God Is Love
15th October 2017
One of the shortest, yet most powerful and profound sentences in the bible is found in 1 John 4:16 where it says ‘God is love’. The original Greek word used for love in this statement is agape and it’s unique to God. Agape love cannot be produced by human beings on their own; it can only be expressed by us through God because agape is divine love and it is at the heart of the very nature of God. Agape is sacrificial, unconditional love, it gives and it puts others first.
In 1 Corinthians 13:13 Paul tells us, ‘Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love’. Again Paul is using the Greek work agape and he is making a profound statement. Faith and hope are vital components of the Christian life and indeed they are great, but greater than them is agape. And when Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment in the Law, he answered, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” So Jesus too emphasised the centrality of love in all that God and his people do.
If we are true Christians then Christ lives in us and if God is love, then that loving nature of God must surely flow out of us. And think of how powerful that love is. It’s this divine agape love that led the Father to send his only son to die for us, that caused Jesus to be merciful to the woman caught in adultery, that caused Jesus to say on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” and gave victory over sin and death when Jesus rose from the dead. It’s a love that creates, changes and overcomes. I’ve seen this love at work in my wife and it has a powerful effect on me. If heals me, it inspires me, it makes me strong and it draws me to the Lord. What better way is there to show Jesus to the world (to show the gospel) than to love as Jesus loves in a world which is so lacking in true love.