God is Love
Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The Apostle John wrote these words late in the first Century A.D. He wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is more to the verse. “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Further, 1 John 4:19 revealed the basis for Christian love. It’s not that Christians are especially lovable people or people with loving hearts. The reason that Christians love one another is that God loved them first. Christian love is in response to God’s love. Jesus said that the Father loved the world (John 3:16). Believers are in Christ; the world exists; men experience good, etc.; all because of God’s love.
God’s love is only one of His many attributes. Some others are God is faithful, sovereign, good, just, true, etc. Each of these divine attributes fall under a significant one. God is holy (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). The holiness of God is significant in that it informs every other attribute. The only description of God that is repeated three times in succession is His holiness. The Hebrews used repetition to emphasize a point. Strong emphasis was expressed by repeating a word twice. When holy was repeated three times, God was declaring with extreme emphasis that He is unique, perfect, pure, self-sufficient, transcendent, etc.
Each attribute of God describes 100% of His character. In other words, God is always faithful, sovereign, truthful, and loving. Applying God’s holiness to each attribute, we understand that God is uniquely faithful, sovereign, truthful, and loving. In this light, we know that there is no love like the Father’s. It is a holy love!
To begin to understand the depth of God’s love, we must first understand His holiness. “God is love” has become one of the central determining factors used by Christians and used against Christians. On one extreme, some suggest that everything is acceptable because God is love. These proponents say, “My God is a God of love. Therefore, He wouldn’t be angry or punish anyone.”
Yet because God is holy, we know that God indeed punishes evildoers and He expresses His anger, even wrath, against sin. A holy God does not wink at evil. Our holy God judges perfectly.
To help our understanding, John described divine love. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). Note that the initiator of this saving love is God the Father.
In Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus, He declared the source and blessing of divine love. “For God [the Father] so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The Father initiated His love for the world. Jesus said that the “rain falls on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). The fact that anyone exists is a testimony to the Father’s love. God chose to extend common grace to mankind even though all people deserve death (Genesis 2:16-17). Jesus went further in revealing God’s saving grace which proceeds out of the Father’s love. Those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus focused God’s intense love on those who believe in Jesus. An important aspect of Jesus’ declaration is that God doesn’t love everyone the same. Some will perish. But those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life.
One of the most poignant verses of Scripture is Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When we hear and read that God is love, may we understand the depth of His love in contrast to the blackness of our hearts. May God make this doctrine personal and intimate by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle John called those who have been loved by God in this saving way to respond by being people of love. Christians love one another and live under God’s word.
God’s love is understood from our vertical relationship with Him and then lived out horizontally with others. Those who have been loved by God are continually loved by Him. We know it because God continues to change us from the inside out. Every day He makes His people more and more like Christ. The believers’ position before God and ongoing intimacy with Him is all because of the Father’s initiating, saving love through Jesus Christ.
