Chapter 3: Abundant Lovingkindness
已更新：10月6日
Bible Reading:
Psalms 103:8
Jeremiah 2:2
Hosea 11:4, 3:1
Isaiah 49:15
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
Ephesians 3:18-19
Abundant Lovingkindness
God truly is a God of abundant riches. Not only does He possess abundant forgiveness and abundant grace, He also possesses abundant love. The Bible specifically records that God is love, so whenever we speak of the richness of God’s love, God surely delights in it—because this touches His heart most deeply.
Because God’s love is so rich, the Bible uses many expressions to describe it. For example: Ephesians 2:4 records: "because of His great love with which He loved us.." God’s love is not an ordinary love—it is a great love. 1 John 3:1 says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" Here we are told to see, to pay attention to the kind of love the Father has given us. The phrase “what manner” highlights how extraordinary this love is. Psalms 103:8: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." (ESV) This tells us that God's love is abounding. Ephesians 3:18: "what is the width and length and depth and height..." The Bible uses the largest possible words—width, length, height, depth—to describe how full and immeasurable God’s love is. And verse 19 continues: "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge" Truly, it is beyond human ability to measure or comprehend.
Regarding the richness of God’s love, we can begin to grasp it—however slightly—from several different angles.
Fresh Love
Ever since humanity fell, all things in the universe have been subjected to futility. As the days pass, everything gradually becomes old and decays. Only God’s love remains forever fresh. According to common experience, if we want to keep something fresh, one essential factor cannot be missing: it must continually receive supply from its source. For example, if we close all the windows in a room, within an hour the air inside will become stale and stagnant. We must open the windows again to let fresh air flow in. Only when the source supplies anew does the air become fresh again. In the same way, if the love God gives us to experience is fresh, then there must be His abundant love as its source—continuously supplying, never ceasing. Only then can we receive fresh love.
How can we know that the love God gives us is fresh? Jeremiah 2:2 records: “Thus says the Lord: I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal.…” God describes His love using marital affection, and this imagery itself conveys newness. Whenever a couple marries, we call the man the bridegroom and the woman the bride—pointing to the freshness of marriage. The love between God and us is likewise marital love, a picture of God’s ever‑fresh love. Since what God gives us to experience is fresh love, it shows that He has a rich and abundant lovingkindness as its source—continually supplying us with His steadfast love.
Dear brothers and sisters, God’s love is so exceedingly rich. Every time we taste His love, it feels fresh and sweet to our hearts. So one hymn says:
“The Lord’s love is fresh and sweet;
I lift my voice to praise.
Since He suffered for me,
And now dwells within my heart,
He gives me life and peace,
Supports and cares without cease.
The longer I know His love, the fresher it becomes;
The longer I know His love, the sweeter it becomes.”
The Lord’s abundant love supplies us again and again. As we experience it more deeply, we can truly sing: “The longer I know His love, the fresher it becomes; the longer I know His love, the sweeter it becomes.”
Binding Love
Hosea 12:4 says,“I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love.” This describes the richness of God’s love—a love that comes upon His people with a kind of binding power, and therefore we may call it a binding love. Since the ordinary use of cords is to bind things together, the Bible shows that God’s love is so rich that it becomes a force, like cords, binding a person and drawing him so that he cannot but walk in God’s way for his whole life.
It goes on to say,"And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them." How tender the master is toward the ox: he loosens the yoke from it's jaw to give it freedom, and then places food before it. This means that he draws the ox by supplying it with love, attracting it by setting the sweetness of love before its eyes. God deals with us in the same way. On one hand, He loosens us and gives us freedom; on the other hand, He places the supply of His love before us—feeding us, drawing us, and causing us to follow Him continually. His love leads us to walk willingly on the path He has arranged for us. Because of the binding power of His love, we would rather surrender our freedom, obey His will, and bring Him delight, than indulge the flesh and go our own way, wounding His heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, God’s rich love draws us with cords of kindness and bands of love. On the other hand, this shows that His love is not thin or fragile. Rather, His love is thick, strong, and resilient—a love that cannot be broken, escaped, or shaken off. It reveals how firm, solid, and irresistibly powerful God’s love is, drawing us with such force that we willingly and joyfully walk the path He has set before us for our whole lives.
Patient Love
Psalms 103:8 says, "The Lord is me w to anger" is a patient love. The more love there is, the greater the patience becomes, and the less easily one becomes angry. Sometimes we see a mother feeding her child; the child simply refuses to eat, yet the mother endures in countless ways, trying every method she can so that the child will finish the meal, until he is full. This is the patient love. This fact shows us that it is not because the child is ‘well‑behaved,’ but because the mother ‘loves.’ Here is a great love, fully expressed through patience. In the same way, God’s great and abundant love is most clearly manifested in His patience.
We can point to an example from the Old Testament to show how God’s abundant love is expressed through His patience. The prophet Jonah was sent by the Lord to the great city of Nineveh to proclaim to its inhabitants: ‘In forty days, Nineveh will be overturned.’ The people of Nineveh believed God and immediately declared a fast; from the greatest to the least, all put on sackcloth. When this message reached the king of Nineveh, he stepped down from his throne, removed his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He then issued a proclamation throughout Nineveh, saying: No one may taste anything; neither humans nor livestock—cattle or sheep—may eat or drink water. Both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must earnestly call upon God. When God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring upon them the disaster He had threatened.
This greatly displeased Jonah, and he became very angry. He prayed, saying: "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm."(Jonah 4:2)
Beloved brothers and sisters, it is not that the city of Nineveh was without sin; rather, it was that God is slow to anger, possessing a great love of patience, waiting for them to repent. When they heard Jonah’s warning and turned from their ways, the Lord—slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love—did not bring upon Nineveh the disaster He had spoken. The prophet Jonah had long understood that the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in lovingkindness, and One who relents from sending calamity. That is precisely why he fled to Tarshish. Here we see a clear contrast: before Nineveh repented, the Lord intended to bring judgment, and Jonah believed this was right. But when the people of Nineveh repented and the Lord forgave them, Jonah believed this was wrong. Thus he became greatly displeased and very angry. This shows us how vast the difference is between God’s love and human love. God’s love is abundant and overflowing, while human love is almost nonexistent, at most only a speck of dust.
Thanks be to God! Because of His abundant lovingkindness, we cannot help but feel endless gratitude and offer unceasing praise. If God were to deal with us strictly according to righteousness, we would have long been destroyed. How wonderful that He is rich in lovingkindness, slow to anger, and treats us with patience—this is why we are here today. From this we deeply understand that one aspect of God’s abundant love is expressed through His limitless patience; this is His patient love.
Forbearing Love
Hosea 3:1 recorded that the Lord said to prophet Hosea: "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans." This passage shows that one aspect of God’s abundant lovingkindness is expressed through the love that bears and embraces. Hosea represents the loving God, and the adulterous woman represents the people of Israel. Although Israel turned to other gods and was unfaithful to the Lord—just as an adulterous woman is unfaithful to her husband—yet the Lord still loved them. This reveals the great, forbearing love of God.
Anyone who does not love God wholeheartedly, whose heart is occupied by the people, things, and attractions of the world, is an adulteress. Today, many Christians love the world and love money rather than loving God. In God’s eyes, this is spiritual adultery. If God did not have a love that bears and embraces, we would have long been cast away. It is not that God refuses to judge our unfaithfulness, but that He waits for us to repent because He is rich in steadfast love. How can such a forbearing love not deeply move us? Even a person with a heart of iron and stone cannot remain unmoved.
The prophet Jeremiah likewise testified to God's forbearing love, saying, "'If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,' says the Lord." (Jeremiah 3:1) Here again we confirmed that God’s abundant lovingkindness is fully expressed through His limitless forbearance.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He vividly displayed God’s forbearing love. John 8 records that the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They said to Jesus, ‘In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?’ Jesus replied, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ When they heard this, they went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, leaving Jesus alone. Jesus then said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’ (John 8:11) Does this not show us that God has a forbearing love?
Beloved brothers and sisters, God’s abundant lovingkindness is fully expressed through His forbearing love. Its purpose is not to overlook our evil, nor to encourage us to sin. God is forever holy and righteous; He will surely judge sin. The reason we speak of His great, forbearing love is so that we may recognize the richness of His lovingkindness, and be moved, melted, and conquered by His great love—so that we would no longer dare to harbor thoughts that offend God or deliberately wound His heart. Instead, we should love Him more, and with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength seek to please Him.
Remembering Love
Isaiah 49:15 says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." Normally, a mother would never forget the infant she is nursing; even if she were to forget, the Lord would never forget us. This is the love that remembers—God’s abundant lovingkindness expressed through yet another facet of remembrance. God forever remembers us, and this truly moves us deeply, strengthens us greatly, and encourages our hearts.
David had a son named Absalom. His sister Tamar was violated by her half‑brother Amnon. Absalom therefore plotted revenge, killed Amnon, and fled to Geshur, where he stayed for three years. The Bible says that David’s heart longed deeply for Absalom (2 Sam 13:39). In the end, through Joab’s counsel and the wise woman’s persuasion, David allowed Absalom to return home. David’s love for Absalom is a picture of God’s love for us—a Father’s remembering love. It is not that we have no sin; we are all great sinners deserving death. Yet astonishingly, our Father keeps us in His heart, never forgetting us. Such remembering love moves our hearts deeply on one hand, and on the other hand strengthens our faith to entrust ourselves to Him. For He is the Almighty God, and He is the One who never ceases to remember us.
Luke 15 records that after the younger son received his inheritance from his father, he left home, wandered far away, squandered all he had, and then faced famine. In extreme poverty he finally returned home. The Bible says that while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, felt compassion, ran to him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him repeatedly. The father saw him because ever since the younger son left home, the father had remembered him constantly—perhaps losing sleep, perhaps unable to eat, longing day after day for his son’s return. Because his remembering love was exceedingly rich, it compelled him to wait daily with deep yearning for his son to come home. Once he saw his son returning from afar, he could not remain inside the house; he immediately ran to embrace him and kiss him again and again. Here the Father’s remembering love is fully expressed.
Dear brothers and sisters, God’s abundant love is also revealed to us through His remembering heart. How can we not feel supreme comfort and deep gratitude, knowing that there is a God who remembers us in love and renews our strength? A poet with profound spiritual experience once wrote:
Amid the trials which I meet,
Amid the thorns that pierce my feet,
One thought remains supremely sweet,
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me!
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me;
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me;
What need I fear, since Thou art near,
And thinkest, Lord, of me!
Let shadows come, let shadows go,
Let life be bright or dark with woe;
I am content, for this I know,
Thou thinkest, Lord, of me!
Compelling Love
Christ laid down His life for us; no love is greater than this. The Bible declares that among all the expressions of God’s abundant lovingkindness, this is the greatest. When this love comes upon us, it becomes the ‘compelling love.’ Therefore 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 says, "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." The word "compel" in English carries the sense of a mighty flood pressing upon us. It describes the great love of Christ who died for us—like overwhelming waters surging against us—so that we cannot remain passive, cannot live for ourselves, but must live for the Lord who died and rose again for us.
Once, an man from remote village visited Niagara Falls in America—the largest waterfall in the world, twenty‑six miles in length and about two miles wide. The waters roared with tremendous force. After seeing it, he asked, "When will all this water finally run out?" Someone answered, "This water will never run out."
In the same way, the Bible teaches that God’s abundant love—the compelling love that comes upon us through Christ’s substitutionary death—flows toward us like a mighty flood that is endless, inexhaustible, and never ceases.
Brothers and sisters, the moment we are born again and saved, and when the cross of Christ is vividly set before our eyes, are we not deeply compelled by Christ’s great love—His giving of His life, His shedding of His blood, His dying in our place—that we gladly offer ourselves and desire to live for Him all our days? Through Christ’s substitutionary death and this compelling love, we truly taste that God’s lovingkindness is as high as the heavens and as deep as the earth, incomparable and unmatchable. Even if the seas were to dry up and the rocks crumble, His love would never change—boundless, limitless, and without end!
Immeasurable Love
The Bible can only describe God’s abundant lovingkindness with words such as ‘the breadth and length and height and depth,’ and ‘surpassing knowledge,’ for no human words are sufficient to measure it.
Breadth
Psalms 33:17 says, "The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." "The earth is full of" refers to every corner of the earth; the whole world is filled with God's love. In the Philippines there is God’s love; when you fly to Japan, there is God’s love; when you cross the Pacific Ocean to the Americas, there is God’s love; even if you travel on to Europe, there is still God’s love; and when you arrive in Africa, there is yet God’s love. The whole earth is full of the lovingkindness of God.
Matthew 5:45 records: "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Because the whole earth is filled with God’s lovingkindness, whether righteous or unrighteous, good or evil, wherever human beings exist, in every place, people can see the lovingkindness of God. Oh, how exceedingly wide God’s love is!
Length
Psalm 103:17 says, "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting..." This tells us that God’s lovingkindness stretches to such a length that it runs from eternity past to eternity future. A human lifespan is only seventy or eighty years, and if someone lives to one hundred, he is already considered long‑lived. But ‘everlasting’ cannot be compared with one hundred years, or one thousand years, or even ten thousand years. Eternity is time without end—endless ages, infinite duration. Oh, God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting; it is love that is forever and ever. Its length is immeasurable. This love continues without ceasing, without termination—enduring as long as heaven and earth, with no end at all.
When we believe in Jesus, the salvation God gives us is one that will never perish (John 10:28). He grants us eternal life (John 10:28). The Holy Spirit given to us is also the eternal Spirit. And the heavenly inheritance prepared for us is one that can never decay, never be defiled, and never fade away (1 Peter 1:4)—it is eternal. Truly, the lovingkindness of God is long to the extent of everlasting to everlasting, enduring through all ages without end.
Depth
At the same time, God’s lovingkindness is also deep. Psalm 86:13 says, "For great is Your steadfast love toward me; You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." Oh, God’s love is so deep that He rescues us—those who, because of our sins, deserved to descend into the deepest hell—and delivers us from entering that place.
John 13:1 says, "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." Here, it states that the Lord love us ‘to the end’, meaning He loves us throughout our whole life; His love is so deep that it reaches the very end of our days, the very end of our journey—He loves us to the end. No wonder Psalm 23:6 says, "Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life." God’s love follows us all our life long. Oh, how deep God’s lovingkindness is—deep to the very end, deep to the uttermost.
Height
God’s love is also exceedingly high. Psalm 36:5 says, "Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens." What is higher than the heavens? Yet God’s lovingkindness reaches up to the heavens. For in Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3). He has also raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Our blessings and our position are heavenly. How high His lovingkindness is—reaching to the heavens, immeasurable!
Moody, the servant of the Lord greatly used in the nineteenth century, lived and ministered in Chicago in his early years. His messages emphasized God’s righteousness and the coming judgment. One day in Ireland he met a young man who appeared to be no more than seventeen years old, named Henry Moorhouse. The young man introduced himself and told Moody that he hoped to preach in Chicago. Moody was initially indifferent, but several weeks after returning to Chicago, he received a letter from Moorhouse saying he had already arrived in America. Moody reluctantly agreed to let him preach. Since Moody was about to leave town, he instructed the church leaders to let Moorhouse preach for two nights as a trial. Two days later, when Moody returned home, he learned that Moorhouse had preached on ‘God so loved the world,’ and the congregation had been greatly helped—the response was remarkably good.
On the third night Moody personally attended the meeting. Moorhouse again preached on John 3:16. In this way, for six consecutive nights—from Genesis all the way to Revelation—he spoke about how God loves the world. Moody’s heart was melted by the love of God, and tears flowed uncontrollably. On the seventh night, the final night of the meetings, Moorhouse said that he still could not find any verse in the Bible better than this one, so once again he preached on John 3:16. At the close of the meeting, he said, "My friends, I have spent a week trying to tell you how God loves you, but my clumsy tongue has prevented me from completing this mission. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb to heaven to ask God how He loves the world, the archangel Gabriel could at most say, God loves the world, even that He gave His only begotten Son to them, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Moody received a revelation and saw that God is love. He said, "If I could travel the world, I would tell everyone that God is love."
Dear brothers and sisters, God’s lovingkindness reaches up to the heavens; the archangel, speaking for the angels, also tells us that heaven is filled with God’s lovingkindness. Oh! How wide, long, deep, and high is God’s love — it cannot be measured.
How should we respond to God’s love?
Since God has such abundant lovingkindness, how then should we — His redeemed children — receive His great love in a rich and overflowing way?
Receiving God’s great love from Christ
Romans 8:39 says, "Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." This shows that no factor whatsoever can separate us from God's love. However, there is only one place where we can receive God's love, and that is in Christ Jesus. Therefore, if we wish to receive God's great love, we must draw near to Christ, look to Christ, and receive from Christ.
Being Filled with God's Love
Romans 5:5 says, "Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." This tells us that one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to pour God's love into our hearts, so that we may be filled with His love and be able to love Him in return. The love that we possess naturally as human beings is changeable and often fluctuates. However, the love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit is God's unchanging love. It enables us to love God faithfully and steadfastly to the very end.
Love One Another
1 John 4:11 says, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." When God's love is in our hearts, the proper response is, on the one hand, to love God, and on the other hand, to love others and love one another. As we express and manifest God's love, we will experience His lovingkindness more richly and abundantly.
May the Lord open our eyes so that we may see how broad, long, deep, and high God's love is, and may we come to know this love that surpasses all human understanding and measurement.
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