The Nature of God’s Love
Having established that God Himself is the source of His love and all love in the universe, we now move on to determine what the nature of this love is. In other words, in seeking to correctly understand the statement that “God is love,” it is important to grasp the actual meaning of the word love. Interestingly, even in the apostle Paul’s detailed discussion about love in I Corinthians 13, there is no simple, dictionary definition given. He presents descriptions about love, such as love is patient, or love is kind, but he never explicitly states what love is. This is because love is a deep concept that defies a trite definition. Therefore, in keeping with the Biblical precedent, understanding the meaning of love will entail identifying descriptions about love rather than presenting a blanket definition.
One important aspect of God’s love is that it is self-giving. Wayne Grudem states, “God’s love means that God eternally gives of Himself to others.”[1] This self-giving, as we have observed, is seen in the relationship within the Trinity in which all members are eternally giving to one another in perfect joy. This self-giving is done for the benefit and happiness of others. Not only is it seen within the Trinity, but it has also been manifested toward humanity. God has given in abundant measure, and in doing so He has exercised His goodness in an incredible display “cosmic generosity.”[2] J. I. Packer says, “The measure of love is how much it gives, and the measure of the love of God is the gift of his only Son to become human, and to die for sins, and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God.”[3] The idea of God’s love being demonstrated by giving His perfect and eternally loved Son on behalf of sinners is an astounding thought, but this is exactly what the Bible teaches about the love of God. As we see how much God is willing to give on behalf of others, we begin to understand how amazing His love truly is.
Another aspect of God’s love is that it is emotional. This has sometimes been a subject of debate within Christian circles because of the teaching that God is without passion. What must be clarified here is that this should not be taken to mean God is emotionless. In the following statement, Packer does a good job of presenting a balanced, Biblical view concerning God’s emotions:
God has no passions—this does not mean that he is unfeeling (impassive) or that there is nothing in him that corresponds to emotions and affections in us, but that whereas human passions—especially the painful ones, fear, grief, regret, despair—are in a sense passive and involuntary, being called forth and constrained by circumstances not under our control, the corresponding attitudes in God have the nature of deliberate, voluntary choices, and therefore are not of the same order as human passions at all.[4]
What this shows is that though God truly is different than us, He, nevertheless, does possess sincere emotions. Carson also chimes in on this issue by pointing out that God’s love should not be viewed as something completely different from the human emotion of love. To go to this extreme would make the term “love” a mere anthropopathism that has no real correlation to our own concept and experience of what love is. He humorously chides, “Give me a break. Paul did not pray that His readers might be able to grasp the height and depth and length and breadth of an anthropopathism and to know this anthropopathism that surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:14–21).”[5] These insights help us to understand that God’s love truly can be thought of as having a certain correlation to human love, which surely has an emotional aspect to it. It is important, therefore, to accept that God does have feelings for people.
The emotional aspect of God’s love can be seen in James Orr’s definition of love, which states: “Love generally. . .is that principle which leads one moral being to desire and delight in another, and reaches its highest form in that personal fellowship in which each lives in the life of the other, and finds his joy in imparting himself to the other, and in receiving back the outflow of that other’s affection unto himself.”[6] This definition is laden with concepts that define love in emotional terms, such as “desire,” “delight,” “joy,” and “affection.” These terms most certainly characterize a true relationship of love, and they most definitely apply to the love of God. Within the trinity, for example, we see that the Father is “well-pleased” with His beloved Son.[7] God is also seen in the Scriptures as delighting and finding pleasure in His people.[8]
Another very interesting aspect of God’s love is that it is pure, and therefore delights in goodness. This is an important distinction, for it could be said that Satan loves certain things, but his “love” is not ultimately rooted in what is good, whereas, God’s love truly does delight in goodness because it is perfectly pure. Louis Berkhof states, “Since God is absolutely good in Himself, His love cannot find complete satisfaction in any object that falls short of absolute perfection.”[9] This is brought out, for example, in Paul’s descriptions of love in which he states that love “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.”[10] As has been said, God’s supreme love is manifested toward His own perfection. He loves goodness because His love is perfectly pure.
But the question then becomes, why and how can He love sinners, who are most certainly not good? The Biblical evidence seems to indicate that God’s love is most fully expressed and perfectly fulfilled within Himself, but amazingly, the inherent love within His nature also allows Him and leads Him to have concern for others. Hence, He truly does love His creation. However, it appears that His love for creation is ultimately an overflow of His inherent nature of love, not a love that is necessitated by the nature of creation itself. Carson emphasizes that His love for sinners, specifically, is not a love conjured up by who they are but is actually a desire to bring goodness to them in spite of who they are.[11] Millard Erickson, however, would clarify this point by adding, “God loves us on the basis of that likeness of himself which he has placed within us, in creating us (Gen. 1:27). He, therefore in effect loves himself in us. This likeness to him, however, is not our own doing, but is present because of his unselfish, giving nature.”[12] And Berkhof says similarly, “[God] loves His rational creatures for His own sake, or, to express it otherwise, He loves in them Himself, His virtues, His work, and His gifts . . . He recognizes even in the sinner His image-bearer.”[13] The important thing to understand in all of this is that God’s love is rooted in His own nature, it is completely free, not necessitated by His creatures.[14]
A point related here is this: If God did not find His joy in His own perfection and self-satisfaction, He would then love people out of need and His love would no longer be completely self-giving. Instead, He would be trying to get something He needs from people, but this most certainly is not Biblical, and it does not correctly characterize the nature God’s love. God’s love toward creation is not a love rooted in a need to get what He does not have but of giving what He has already. His love is rooted in the joy of His own perfection within the relationship of the Trinity, and it overflows into a desire for the good and joy of others outside of Himself.
One other very important idea must be recognized concerning the nature of God’s love. God’s love should be thought of as being in perfect harmony with all of His other attributes. As Packer succinctly points out, “‘God is love’ is not the complete truth about God so far as the Bible is concerned.”[15] Keeping all that the Bible teaches about God in mind helps guard against the mistake of making God’s love the sole attribute that guides all of His motives and actions. This is the exact error that Thomas Talbott, author of The Inescapable Love of God, falls into when dealing with the subject of the love of God. Talbott holds to a Universalist position which is unbiblical because He takes “God is love” as an exclusive statement about everything that God does. His belief is summed up when he writes: “God has but one moral attribute and that is loving kindness.”[16] The fallacy of this view is seen clearly through considering that the Bible also says that “God is Spirit” and “God is light,” statements, by the way, which were written by the same author who said that “God is love.”[17] Therefore, it would be a misrepresentation to say that love defines everything there is to know about God. This will be an important concept as we proceed to the final section concerning the love of God in which we will examine the scope of God’s love.
[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 198.
[2] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993) 123.
[3] Ibid., 125.
[4] Ibid., 121.
[5] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 59.
[6] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 123.
[7] Matthew 3:17.
[8] Isaiah 62:5; Zephaniah 3:17–18.
[9] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1941), 71.
[10] I Corinthians 13:6.
[11] D.A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 63.
[13] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 71.
[14] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 124.
[15] Ibid., 120.
[16] Michael Talbott, The Inescapable Love of God (Salem: Universal Publishers, 1999) 146.
[17] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 120–121.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980,
1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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