What does it mean that God is love?
God is love is not a sentimental claim; it is a statement about who God is in Himself. Before anything was created, God was love, for love exists eternally in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God's love is shown in action: He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, while we were still sinners and enemies. Because God is love, His love is holy, self-giving, steadfast, and made known to us in Christ.
This question arose from studying Who is God the Father? and What is the Trinity?.
Begin by reading
Go into the Word
Not a summary of these passages: the passages themselves. Read them, then come back to the study below.
The study
What the Scripture says
God is love in Himself
John states it twice as a fact of God's own being: God is love. This is not first about how God treats us; it is who He is. Before creation there was love, because the Father loves the Son, as Jesus prayed, 'for you loved me before the foundation of the world.' The triune God has always been a God of love, in the eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Love is not something God fell into when we appeared; it is His nature.
He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
We 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.
Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
His love is shown in action
John defines God's love by what it did: '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 'God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son.' Paul says it plainly: 'God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' God's love is not an abstraction; it gave, it sent, it sacrificed.
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.
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.
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
It reaches the unlovely and the enemy
The measure of God's love is not how lovable we are but how lost we were. Paul presses the point: 'while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,' and 'while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.' John says plainly, 'not that we loved God, but that he loved us.' God's love did not wait for us to be good; it came to us in our sin and our enmity, and that is the gospel.
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
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.
It is holy, not sentimental
Because God is love, and because He is holy, His love never makes light of sin. The very verse that says God is love speaks of His Son 'as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.' And the love of God shows itself in us by obedience: 'this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,' and 'he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?' God's love is a purifying, commanding love, not an indulgence.
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.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
It is steadfast and never ends
God's love is not fickle. Through Jeremiah He declares, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.' Lamentations sings that His steadfast love never ceases and His mercies are new every morning. And Paul's great conclusion is that 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.' The love that is God's very nature is forever.
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
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.
As you read, you may wonder…
Scripture raises the next question
Studying the Word naturally opens more of it. Follow what you just read: it leads somewhere.
Hold onto these
Verses to meditate on
He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
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.
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.
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
Worth visiting