the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Ti. 3: 5–7; cf. 2: 10–14; 1 Jn. 4: 9–10).
The Love of God
(Part 5)
This article continues our study of God’s love as expressed in the New Testament.
God’s Philanthropia
Love of Man
In Titus 3: 3 the apostle Paul presented a graphic description of unsaved
man’s fallen disposition. He wrote to
Titus, “We ourselves were also once
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
various lusts and pleasures, living in
malice and envy, hateful and hating one
another.” In essence, he said that fallen,
unsaved people are self-centered. They
want every circumstance of life to
please them and every human being to
treat them the way they desire. In light
of this fallen disposition, unsaved people deserve God’s judgment.
In Titus 3: 4 Paul contrasted unsaved
humanity’s self-centered disposition with
God’s disposition toward unsaved
humanity. Using a Greek word that
emphasizes contrast,1 he wrote, “but
when the kindness and the love of God
our Savior toward man appeared . . .”
Paul’s point was that unsaved people
deserve God’s judgment because of their
self-centeredness, but God is kindly disposed and loving toward them.
The word translated “kindness” also
means “goodness” and “generosity.”
2
The Greek word translated “love” (
philanthropia, literally meaning “love for
mankind”
3) refers to “benevolent condescension,” “help in time of need,” and
“what is ‘useful’ to man.”
4 In Paul’s statement it refers to “favour of God to man.”
5
In Titus 3: 4 Paul also referred to the
time “when the kindness and the love of
God our Savior toward man appeared.”
The word translated “appeared” belongs
to a family of Greek words that sometimes refer to “a visible manifestation of
a hidden divinity, either in the form of a
personal appearance, or by some deed of
power by which its presence is made
known.”
6 Consequently, Paul indicated
that there was a time when God, who is
invisible to mortals (Jn. 1: 18; 1 Tim. 1: 17;
6: 16), revealed His kindness and love for
them “through some wondrous act that
awes and impresses.”
7 That act was
God’s sending of His eternal Son from
heaven to Earth to become incarnated in
human flesh so that He could die as the
substitute sacrifice for mankind and be
resurrected from death. Through that
act, God provided for man salvation
from eternal judgment and the gift of
eternal life.
Paul indicated this is so by referring
to God as “our Savior” and declaring,
Not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of
God’s Agapao Love
of Believers
Scripture indicates God loves people who have placed their faith in
Christ His Son and that no person,
thing, or event will ever be able to
break God’s bond of agapao love for
His believers. Paul emphasized this
fact in Romans 8:37–39:
Yet in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor principalities
nor powers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor height nor depth,
nor any other created thing, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The fact that Paul used the Greek
word agapao for God’s love for believers
instead of philanthropia, the love He has
for unsaved man, indicates that these
are different types of love. Therefore,
God’s love for believers has distinctive
characteristics that His philanthropia love
for unsaved man does not have, as indicated by the family relationship that
exists between God and believers.
The apostle John wrote to believers,
“Behold what manner of love the Father
has bestowed on us, that we should be
called children of God! . . . Beloved, now
we are children of God” (1 Jn. 3:1– 2). John
also declared, “Whoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (5:1).
Paul told believers in Galatia, “You
are all sons of God through faith in
Christ Jesus. And because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba,
Father!’ . . . and if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ” (Gal. 3: 26; 4: 6–7).
He told believers in Rome, “For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God. . . . You received
the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry
38
JULY/AUGUST 2011
