The God Who Is Love
Before love ever asks for a response, it is simply who God is. To know God truly is to begin in the warm light of His love.
Scripture
1 John 4:7–12, 16
World English Bible (Public Domain)7Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
9By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him.
10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
16We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
What changes when love—not fear—becomes the starting point for everything you believe about God?
More than something God does
John does not merely say that God loves. He says God is love. Love is not one quality competing with anger, justice, or power. It is the nature from which every true expression of God flows.
His mercy is loving. His wisdom is loving. His justice seeks restoration because it is loving. If we begin anywhere else, we may turn God into the projection of our own fear.
Love is not one characteristic of God among many. Love is the light through which every characteristic must be understood.
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