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Glory · God the Father
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.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-does-it-mean-that-god-is-love · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
1 John 4:7-21
As you read: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love; and His love is shown in sending His Son as the atoning sacrifice.
7Beloved, let us 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 one and only 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.
13By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
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.
17In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world.
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love him, because he first loved us.
20If 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?
21This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
John 3:16-21
As you read: God gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16For 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.
17For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
18He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
19This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
20For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
21But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.”
Romans 5:6-11
As you read: Christ died for the ungodly; while we were still sinners and enemies, we were reconciled by His death.
6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die.
8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him.
10For 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.
11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
John 15:9-17
As you read: As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; abide in my love, and love one another as I have loved you.
9Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.
10If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.
11I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
16You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
Jeremiah 31:1-3
As you read: I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.
1At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
3Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
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.”1 John 4:8
“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.”1 John 4:16
“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.”John 17:24
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.”1 John 4:10
“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.”John 3:16
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8
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.”Romans 5:8
“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.”Romans 5:10
“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.”1 John 4:10
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.”1 John 4:10
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.”1 John 5:3
“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?”1 John 4:20
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.”Jeremiah 31:3
“It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.”Lamentations 3:22
“They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”Lamentations 3:23
“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.”Romans 8:38-39