Is God as loving as Christians claim?

Suppose you stop someone in the street and asked if they believed in God. You would undoubtedly get a wide range of responses which would vary depending on where you are. When I think about what people say to me I think that most common impression people have of God is - God is love. They are not wrong in fact it is very true. However it is amazing that most tune in to this strand of God’s nature.

Look with me for a moment at the setting in which this statement is found. The apostle John speaks a lot about God’s love. The section we are reading in today has a lot of references to love, read the whole chapter if you can.

In verse seven we are instructed to love one another. John says, love finds its origin in God and should be a characteristic of people who are in God’s family. Love of course in this context is not the human frail type of love. It is divine love that is undeserved and not dependant on the receiver being worthy of it. That is how God loves and how he wants his children to love. If you do not love like this then John  assumes that you don’t really know God. 

Don’t be discouraged if you slip up at times, we all do, but John is teaching that this love must be seen consistently in a believer’s life, if it is totally absent we need to check if we really do know God.

Then John reminds us of the most fantastic example of love ever know – the sending of the Lord Jesus into the world. It should never fail to blow our minds that God should send His only begotten Son to die for our sins. 

Love, well that’s the greatest proof that God is love that I could ever give to you. Paul, the apostle writes, 'But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,' Romans 5. 8.

‘He who does not love does not know God, for God is love’ - 1 John 4. 8

Bible Passage - 1 John 4

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