How does God's love differ from human love?
Human love is often conditional, fickle, and spent on what is already lovable. God's love is the opposite: it chose us when we were unlovely, it never fails, and it disciplines for our good. John's whole point is that God does not merely love in the way we do; He is the source of love, and our loving is a faint reflection of His.
This question arose from studying Who is God the Father? and What does it mean that God is love?.
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What the Scripture says
God's love is unconditional; it does not wait to be earned
Moses told Israel that God did not choose them because they were great, 'but because Yahweh loves you.' Jeremiah heard the same heart: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love.' In the parable, the father loves the younger son before the son has said a word of repentance; he saw him 'while he was still far off' and ran to meet him. God's love is not a reward; it is a choice He made in Himself.
Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
It initiates while we are still sinners and enemies
Paul writes that Christ died for the ungodly, and 'God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' John says, 'In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins,' and that we were dead through our trespasses when He made us alive. Human love is usually a response to something attractive; God's love is the cause, not the effect, of our being loved.
For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
We love him, because he first loved us.
It is faithful; it does not fail or fade
Lamentations says, 'It is because of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed... They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.' Paul is persuaded that nothing, neither death nor life nor anything in all creation, 'will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Hosea's God cannot give up Ephraim: 'How can I give you up? ... my compassion is aroused.' Human love can grow cold or run out; God's love is the one thing that never will.
It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in your midst; and I will not come in wrath.
Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.
It disciplines for our good, which love must do
Hebrews quotes the Father's words: 'My son, don't take lightly the chastening of the Lord... For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives,' and it warns that to be without discipline is to be treated as an intruder, not as a child. Human love that never corrects is indulgence, not love; God's love cares enough about who we become to train us in holiness. The same hand that holds us is the hand that shapes us.
and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children.
My son, don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of his reproof: for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.
God is the source; our love is the reflection
John's logic runs one way: 'God is love,' and everyone who loves 'has been born of God, and knows God,' while 'we love him, because he first loved us.' The Father's love is the very ground of our identity: 'See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!' We do not climb up to a god who barely tolerated us; we are welcomed into a family whose Father runs to meet us, and whose love gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes 'should not perish, but have eternal life.'
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
We love him, because he first loved us.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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Verses to meditate on
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
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