Could God Be Loving, In A Way That Amounts To More Than Merely Intending The Good Of Human Beings?
Metaphysics and the Nature of God
3. Could God be loving, in a way that amounts to more than merely intending the good of human beings?
Introduction
The Christian faith presents a definite world-view in which the God of the universe is revealed as loving. Amongst an abundance of biblical references to God's love, some that may be described as great , immutable , infinite , incomprehensible and many more most are aloof and at times contradicting one another. However, the one claim that we can be assured is irrefutable is that God is "mysterious" . Thus, metaphysics or any other study of man for that matter can never arrive at an indubitable account of God's loving nature. Nonetheless, as a devout Christian my immediate response is that, indeed, an omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely good God is capable of loving in any way He chooses. Nevertheless, departing from one's beliefs, it is possible to philosophically arrive at an assertion that God is' capable of loving, in a way that amounts to more than merely intending the good of human beings.
True Love'
In order to ascertain an accurate account of God's love, we must first distinguish what genuine love is to us humans. Love is a simple and often used term. We use it to describe a lot of our emotions, feelings, actions and so on. However, in doing so we have misapplied and misinterpreted this powerful and meaningful word. We say that we love food; that we love a particular musical band or a type of automobile, such uses for the word have distanced the true meaning of love'. M. Scott Peck says:
Of all the misconceptions about love, the most powerful and pervasive is the belief that falling in love' is love or at the very least one of the manifestations of love
The Experience of falling in love is specifically a sex-linked erotic experience. We do not fall in love with our children even though we may love them...
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