God’s Faithfulness and Love
Faith in the Bible is associated very closely with love. Much has been written about faith, hope, and love. Faith and love appear together more than twice the number of times as faith and hope. In the Old Testament, the association of faith and love relate mainly to God’s love and faithfulness.The Bible does not speak about God’s faith but about God’s faithfulness, which is His loyalty to His children. Faithfulness and love are divine qualities. David said: “For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies”—Psalm 57:10.
It is impossible to separate God’s faithfulness from His love. God’s love is His commitment to act always in the best interest of His people. His love endures forever; His faithfulness is eternal. “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations”—Psalm 100:5.
God being eternally the same, He knows the end from the beginning. His love never fails, even when we do not sense His presence. It is in Proverbs 20:6, that we read: “Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?” This can never be said of God because His faithful love endures forever. “For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord”—Psalm 117:2.
Man’s faith and love
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” We please God by doing what He asks us to do. We please God by doing what He requires of us. No one can do that without faith. And what has God asked of us? What is required of us? Simply to love: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . . . Love your neighbor as yourself”—Matthew 22:37-39. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”—Micah 6:8.
The greatest pleasure is the pleasure of pleasing God. To please God is to love, which generates faith. The Apostle Paul says faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). Ellen White presents her comments on this text: “Genuine faith always works by love. When you look to Calvary it is . . . to create faith in Jesus”—The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1111. She goes on to add that “The labor of love springs from the work of faith.”
Love is not something that comes and goes from day to day. When we have faith we take pleasure in loving God and others. As God has loved us, so must we learn to love even our enemies. Love brings happiness to a heart filled with faith and enables it to love God and one’s fellow human being willingly and unselfishly.
Pierre Omeler is the executive secretary for the Atlantic Union Conference.
This editorial first appeared in the February 2019 issue of The Atlantic Union Gleaner magazine, page 3.