Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Week 5: The Love of God — Chapter 6

Read Chapter 6 of Knowing God ("He Loves Me"). Key Scripture: John 3:16; Romans 5:6–8; 1 John 4:7–19.

Of all the truths about God, few are so universally claimed and so rarely understood at depth — Packer presses us to think harder about what divine love actually means.

Discussion Questions

7 questions

1.Packer argues that God's love is not a vague general benevolence toward humanity in the abstract, but a specific, personal, costly love for real individuals. How does that distinction change the emotional and devotional weight of a phrase like "God loves you"?

2.Packer emphasizes that God's love is not a response to anything lovely or loveable in us — it is spontaneous, free, and rooted in who God is rather than who we are. How does this understanding of love differ from the way love typically works in human relationships, and why does the difference matter?

3.Packer points to Romans 5:8 — "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" — as the definitive proof of divine love. Why is the cross the only adequate demonstration of this love, rather than, say, creation, providential blessings, or answered prayers?

4.Packer is careful to distinguish God's universal love for all human beings from the particular, electing love He has for His people. This distinction is often controversial. How do you understand it, and how does wrestling with it affect your sense of assurance?

5.1 John 4:19 says "we love because he first loved us." How should understanding ourselves as *receivers* of divine love — rather than initiators — reshape the way we relate to God in prayer and the way we treat other people?

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Closing Prayer

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Father, You are love itself — and You loved us before we were loveable, while we were still Your enemies, at the cost of Your own Son. Forgive us for treating Your love as a vague background fact rather than the most explosive truth in the universe. Let the words "He loves me" become something we feel in our bones, not just confess with our lips. Drive out our fear, our performance anxiety, and our secret sense that we must earn Your favour. You have already given us Your best. Help us live from that love rather than toward it. Amen.

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