God Is Love

God is love! Of course all Christians should have heard that phrase and believe that it is true because we are told that God is love in the Bible.

1 John 4:7-21 NASB 7 Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 By this the love of God was revealed [a]in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [b]propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has [c]for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear [d]involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

So specifically, these are two verses in which the Apostle John informs us definitively that God is love. It is not just an attribute of God; God is not just the most loving being of all, God is love. It is not just an important part of God. Love and God exist hand in hand. Without Love we have no God and without God we have no Love.

1 John 4:8 NASB 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And then just 8 passages later John tells us

1 John 4:16 NASB 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

So there are two scriptures that tell us plainly that God is love. But what does that mean to us. Well, I believe that the fact that God is love is why we were created. We had to be created for God to express the Love that is His Make-up. There would be no meaning to God if God did not have someone to express Himself or Give of Himself. So, the angels were created and then we were created for God to be God or to be Love.

As we move into the reason of our creation, it is important for us to remember that according to Genesis 1:27 we were created in His image.

Genesis 1:27 NASB 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Not that we are love but we were created to be the images or mirrors of who God is.

God’s desire for us to be more loving is expressed in every commandment God has given us so we can grow more into that divine love. That desire is especially seen in the commandment that we are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves which should be as God loves us if we are the images of God that originally created us to be.

If we did that, if we committed ourselves to God’s will on earth as it is Heaven, this would be a world perfected in God’s love. This world’s love would be expressed in a deep gratitude for God and for the support God has given each of us specifically in ways that would bless other people.