What does it mean that God is love?

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The statement "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16) is one of the most profound declarations in all of Scripture. It does not merely say that God has love or shows love — it tells us what God is in His very nature. Love as God's Nature — Not Merely His Actions Morrish's Bible Dictionary draws a careful distinction: Scripture reveals what God is in Himself, 'God is love' (used absolutely), 1 John 4:8; and 'God is light' (used relatively, in opposition to darkness), 1 John 1:5; and Christ is the expression of both in a Man. Morrish's Bible Dictionary That word "absolutely" is key. While "God is light" is stated in contrast to darkness — relative to something — "God is love" stands as an absolute declaration of what God is in Himself. Love is not something God does on occasion; it is what He eternally is. The writer in An Outline of Sound Words elaborates: God is love in His nature, and all divine love has its source in Him, and all who have this divine love have the knowledge of God. Although we have the divine nature as God's children, a nature that loves God and all who are born of God, love's manifestation was in God sending "His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." And strikingly: God's love is not to be found in this world, for the Lord said, "O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee." Nor is it to be sought in the things of nature, or in the creation. None of the religions of this world know the love of God, for it is only to be found "in Christ Jesus our Lord." The love of God cannot be discovered by observing the world around us or through natural religion. It required a divine revelation — the sending of the Son. Love Rooted in Eternal Relationship The love that God is did not begin with creation or redemption. It belongs to the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. The same writer traces this: Divine love belongs essentially to the relationship of the Father and the Son, for the Son, the Only-begotten of His bosom, knows from all eternity the deep affections of the Father, reciprocal affections that belong peculiarly to them in the eternal relations of the Godhead. In this connection, the Son on earth could say, "Father… Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24). Revealed Only Through the Son Hugo Bouter brings out that Old Testament saints, though they experienced God's mercy, did not know God as love in this full sense: The elders of the children of Israel had to do with God in His holiness and righteousness; they knew Him as the righteous Ruler over Israel. Of course, they also proved God's mercy and infinite goodness in His ways with His people but they did not know His love. The words "God is love" remained hidden from them (1 John 4:8, 16). God's love could only be revealed in the Son of His love and His atoning death, but it is our privilege as Christians to know this deep and divine love as it has been fully revealed now in Christ. Hugo Bouter Love Manifested at the Cross The cross is where God's love reaches its supreme expression. Hamilton Smith unfolds this: We have not only a statement that God is love, however true, but we have the manifestation of God's love toward us. In our unregenerate days we were dead to God and in our sins. In order that we might live and have our sins forgiven, God manifested His love toward us by sending "His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" and, further, He "sent His Son a propitiation for our sins." Hamilton Smith Norman Anderson captures the same truth concisely: The central feature of this chapter is that "God is love". In result His love is toward us. We know this because He has manifested His love — "Because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."... The cross then is at once the lesson book of the love of God for thereby was the basis laid upon which His righteousness has been established. Norman Anderson Love That Casts Out Fear One of the most practical consequences of knowing that God is love is the removal of all fear regarding judgment. **The writer in An Outline of Sound Words states: God's love is a perfect love, a love that has provided for everything in regard to the past, the present and the future, a love that has dismissed every bit of fear from the breasts of those who know His love. So long as the least dread remains in a believer's heart, he "is not made perfect in love." Fear is not normal to the Christian; it is the work of the enemy, but the love of God made known in the death of Christ, and shed abroad in our hearts, banishes all fear. Love as the Life of God's Family F.B. Hole connects this truth to our new life as God's children: We enter the Divine family by being born of God, and the very life of the family is love, for God is love. The Lord makes it plain that while He is in the hidden glory of heaven, the children, left in the world of darkness and hatred, are to prove their discipleship by manifesting love. Glory there, and love here, was the Divine thought. F.B. Hole J.G. Bellett sums it up beautifully: "God is love" may account for it all. There the secret is told. If the manifestations are excellent and marvellous, the hidden springs which are opened in Himself give us to know it all. J.G. Bellett To say "God is love" is to declare something about His essential nature** — not merely what He does, but what He is in Himself, eternally, in the relationship of the Father and the Son. This love existed before the world was made. It could not be discovered by studying creation or by human religion; it was revealed only through the sending of God's only-begotten Son into the world. The cross is its supreme demonstration — there, God gave His Son as propitiation for our sins, proving that His love is not sentimental but righteous, not passive but infinitely costly. For those who receive it, this love banishes all fear of judgment, communicates a new divine nature, and creates a family marked by the very love that God Himself is. As Bellett puts it, every manifestation of God's grace — however marvellous — can be traced back to this one hidden spring: "God is love."

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