What does 'God is love' actually mean?

God & the TrinityIn theological review

The short answer

God is love means love is God's very nature, not just one of his moods or actions. Scripture defines that love by the cross: God sent his Son as the sacrifice for our sins and Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

The fuller answer

When the Bible says God is love, it is not saying God is loving in the way a kind person is loving, as one quality among others. John states it as identity: love is what God is in himself, eternally, before there was anyone else to love. That matters because it means his love is not a mood that comes and goes with our behaviour. It flows from his nature, and his nature does not change. It also means love is not something God performs when he is pleased with us and suspends when he is not, like a teacher distributing praise to a classroom.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8 (BSB)

John immediately defines that love by an action, not a feeling. God's love was revealed in this: he sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him, as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Biblical love, in other words, is measured at the cross. It gives itself, at cost, for people who had nothing to offer in return and no claim on the gift.

But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 (BSB)

Paul makes the timing explicit: God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after we cleaned up, not once we became lovable, but while we were still sinners. That one verse rules out the common idea that God loves the improved version of us and tolerates the present one. The love that sent Christ met people exactly where they were.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (BSB)

John 3:16 gathers it into the best known sentence in the Bible: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So God is love means love defines his dealings with a rebellious world: self-giving, sacrificial, and aimed at rescue. It also means his love never cancels his holiness or justice, since the cross is where all of them meet. Human love at its best is a reflection of this love, learned from watching what God did, and it is meant to be passed on in the same self-giving pattern.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

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What is God like?God is spirit, eternal, unchanging, all powerful, holy, just, good, and true. And he is love. Scripture gives his character in his own words and deeds rather than in our guesses: he is the I AM who always is, the Maker who never tires, and the Father who so loved the world that he gave his Son.How can a loving God send anyone to hell?It is the hardest question in this section, and the Bible does not dodge it. The same book that calls God love also records Jesus warning of eternal punishment, in the same sentence as eternal life. The Christian answer holds both: God's love is proved at the cross, where he bore the cost of sin himself, and his justice means that persistent, final refusal of him is not overridden. Hell, in the Bible's terms, is separation from God finally granted to those who demand it.Is God the same in the Old Testament and the New Testament?Yes, God is the same in both testaments. The Old Testament introduces him as merciful, gracious, and slow to anger, the New Testament shows his judgement as well as his joy over the lost, and Scripture says he does not change and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.What does it mean that God is holy?God is holy means he is set apart from all creation in perfect moral purity, with no trace of sin or evil in him. Scripture presents his holiness as overwhelming to witness, and as the pattern his people are called to reflect: be holy, because I am holy.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: John, the apostleThe disciple whom Jesus loved, who leaned against him at the supper, stood at the cross and received his mother, ran to the empty tomb, and wrote the fourth Gospel and the Revelation.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.