God is Love
Feb. series on love
Scripture Reading: I John 4
“God is love…”
That gets turned on its head sometimes and people think “love is God.” But that is an error. Love, that is the emotion or feeling or even the actions of love aren’t God. It is also not accurate to only say, “God loves,” although he does love. But God loves because He is love. Now, we should also be careful not to so compartmentalize the attributes of God that we exalt one above the other. While God is love, He is also just, and righteous, and true, and faithful, etc. Theologians talk about the simplicity of God because they want us to see that we shouldn’t think of God as made up of compounded parts as if God is part love, part life, part light and you put these together and they make up God. He is undivided and uncompounded. We only speak of these “parts” are different attributes because of our limitations in understanding God.
Nevertheless, God reveals Himself to us in these ways and it is good and right to talk about Him in ways that align with how He has revealed Himself to us. And one of those ways God has revealed Himself is by saying “God is love.” Love is the basis of God’s redemptive action. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).
