What is God the Father like? By that, I mean His characteristics, His personality and the way He thinks and acts. Even Jesus always seemed to appear to react differently to what people expected of Him.

In the passage from John 14:5-14, Philip says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus replies, “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

With this, to understand and know God we needn’t look much further than Jesus Himself. Jesus was very much God Himself, the Word made flesh, come into the World to reveal Himself, fulfil Scripture and provide a rescue plan of Salvation for us through the Cross and Resurrection.

As we draw closer into Jesus, we want to know His qualities. In John’s first Letter, he states:

8But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

(1 John 4:8)

Rather than saying what He does. It states who God is. Love is God Himself. This may seem vague and confusing until we transfer the word ‘love’ into the famous passage which is often read out at Weddings from 1 Corinthians 13:4. It is a great exercise into granting insight into the characteristics of God. Try it and play around with the chapter. I’ll start it off for you.

“God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God does not dishonour others, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails …”

O Lord, who is like you?