What Is God Like?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1 ESV

The “Word” John writes about is three things:

1. Eternal;
2. A distinct personality who is God’s companion;
3. God himself.

Later in John 1, we discover that this “Word” also “became flesh and dwelt among us…the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

This Word is none other than Jesus himself. But isn’t that a funny way to introduce Jesus, as the “Word”?

Why would God be described this way?

There are many ways to answer this question, but one of the most straightforward is this: Jesus is the most perfect communication of who God is, what he cares about, and what his mission is in the world.

So if we want to know what God is like and who he is, we go to the Gospels and look at Jesus. Everything he said and did was exactly what the Father wanted him to say and do. His compassion, his brilliance, his backbone, his miracles, his heartache… Everything perfectly communicates the heart and personality of God.

Through Jesus, we can know exactly who God is.

How Jesus Answers, “What Is God Like?”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

John 14:9

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.

John 12:49 ESV

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:1

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:15

So, what is God like?

• To look at Jesus is to look at God.
• To listen to Jesus is to listen to God.
• To believe in Jesus is to believe in God.
• To obey Jesus is to love God.

Today, read one story about Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John and identify which one of the four things Jesus is revealing to you about God.

Devotion by Jordan Loftis. Jordan is the editor of Short Daily Devotions and the author of The Men With Bare Feet: Discovering Intimacy With God Through Moses, Joshua, and Jesus.