John 3:16-17
God So LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
1 John 4:7-12
God is LOVE and He Sent His Son to Us and for Us
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Matthew 7:13-14
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Jesus reveals to us and His followers throughout the Gospels that God is LOVE...We especially see His LOVE being taught in the Parable of the Prodigal Son...The Father's son has left and taken half of His inheritance...The Prodigal Son spends it aimlessly and squanders one half of his Father's estate...So the son must return to his Father just to eat and sustain himself...Would his Father be mad and angry...Not this Father...The Father goes running to His lost son in LOVE...God had given the prodigal son free will and freedom and the son took it, as well as one half of His Father's estate...But the son found out that out in the world, it can be destructive on the wide road of freedom of choice...The Father could have condemned His son for what he had done, but He did not...The Father LOVES His son...And we read about the prodigal sin we learn about LOVE, Forgiveness, and the Grace of God...
I think sometimes we miss that Jesus taught that God is LOVE, but He taught about it often...St. John, on of Jesus' original Twelve Disciples certainly learned this from Him...The relationship Jesus has with His Father is LOVE, and that is the way He wants us to be with His Father...St. John very much wrote about the LOVE God and Jesus has for us, and is called the Beloved Disciple...
St. John who was taught by Jesus, writes that God is LOVE...And a favorite verse that is in St. John's writing is that for God so LOVED the world that He gave his One and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life...For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him...And then St: John adds in his first epistle that this is how God showed His LOVE among us: He sent His One and Only Son into the world that we might live through Him...
Author Philip Yancey put it this way, “Jesus reveals a God who comes in search of us, a God who makes room for our freedom, a God who is vulnerable...Above all, Jesus reveals a God who is LOVE...Those raised in a Christian tradition may miss the shock of Jesus’ message, but in truth love has never been a normal way of describing what happens between human beings and their God...Not once does the Koran apply the word love to God...Aristotle stated bluntly, “It would be eccentric for anyone to claim that he loved Zeus”—or that Zeus loved a human being, for that matter...In dazzling contrast the Christian Bible affirms, “God is LOVE,” and cites LOVE as the main reason Jesus came to earth: “This is how God showed His LOVE among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.”