Reply To: Soteriology (Laity) 2024/2025 Discussion Board 1

[Chibuike Onyeogulu]

Your breakdown of true versus false understandings of God’s love is both comprehensive and practically insightful. You’ve captured how agape transcends and stabilizes our human loves, and how a firm grasp of it guards us against relational abuse or disillusionment.
What I love in your outline:
1. You start by naming the very real danger of mis-understanding God’s love—without accurate doctrine, abuse takes flight.
2. Your “Truths about God’s Love” section (A–C) is well-structured: you define agape, show its unconditional/sacrificial nature, and stress its all-encompassing reach. That scaffolding helps any reader see why the Gospel call to love truly is world-changing.
3. Your “Three distinctions from friendship love” bring out fresh angles—risk, motivation, duration—that expose our typical, self-protective instincts and contrast them with God’s fearless, selfless, everlasting devotion.
Beyond your outline—next avenues to explore:
• The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Love: How does the Spirit empower us to receive agape and then pour it out to others (Romans 5:5)?
• Love in Judgment: True agape doesn’t ignore sin. How does God’s love lead Him to discipline lovingly (Hebrews 12) and yet provide restoration?
• Practical outworkings: What does living under agape look like in conflict resolution, in financial generosity, in church discipline?