By way of introduction it must be admitted that the statement "God is love" has been misunderstood by some. J I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, notes, that this statement as found in 1 John 4, is one of the most tremendous utterances in the Bible, but also one of the most misunderstood. True enough: God is love! But let none of us ever think that this means that we do not have to worry about the fact that God is also righteous and just! Let none of us ever think that since God is love, He will be infinitely tolerant so that we do not have to worry about His wrath! Make no mistake about this: the Scriptures say that God is love, but they also say that God is holy. And God's holiness cannot tolerate that sin remain unpunished. Therefore, let us not misunderstand our theme as a license for us to live on in sin.

God is love. This statement is not given to us in a general or secular context. Rather, it is given in the context of people who can appreciate what is said, and of people who can adore and worship God for His love. May we be such a people.

As we consider this statement about divine love, let us proceed to explore three factors, namely, the nature of the love of God; the manifestation of the love of God; and the purpose of the love God.

The Nature of the Love of God⤒🔗

What is the love of God? How might it be described? Perhaps it would be beneficial to do a bit of word-study. The New Testament Scriptures have come to us originally in the Greek language. Basically, there are four words in that language which could be translated into our English word love.

First, there is the word transliterated as "eros." From it we get our English "erotic." It is the lowest form of the word, and not really deserving of the translation "love." This is why the New Testament Scriptures do not make use of this word. In ancient and secular Greek it described a rather debased notion of love; a sensual love and nothing more.

Then there is the word "stergo." This word depicts a mutual love of parents and children; a sort of natural affection. This word is used in Romans 1:31 and also in 2 Timothy 3:3, where we are told that such love or affection is conspicuously absent with the godless, and will be conspicuously absent with many in the end times.

Then there is that well known word "phileo." From it we get such English words as Philadel­phia, philosophy, and philanthropy. It refers to a loving, a liking, a friendship relation, even some­thing like brotherly love or a love for father and mother. This word is used for instance in Matthew 10:37: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Yet, when the New Testament writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in Greek, they found none of the aforementioned common words for love adequate to explain the love which belongs with God. They therefore used a word rarely used before, and gave a new meaning to it. This word is "agape." J.I. Packer informs us that the New Testament writers had to introduce what was virtually a new Greek word "agape," to express the love of God as they knew it. By its usage in the New Testament, this word "agape" became the highest and noblest term for designating divine love. It became the supreme word for speaking about God's love, a love unknown to pagan writers, but a love declared by the inspired writers of the New Testament.

What does "agape" mean? "Agape" is a love of esteem; a love of evaluation, and has the idea of prizing in it. It is a love which delights in giving, even of self-giving. It is an unconditional love, and it keeps on loving, even when the object is unresponsive, unkind, unlovable and unworthy. It is a love, which originates in God's own nature, and it is therefore a love which does not need an outside cause to stimulate it. Such is the love of God.

Why is it that God loves sinners? Is it because He saw something in sinners to stimulate Him to love? No, the stimulation for "agape" love has no reason, source or cause outside of God. It is all within God Himself. He is the reason, source and cause for "agape" loving. Thomas Brooks once said "Amat Quia Amat" "He loves us because He loves us." Charles Wesley once sang of it:

He hath loved us,
He hath loved us
Because He would love.

Are those words not echoes of Deuteronomy 7:7, 8? Or perhaps we could think of what it says in Deuteronomy 10:15: "Only the Lord had delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day." Indeed, also this is comparable to "agape."

1 John 4:8, 16 says something which is tremendous: "God is agape." Not only does God love, but God IS love! This is an absolute statement about God and describes a fundamental facet of His nature. It describes His essential personality. Let me explain this a bit further.

There are three great absolute statements about God in the New Testament. The first one is found in John 4:24: "God is Spirit." This means that God's "Spirit-ness" is His essence. In other words, God is Spirit in the highest sense; no person is more "Spirit" than God.

The other absolute statement about God is found in 1 John 1:5: "God is light." This means that God is the sum of all the excellencies of light. Light is God's essence, and there is no one more "light" than God.

The third absolute statement about God is found not once, but twice in 1 John 4, "God is love."

This statement is in exactly the same grammatical form as the other two absolute statements about God. Not only is God "Spirit" and "light," but He is also "love" – "agape, which means that God is "love" in the highest sense. He is the sum of all the excellencies of love. He is the source and the sum-total of love. There is no one more "love" than God.

Love, agape-love, is one of the great attributes, or perfections or excellencies, of God. It is the one which comprehends all the affections and goodwill of God's nature. It is no wonder that a theologian like Arthur Pink went as far as saying that "Love is not merely one of God's attributes, but it is His very nature." Herman Bavinck says it this way, and puts it in perspective for us.

The relation between love and the other attributes, is not such that the centre and the core of God's being is love, and that the other attributes are its "modes," for all the attributes are equally God's being; in God there is no higher and lower, no greater and smaller; nevertheless, love is identical with God's being.

In other words, if we could see it in mathematical terms or in terms of algebra, it would be God = (equation mark) agape.

Do you see now why the Bible says that this love "surpasses knowledge?" Even as the Being of God surpasses knowledge, so divine love itself surpasses knowledge. It boggles the mind to try and grasp the meaning of "God is agape." Thankfully, God does not ask us to have a perfect understanding of this concept. However, when this concept begins to pass above and beyond our limited understanding, God wants us nevertheless to believe it! Just as it says in Hebrews 11:6: "He that cometh to God must believe that He is," so we must practice the same faith in respect to God being agape.

At this point we must stake a claim for the Christian religion. Biblical Christianity is the only religion in the world which teaches that God is love. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam – all teach that there is a God, or that there are gods, but not one of them can teach what you have read so far. Not one of those religions can make the equation God = agape. For some of them, God is "The Way," or God is "The Law," or God is "Chance," but not one of them can teach the Scriptural truth that God is Agape. Only Christianity can teach this glorious truth, and therefore Christians are called to exercise faith in that truth, even when it surpasses their understanding.

Knowing the Benefits of the Love of God←⤒🔗

Christians are called to exercise faith because this love of God is of real benefit to them! In order that we, in such exercise of faith, might receive some assistance, it will be helpful and advanta­geous for us to learn as much as possible about this divine agape. Allow me then further to define the nature of this love of God as to some of its characteristics.

A. The love of God is eternal←↰⤒🔗

This stands to reason, because God Himself is eternal! Even as God had no beginning, so did His love have no beginning. Since God is "from everlasting to everlasting," (Psalm 90:2) so is His love from everlasting to everlasting. Jeremiah 31:3 is a clear testimony to that fact. There God Himself says, "I have loved thee with an everlast­ing love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee". See also Ephesians 1:4,5, where eternal predestination and the love of God come together for a most wonderful result!

B. This love of God is infinite←↰⤒🔗

God is infinite. He fills heaven and earth. There are no limits to God's power or to God's wisdom. Likewise, there are no limits to God's love. In Ephesians 2:4 Paul speaks of the "great love" of God. This description is at best only an understatement of God's infinite love. Therefore, Paul continues in chapter 3:18 to speak about the "breadth and length and depth and height" of that love, and concludes in verse 19 that it "passes knowledge" – it goes beyond our understanding. J. M. Boice quotes a hymn written by a certain F. Lehman, which is touching.

Could we with ink: the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Speaking of oceans in connection with the infinite love of God; there is a missionary story about a black person in Africa who loved going to the beach. "Why do you so love going to the beach?" the missionary asked him one day. "Well," said this black person, "Whenever I stand on the beach and look over the waters of the ocean, I am reminded of the love of God. That love is like those waters of the ocean … they extend beyond the furthest horizons, … and they are always coming towards me." God's love is infinite!

C. God's love is holy←↰⤒🔗

This means that God's love is pure and unmixed. It cannot countenance sin or cooperate with sin, or any kind of unholiness. God's love will not stoop to unjust ways, nor to ways which might be ever-so-slightly off the legitimate path. God's love exacts righteousness, justice and holiness in everything and of everyone it gets in touch with! This is why discipline comes into the picture when God exercises His holy love upon His people who are still in the world. Consider for instance Hebrews 12:6-11: "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth … for our profit … that we might be partakers of His holiness" which "afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteous­ness unto them which are exercised thereby." The holiness of God's love demands this!

D. God's love is sovereign←↰⤒🔗

This fact is what makes God God! If God was not sovereign, He would not be God! And if God's love was not a sovereign love, it would not be a divine love. God and His love are sovereign. This implies that God is under obligation to no one; He is a law to Himself, able to act always accord­ing to His own good pleasure. Consider Ephesians 1:4-6,

According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself; according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.

In other words, God does what He pleases; He chooses whom He pleases; He loves whom He pleases, so that it may all be to His praise.

This takes us to the fifth characteristic of God's love.

E. God's love is a choosing love←↰⤒🔗

It is important to remember this! God was under no obligation to choose any fallen man. God would not have been any less loving had He left fallen man to perish in sin. God would not have been any less agape had He by passed, or given-up all of mankind. Such actions are ascribed to God in Romans 1. But God's love is such that it is a choosing love, by which He chooses some to salvation, leaving others to perish, for reasons known only to Himself. We, as creatures of the dust – potter's clay – would not dare question or pry into those reasons, but rather accept them with humility and reverence. This is what it means when we characterize God's love as a choosing love, because God Himself says in Romans 9:13, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." And then the inspired author immediately puts us to silence by saying "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid."

This particular characteristic ought not to scare you off! Yes, God's love is a choosing love; but that is what makes it possible for fallen, hell-deserving people to be saved. That ties in with one more characteristic of God's love.

F. God's love is a gracious love←↰⤒🔗

God's love even goes out to objects which are undeserving of such love. In fact, as J.I. Packer points out, as that love goes out towards rational creatures who have broken God's law, and whose nature is corrupt in God's sight, they merit only condemnation and final banishment from His presence. Therefore it is staggering to think that God should love such creatures! Indeed, God's love is a gracious love.

Is it not wonderful that we can say all these things about God's agape love? It is beyond our understanding; it Is an eternal, infinite, holy, sovereign, choosing and gracious agape love. These things we can say with certainty about our God and His love. No other religion in the world can boast of a God of such love!

The Manifestation of the Love of God←⤒🔗

Under this heading we will begin to explore how God manifests or how He reveals His divine love. Wilhelmus a Brakel makes a distinction which may be helpful for us to remember. Speaking about how God manifests His love to the objects of His love, Brakel makes a distinction between the natural love of God, and the volitional love of God.

In the natural love of God it is the Son, Jesus Christ, who is the object of that love. As it says in John 5:20 "for the Father loveth the Son". This is the natural love relationship existing between the Father and the Son. This is further proven, when the Father Himself testifies in Matthew 3:17 at Jesus' baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." John 3:35, and 2 Peter 1:17 are two other passages which testily the same. The Son Himself also testifies of that love rela­tionship existing between Him and the Father. He speaks of that in His High-Priestly prayer as recorded for us in John 17.

There is a little paperback which I consider as the treasure of my library. It is entitled Wilt Thou Go With This Man by Brownlow North, a Banner of Truth Trust 1966 publication. Four chapters in this booklet are wonderfully devoted to the love of Christ. If you would read it, it will melt your heart, as it melted mine. In one section, the author writes about this natural love between the Father and the Son. On the basis of Proverbs 8:30 he writes that God from eternity was the only riches of the Son, and the Father was the object of His daily delight. The Son, in His uncreated and eternal existence with the Father, was from everlasting daily His delight, and rejoicing always before Him. There is a natural love relationship existing therefore between the Father and the Son, which is a divine, Agape love.

But as we continue with Brakel's division, there is with God also a volitional love. This is a love which reaches beyond the beloved Son to mankind. This is a love which God is pleased to manifest simply because it pleased Him to do so. This is why Brakel calls it volitional, that is an exercise of God's will and good pleasure. This volitional love is, in turn, subdivided into two categories…

A. God's love of benevolence.
B. God's love of delight.

A. God's love of benevolence←↰⤒🔗

God's love of benevolence is basically manifested in how God maintains and governs all His creatures. Psalm 145:9 says it this way … "The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works." Psalm 104 celebrates it as the wonderful providence of God. It is just another way of speaking about God's love of benevolence. With this same love of benevolence, God also sees to it that His Gospel is brought, so that we have those well-known words of John 3:16 … "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…" Again, a manifestation of God's love of benevolence.

Following Brakel's subdivision, there is God's love of delight which concentrates on those who are elect and effectually called, and have come to believe the Gospel and entrust themselves to Jesus Christ.

It is basically this volitional love, subdivided into love of benevolence and love of delight, which God manifests to us. How does He mani­fest such volitional love to us? He manifests it in the realm of nature. That is, if you have spiritual eyes, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, you will observe tokens of God's love even in the realm of nature. Psalm 8 speaks of that clearly … "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

But more particularly, God manifests His volitional love by His Holy Word, the Gospel! And indeed, is the Gospel not a manifestation and revelation of the love of God? It certainly is! Someone once called the Gospel "God's overture of love to man." How true that is! How else can we read God's Word and listen to it with profit and benefit, unless we understand it as the overture of His Agape love.

God is love. His Word says so. And that Word speaks to sinners like you and me. It is to us that the Word says that God is love. This is God's volitional Agape love for sinners. When did God begin to love us? … When we began to repent of sin and believe in Christ? Some people have the notion that God only loves those who love Him and that He only loves those who have believed in Christ and He hates all others. In fact, some people have the notion, that Christ's sacrifice on the cross turned God's hatred for certain people into love for those people. But if that is the case, it warrants some questions, such as … Did Christ's sacrifice merit the love of God the Father? Did Christ die in order to turn a sinner-hating God into a sinner-loving God? Absolutely not!

The love of God for sinners was already in existence before Christ died as a sacrifice for sin. Christ's death did not have to earn the love of God, but rather, God, in His love for perishing sinners, sent His Son into death! The love of God was there at the very start!

1 John 4:9 and 10 makes this clear. "In this was manifest the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitia­tion for our sins." There you have it! God loved us, and therefore sent His Son Jesus Christ to die a sacrificial death for sin.

Professor John Murray, in his priceless booklet Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Banner of Truth), remarks:

The atonement does not win or constrain the love of God. The love of God constrains to the atonement as the means of accomplishing love's determinate purpose. The love of God is the cause or source of the atonement.

What sort of people were we then, when God loved? Were we nice people … perhaps prospective believers? Not at all! Listen to Romans 5:8 … "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And what sort of sinners were we when God loved and Christ died? Were we repentant sinners perhaps, or sorrowful sinners? Listen to Romans 5:10 … "When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."

Dear reader! God loved with an Agape love, while you and I were still enemies of Him and of His salvation. Ephesians 2:4,5 celebrates that fact … "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us togeth­er with Christ." So you see, Christ did not constrain God to love us. God loved us, and gave His Son. "He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." (Romans 8:32) God's Agape love has therefore manifested itself by giving and delivering up His Son. And that Agape love of God has manifested itself most powerfully in the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Augustine of Tagaste once said that the cross is a pulpit from which Christ preached God's love to the world. The Apostle Paul could there­fore say with the words of Galatians 2:20 … "I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

What a wonderful display of Agape love is to be seen on the cross of Christ! Have you noticed it too already? Has the word of John 3:16 already made a saving impact on you when it says "For God so loved (Agape) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life"?

B.B. Warfield wrote an excellent paper on this text, to which he gave the title "God's Immeasurable Love." And indeed, it is an immeasurable love, for God SO loved the world. This word "so" stands at the beginning of the sentence in the original Greek, which gives it particular significance." So" could mean "beyond description" as if to say "so great" or "so wonder­ful." But it could also mean "in a particular way." Then the words "For God so loved" can be inter­preted as "For God so loved 'in this way' the world," … in which way? … "that He gave His only begotten Son" Which means, that in the giving of His Son to the world, God manifested His love for the world. And how may that love of God, giving His Son to the world, achieve its purpose? … That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

This takes us to our final but brief division.

B. The Purpose of the Love of God←↰⤒🔗

The grand purpose of the love of God, and of manifesting it to the world is, that it might be to the glory of God. God has a zeal for His glory.

The second commandment tells us that God is a jealous God. God has a passion for His holy Name. He has a zeal which demands that He alone, and He exclusively, gets the glory and the praise of His creatures. It is for this reason that God has manifested His Agape love by way of His Son Jesus Christ, so that, as it says in Philippians 2:11…

Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

A second purpose of the love of God, and of manifesting it, is declared in 1 John 4:9 … "That we might: live…" If we receive and believe the Gift of God's love, that is, the Son of God, then we have life! Life through Him, even eternal life, as re-emphasized for us in 1 John 5:11 and in the verses which follow.

Lastly, the purpose of God's love is a very practical purpose, as we are told in 1 John 4:11 and what follows…

Beloved; if God so loved us (with that Agape love) we ought also to love (with an Agape love) one another.