The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith
Week 7: Chapter 6 — God Is Love
Read Chapter 6 of The Good and Beautiful God. Key Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21; John 3:16; Romans 8:38-39.
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'God is love' may be the most quoted sentence in all of Christianity — and perhaps the least deeply felt. This week, let Smith lead you beneath the slogan to the staggering reality it points to.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Smith observes that 'God is love' (1 John 4:8) is one of only two places in the Bible where the writer makes an equation of God's identity with an attribute — not merely that God loves, but that he is love. Why does that distinction matter? What does it mean for love to be not just something God does but something God is?
2.Smith draws on the theological tradition that sees the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as a community of eternal, self-giving love that existed before creation. If God is love within himself, what does that tell us about why he created the world? About why he redeems it?
3.There is a difference between knowing intellectually that God loves you and experiencing that love as a present reality. On a scale of 1-10, how real does God's love feel to you on an average Tuesday? What factors push that number up or down?
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