Let’s see if we can find out.

The Declaration of God’s Love

The Bible tells us that God is love. The apostle John writes, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). He reiterates this truth a few sentences later: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (v. 16).

It is important that we avoid two common mistakes when considering the statement “God is love.” The first is to invert the equation and insist that “love is God.” This is a serious error because there are many false loves that bear little or no resemblance to the perfect love of God. A man may “love” his mistress, but this is not God’s love. These false loves must never be equated with His love.

Secondly, we cannot make the mistake of subordinating all of God’s attributes to His love. There is more to God than love. For example, He is all-knowing, He is everywhere present, He is infinite, He is eternal, and He is just. And John can even write “God is light” (1 John 1:5). Any time we discuss His love, we must remember that God “may display one attribute or another at a given time, [but] no quality is independent of or preeminent over any of the others. Whenever God displays His wrath, He is still love. When He shows His love, He does not abandon His holiness.”4

However, we must recognize the force of the apostle’s declaration that God is love. In fact John Stott has called it “the most comprehensive and sublime of all biblical affirmations about God’s being.”5 So what does the apostle mean when he says that God “is” love? He is telling us something about the nature and essence of God. It’s not merely that God loves, it’s that God is love. Everything He does is rooted in and motivated by love. He made the world because He is love. He formed human beings because He is love. And He rules the universe in love. In other words, John is reminding us that when we think of God and the world He created, we should never forget about His love.

Before we can go much further in this discussion, we need to do some additional disentangling. Just as people tend to be confused about who God is, they’re also confused about what love is.