Loving the God Who is Love
Christians love love. Everyone knows that Christians love love. God loves love, and Christians love that God loves love. The Bible even says that God is love. He loves us. And he calls us to love him and others. But what does that even mean?
In the New Testament, love is more than a vibe, feeling, or emotion (although those things are involved). Love is a selfless, sacrificial, and active commitment to the good of another in accordance with God’s good commandments.
In this article, I want to think about God’s love, in itself and toward us, and our love toward God.
1. God is Love
1 John 4:8 and 16 famously declare that “God is love.” They say,
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
This reality is fundamental to the Christian understanding of God, but it’s not entirely unique to Christianity. Other religions describe their God as loving.
Islam
In Islam, Allah (God) is known by many names that reflect his love.
Ar-Rahman identifies Allah as the “Most Compassionate,” whose grace and mercy towards all of creation, offering his compassion freely (Qur'an 1:1).
Ar-Raheem identifies Allah as the “Most Merciful,” highlighting Allah’s great mercy towards his devotees, providing them with forgiveness and peace (Qur'an 1:1).
Al-Wadud identifies Allah as the “All-Loving” one, faithful to his servants and forgiving them when they do wrong (Qur’an 85:15).
Sikhism
I’ve been trying to understand what Sikhs say about the love of Waheguru (God). From what I’ve been able to work out, the Sikhs are really big on the idea that Waheguru is loving, merciful and compassionate, too.
For example, in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib:
“God Himself is Merciful”
Ang 37“The Lord is merciful, kind and compassionate.”
Ang 628 cf. 103, 691.“The Cherisher Lord is so very merciful and wise; He is compassionate to all.”
Ang 249.Reference is made to “His loving embrace.”
Ang 42, 153, 321, 538, 547, 621, 782.
So, it seems that Waheguru is a loving God.
Judaism
In Judaism, God is described as loving as well.
In Exodus 34:6–7, we read:
6 He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
In Deuteronomy 7:9, we read:
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
In Psalm 136, over and over, we are told 37 times:
His love endures forever.
So, the idea that God is loving is not unique to Christianity. Other religions have Gods that love. But what makes the love of the Christian God different to the love of the other Gods?
2. God’s Love is Intrinsically Relational
God’s love is intrinsically relational. No other religion can say that. They can claim that their God loves, but they can’t say that God is love. Their Gods are not intrinsically love. Why? Because they have to learn love. They are not intrinsically relational.
Why do I say that?
The Gods of other religions are not intrinsically love because there is a point in time at which they have nothing to love.
For example, Islam teaches that Allah created the universe. He is "the Originator of the heavens and the earth” (Qur'an 2:117). But, what was there before he originated the heavens and the earth? Just Allah. So, who did he love? He’s got nobody to love.
When Allah creates humanity, he can start loving someone, but until he creates someone, he’s got nobody to love.
The God of Judaism has the same problem, as does the God of Sikhism (in Ang 966, we read that the God “Himself created the Universe; He Himself imbues it.”)
The God of the Bible is different. Before he creates, the love is already flowing within the Trinity.
In the New Testament, we’re given more detail on the Father-Son relationship than the Father–Spirit or Son–Spirit relationships. The “Father loves the Son,” as demonstrated by the fact that the Father places “everything in his hands” (John 3:35) and “shows him all he does (John 5:20).”
The Son loves the Father, and this is demonstrated in the Son’s obedience to the Father:
I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
John 14:31
Significantly, the mutual love between the Father and Son is not confined to time. In John 17:24, Jesus prays:
24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
The Father gave the Son glory. Why? Because he loved the Son. When? Before the creation of the world.
This makes the Christian God radically different to any other God. The Father and Son (and Spirit) exist as one God for all eternity, before time, outside of the created realm. There is love going on intrinsically within God.
So, God’s love is intrinsic. And it’s intrinsic because it’s intrinsically relational. Because God is Trinity, he doesn’t have to learn to love. It’s just who he is.
But when God created the universe, and, in particular, humanity, God went public with love and relationships. He made the Initial Public Offering. In Genesis 1:26–28, he creates man and woman to be relational together, as they fruitfully rule the world together, and he makes them for relationship with himself. Sin messed up these relationships—both at the horizontal and vertical levels. But God’s love has a remedy for this, too.
3. God Demonstrates His Love in the Gospel
In the gospel, God shows us how much he loves us.
John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 5:8 echoes this, “But God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even in our sin and rebellion, God chose to demonstrate his love by sending Jesus to die for us.
1 John 4:9-10 further elaborates on God’s love:
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Through Christ's sacrificial death, we see what real love is. He provides the textbook definition of love: his Son Jesus, who pours out his life to atone for our sins.
These verses teach us some really important things about God’s love for us:
God’s love is for sinners
God’s love is unconditional
God’s love is sacrificial and costly
God’s love brings life
This contrasts greatly with the God of Islam. In the Qur’an, we read:
Allah’s love is only for good people
“And do good, for Allah certainly loves the good-doers (Qur'an 2:195).”
”Surely Allah loves those who always turn to Him in repentance and those who purify themselves.” (Qur’an 2:222)Allah’s love is conditional
“If you˹sincerely love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive your sins. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Qur’an 3:31)
Allah’s love costs nothing
In Islam, Allah’s love costs nothing, nor is there any sacrifice. He calls his people to live sacrificially:
“Allah has indeed purchased from the believers their lives and wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah and kill or are killed (Qur’an 9:111).”
But he doesn’t like the idea of having to pay something for us himself.Allah’s conditional love brings life
Allah offers life, too. For those who do good, “He will guide them to their reward, improve their condition and admit them into Paradise, having made it known to them (Qur’an 47:15).” But, again, this love is conditional.
A God who is intrinsically loving will always be more loving than a God who merely learns to become loving.
4. God Calls Us to Love Him
How ought we to respond to God’s love for us? Surely, the answer is that we love him straight back. This seems pretty obvious. How can you not love someone who has loved you at such extreme levels?
And yet, the Bible still calls us to love him. And how how are we to love him? I can think of three broad and overarching answers to this.
Wholehearted Love
In response to God's incredible love, He calls us to love Him in return. Jesus commands us to love God with all our being.
In Matthew 22:35–37, we read:
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind means dedicating everything to him, including our emotions, desires, and intellect. Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 add “with all your strength” to this list. So, we also dedicate our physical strength to God as well. It’s a catch-all way of saying, “God has to be number one.” Nothing less will do.
But what does this actually look like?
Obedient Love
God’s call for love doesn't stop there. We’ve already seen that Jesus loves God by keeping his commands (John 14:31). According to Jesus, obedience is a key way—the key way—that we love God.
It’s not like in Islam, where obedience is a prerequisite for salvation. It’s not like in Sikhism, where the love of God is a prerequisite for salvation. But it’s still really important that we express our thankfulness and our love for God. Sometimes, people I chat with want to downplay the importance of obedience. They say they don’t want to emphasise obedience too much because they don’t want to compromise God’s free gift of grace. But in the end, it often ends up being a sinful heart driving the car. If we truly understand the depth of the goodness of God’s love for us in the gospel, we will want to obey him, because doing anything else will seem stupid.
It comes up several times. For example, in John 14:15 and 21, Jesus says to his disciples:
15 If you love me, keep my commands.
21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
Similarly, in 1 John 5:3 we read:
In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands.
If we truly love God, we will obey him. Obedience is the textbook definition for love of God. When we disobey God, we fail to love him, and we fail to keep the most important commandment.
To obey him, we need to know what he wants and commands. So, we need to dig deep into his Word to ensure that we know his commands so that we can keep them and thereby love him as we express our thankfulness for what he has done for us.
Neighbourly Love
So, we’re to love God wholeheartedly, and this involves keeping his commands. But what are the commands that he wants us to keep? In Matthew 22:38, Jesus says that loving God is the most important commandment to keep. Loving God involves keeping his commandments. And, according to Jesus in the next verse (22:39), the second most important commandment to keep is this:
Love your neighbour as yourself.
When we love our neighbour, we keep God’s second most important command, thus ensuring that we are keeping the first most important command. When we keep God’s commands, we show that we love him. But what does it look like to love our neighbours? More on that in a post soon to come.
