The Personal Love of God

 “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

Let me start by asking you a question: who is God? Who do you say that He is?

You might reply that God is the foundation and cause of all reality, an Almighty, infinite and absolute being, unchangeable, timeless and immortal. You would be right.

But if I were to ask you who you are, or about someone you know, your answer would probably not begin with, “I am a finite, sentient, mortal being, capable of imagination, creativity and speech, changeable, time bound and mortal.” All these things are important—vital in fact to who we are—but they lack, shall we say, personality. 

God is a personal being. The first word of His name, “I AM” connotes as much; and since this name speaks of His fundamental nature, we may say that one of the most fundamental aspects of God is His personhood.

Likewise 1 John 4:8, “God is love,” speaks of God’s personal love: it means that every purpose and imagination of God’s heart is loving. Even God’s hatred is loving, being hatred for evil. God is infinitely loving. That is who He is. 

From eternity the persons of the Godhead lived in loving, personal relationships with one another. They were, if you will, a Father and a Son united in the same Spirit. This perfect, familial love is the basis of all God does, for God is a God of family. 

His people individually are His children; collectively, the bride of Christ. God has made the union of two people the means by which we all exist and continue to exist; and made us to live in families. He calls the races the families of the earth, and we are all part of that broader human race or human family. We all bear that same family trait: the image of God. So we are called His offspring (Acts 17:28).

When we love one another as human beings, which is our purpose, we are not merely to love as animals do, but to fulfill our higher calling, to love one another as brothers and sisters, offspring of the Most High. That applies even when someone is of a different race. But we must remember that family matters at all levels, the most important of which being the Spiritual. 

Those who hold the truths of God, who love His Word and commandments, are of the same Spirit. They are one in Spirit; namely the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. 

By contrast those who do not love God and His truth are spiritually speaking of their father, the devil (John 8:44), being united in their disregard for the truth and opposition to the truth, though they often bear the name ‘Christian’.