guys are all right, he loves because of who he is. And that scares me. I'm not living that way. Not yet, anyway.
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