Here’s an interesting exercise.
Scripture is clear: God is love (cf 1John 48&16). Not
just friendship love, not just sexual love, but pure selfless love. The word
used is “agape” with is describe as absolute, selfless love. God is absolute,
selfless love.
So then, anywhere that the Bible discusses agape love, we can
insert God there: because God IS love (not just “is loving”), then a definition
of love must ipso facto be a definition of God.
Take the “Love Chapter” for example, 1 Corinthians 13.

“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
And so we can describe God this way:
“4 God is patient, God is kind. He does not envy, He does
not boast, He is not proud. 5 He does not dishonor others, He is not
self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. 6 God
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 He always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
I rather like that way of thinking. God is love. This is
what love is like. Therefore this is what my God is like.
Then I expanded my thinking.
We’ve been discussing hell in conversations on my wall. So I
look at what this says about God, and I ask how that speaks to my understanding
of hell.
This one caught me in particular: “He keeps no record of
wrongs.”
He’d pulled that card on me some years back, as I was meditating
on Revelation 20 (specifically v12). This passage is often called “The Great
White Throne Judgment.”
I hate that term, not because it’s wrong, but because it
carries so much baggage. We declare this is “The Great White Throne Judgment,” and we think we understand that. So we stop asking
questions, we stop learning.
Nevertheless, the verse in question says, “The dead were
judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”
It doesn’t say what that judgment is, but this judgment is
not about hell or a lake of fire, for v15 says, “Anyone whose name was not
found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” That’s a
different judgment, apparently at a different time, and certainly judgment according
to a different standard.
So as I was reflecting on what it meant to be “judged according
to what they had done as recorded in the books,” Father spoke up. “Those books
are not a complete record.”
Wait, what? Hmm. Well, the text certainly never says that
the record is complete, only that there is a record.
He took me to 1 Corinthians 13:5, which says, “[Love] keeps
no record of wrongs,” and patiently explained. “I keep no record of wrongs.” He
went on. “This judgment is about rewards.” And he took me to 1 Corinthians
3:12-15. “Judgment is about rewards more than about punishment.” OK. I can see
that.
But what about Revelation 20:15, those whose name is not in
the Book of Life? This brought an interesting response. “Why are you so sure
you know what the Book of Life really is. I’ve never defined it.”
Hmm. That’s true. [see https://nwp.link/BookOfLife]. OK. I’ll
take that on out of the “Things I know” category and put it into the “Things I
have some thoughts about” category.
By the way, a friend described that “lake of fire” judgment
in a way that made sense to me: Matthew 25:41 is clear that this eternal fire
is “prepared for the devil and his angels.” It was never prepared for humans.
And we assume (Scripture doesn’t say, as far as I can tell)
that no demon, no angel of hell has its name in the Book of Life. That being
the case, their destiny is that lake of fire. But that’s not our focus.
There are humans who have not yet let go of the demons
that have haunted them, controlled them, who still cling to them. If they are
unwilling to let go of their addiction to that demon that is thrown into the
lake of fire, then those people will still be attached to the demon as it lands
in the lake of fire. This is the result of a free will wielded unwisely.
And then my friend and I discuss whether God still loves
these poor, bound, suffering people whose deception put them into a lake of
fire? And we asked whether God would abandon them there, or whether his love would
move him to keep wooing them in that hellacious place.
And we thought some more. What is God really like?
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