"God is love"
-- 1 John 4:8 & 16
This biblical assertion, unbeknownst by pop culture today is not a characterizing statement about the nature of a trait of God. This view superimposes the subjective love ideal of man onto an eternal wholly "other" being that our minds cannot comprehend in the first place. Rather, this statement is a call for humans to redefine the cultural love ideal based on the objective reality that is God as revealed by His Spirit in His Word.
This one statement is so crucial to the entire idea of who God is, how He works, how He relates to us, and how we realte to Him. It is in this statement that the Bible, the Gospel, and our Future Glory are fully realized. Let's explore:
As stated above, the statement does not say to man, "whatever your conceptualization is of love, that is what your conceptualization of God must be." It is natural for humans to do this regardless of the verse itself. It's how we were built. Study after study reveal that one's conceptualization of God is based primarily on the examples of love modeled to them by their parents. One's parents model love (or lack thereof), and through the intrinsic created mechanism of association between God and love, they link the two. They end up defining love and creating their expectation(s) of it based upon what their parents do or do not do.
Socio-cultural factors play a large part in this mechanism as well, as this association helps forms the necessary heuristics (mental shortcuts) humans require to survive. This makes the created mechanism not only of emotional and spiritual relevance, but also practical importance as it is also functional. God has built humans very specifically and my hope is that in this blog, I can show that no part is for one purpose, and no part is for no purpose. This includes your desires, your drives, your needs, and all the psychologically functional mechanisms we use to live life. All these have spiritual implications as well as practical ones.
So much more can be built upon that one truth, but it will at a later date, I assure you. I could base an entire blog on that one verse and its ramifications for humans, but here I feel it is prudent to use this merely as a foundation and launching pad to use for further future study. So, the foundation I want you to remember is this:
If saying "God is love" is meant to effect how we view love, it follows that this new view of love must be based upon God, his attributes, ways, and words. This means not only can we see how God loves and use that to see how we love, but, we can also see how God loves relationally and see how that effects how we view our relationships. Here are some basic tenets from which most of the rest of this blog will forever be based upon. This list is not comprehensive, it just contains the bigger ones:
-- If God is love, and we are not God, then we in and of ourselves don't know love or have love. This helps define love positionally. (1 John 4:8)
-- We are built to want and need this love we don't have. This helps define love eperientially. (Proverbs 19:22)
-- If God's ultimate manifestation of His love was not only in sending His son, but also in giving us the possible relationship in that, then, God 's love is further testified to by the nature of Christ's relationship with his Church (believers). This helps define love relationally. (1 John 4:10)
-- The love of God not only satisfies the angst of knowing we are not God and thus have not love (1 Corinthians 2:9), but it also creates a future hope and faith the rest of the satisfied Christian life is based upon, making God's revelation of love not only preeminent to but also greater than those other "Christian things" it produces (1 Corinthians 13:13) This defines love functionally and effectually.
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Basically, theologically speaking, psychotheology is the study of God's image in man. God said in Genesis "Let us make man in our own image." Now, theologians have argued for centuries as to what extent this "image" goes. Some say it is the "self-determination of man" that is the main attribute of God's image in us. Others say the fact that we have a "spiritual side" is chracteristic of God's image in us. Still others say it is our reason. I believe "the image of God" in us stands for the standard to which we are designed to desire to live. Long story short, God's image in us tells us that the more we are like God (inasmuch as general attributes, desires, and outworkings thereof) the more we are who we are made to be and the more mentally and emotionally functional, healthy, and efficient we will be. If the "being like God" thing messes you up, then just substitute with "being like God in flesh, Jesus"; it is said he is our example for human living but he is also God, and Lord, though. We can't forget that.
So, in conclusion, the more we love like God, speak like God (using His words), desire what God desires, behave like Jesus, and draw near to him in order to do this, we will be more "psychotheologically" healthy and stable.
Next post: The Historical/Psychological Foundations of Psychotheolgy
As always, God Bless,
--Paul<><
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