God is Love

Subscribe ▼ Show Notes Our topic today goes to the very nature of God. There are three things Scripture tells us about God’s nature. First, God is spirit. John 4:24. The Greek does not include the article “a.” God is not a spirit as some would say. He is spirit in the highest sense. He is ethereal – having no substance. His omnipresence, which we will talk about later in our study, necessitates this. He fills heaven and earth and is not limited to a tangible body. Secondly, God is light, 1 Jn1:5. This is the opposite of darkness. Darkness typically represents sin in Scripture, or evil and death. Light represents holiness, goodness, and life. The fact that God is light means He is the sum of all excellence. Thirdly, God is love 1 Jn 4:8. He doesn’t simply love, He is love. Love is not just merely one of His attributes. It is His very nature. The True Love of God Our culture mistakes the true love of God for something much weaker – a type of amiable weakness, or good-natured indulgence; sentimentality, patterned after human emotion. This topic, just like everything else, requires our thoughts to be formed and regulated by what is revealed in Scripture. The ignorance and low regard for true spirituality in our modern world is sadly evident everywhere among professing Christians. There is little real love for God. One reason for this is that our hearts are little occupied with His wondrous love for His people. To love Him well, we must be acquainted with His love – its character, fullness, and blessedness. The Love of God is Uninfluenced  The love of God is uninfluenced – that is, there was nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it into existence. There is nothing in the creature to attract or prompt such love. The love we humans have for each other is because of something seen in the object, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, and uncaused. God’s love is only found in His sovereign will, Deut. 7:7-8. God has loved His people from eternity past. There is nothing found in us that causes God to love us. He loves from Himself, 2 Tim 1:9. We love Him because He first loved us, 1 Jn 4:19. God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before we had a particle of love for Him. God’s love would not be His real love, His spontaneous love, if He had loved us in return for our love. He loved us when we were loveless. Thank you for listening to Relentless Truth. Please share this episode with your friends and family. Please share our work on social media. Your endorsements have been incredible in spreading our reach across the world. Please contact me at [email protected], and please visit our website for more information about our work at johnwarrenmedia.com. #theology #christian worldview “To love God well, we must be acquainted with His love-its character, fullness, and blessedness.” John Warren