Living God’s Love

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:18-19

Notes

God is Love is a familiar phrase to Christians but as Americans, we labor less on many of God’s other attributes. The Bible speaks of God the Just: 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8, God the Light: 1 John 1:5, God the Faithful: Deuteronomy 7:9, and the God of Mercy: Psalm 145:9. All that to say, it is important to remember that love is a profound and consequential attribute of God, but we have limited Him by associating only one attribute to His nature.

In the US we hear the word ‘love’ a lot. It can be used for a fanatical love bordering on the obsessive, in hyperbole about many ordinary and inconsequential things, and used as a distant, overarching idea with little personal influence. Love has lost its potency as well as its meaning in our culture merely from the over-saturation of the word. Too often the term is used as an excuse for causing pain. This has made many of us disillusioned with the idea of love causing us to lose sight of the meaning.

If we have been born of God then we are his children who are led to love, first because God sacrificed his own Son for us. And so we respond with love for God in return. We then extend that love outwardly to fellow believers, exemplifying the love that has manifested itself in us. And yet we are not responsible for this action. We only show this love because of God’s Love. In this way, love does not define God, God defines love. Love is in His nature, an attribute that can not be altered or removed.

Our human nature is not inclined toward loving others sacrificially. Our selfish beings began life attempting to gain as much as we could for ourselves. It is only through nurturing and guidance that we are taught to also look out for the well-being of others. As followers of Christ, we are called to take a step further and not only look out for other people but also to be sacrificial, displaying unnatural acts (in the human sense) of surrendering our own security, prosperity and power for someone other than ourselves, no matter the other person’s worth in the eyes of the world.

Perfect love sounds like an impossibility only attainable through the divine. But the idea of perfect love is not meant as a means of infallibility but instead by being restored to wholeness. This complete love reaches beyond words and speech and into action sustained by truth, leaving no space for fear. That kind of love is not superficial or theoretical. Perfect love is alive and growing in the light (2:10), cleansed by blood, (1:7) and doing what pleases Him (3:22) Fear is ever-present, but a love sustained by action and truth drives that fear away

In Christian spheres, the word ‘agape’ is readily familiar. It is the term used to describe charity or selfless love. It is love divine. A notion that we can hardly comprehend. The proper response is to show the same divine, sacrificial love to others. Not everyone around us will deserve our love. Yet we are called to extend love, selfless love, to all. The best gospel message we can teach is by example, showing the love that dwells inside each believer to those who are not deserving of forgiveness and mercy.

*Footnote – Something to keep in mind is the inadequacy of the English language to define the different levels of love. In Greek, there are eight different ways to say love. In Spanish, there are five different levels of like to love. In many other languages, there are ways to say love related to friendship, familiarity, affection and self. Unfortunately in English, we have only like and love. This limitation has caused miscommunication and misunderstanding when people shout the word love.

Something to be mindful of, especially as believers, is not to be flippant with the use of the love. If we say, “God is Love,” in one sentence and the next say, “I love chocolate,” we diminish this attribute of God and associate Him with trifling matters.