God Is Love

*Edited July 11, 2015*

Here is 1 John 4:16b-21 as I've translated it from the Greek:  "God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God and God remains in him.  By this, love has been perfected with us, in order that we may have confidence in the day of the judgement, because as that one is, we are also in this world.  Fear is not in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because He first loved us.  If someone says, 'I love God,' and he hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, he is not able to love God whom he has not seen.  And we have this commandment from Him:  that the one who loves God also loves his brother."

Love isn't something that God does; it is who He is.  The Greek word for "remain" is μένω (MEH-no), which can also be translated as "abide," or "to stay in."  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "abide" as "accepting or acting in accordance with."  So, to remain or abide in God is to accept and act accordingly to whom He is and what He demands.  We know who God is because it's revealed to us here that He is love.  Everything He does and commands is in direct relation to His love.  Sometimes it's tough love through His wrath or chastisement, and sometimes it's that nurturing love that we all adore in His mercy.  If we abide in Him and His love by acting in accordance with what He commands, He remains in us.  By remaining in God and His love, His love is perfected with us, meaning that we experience His perfect love by the gift of salvation when we declare Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, which is enabled through faith that is given to us when we read or hear God's Word.  That love (His promise of salvation) is not perfected when you refuse Jesus and His means of grace because when you reject Him, you don't have His salvation.  Because God's love is perfected with us by salvation, we will have confidence in the day of judgement because we know we have the promise of salvation because as "that one" (the referent being God) is in the world as its Creator, so also are we.  So He is never not with us.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love, which is God's love for us when we abide in Him, casts out fear.  The fear of what?  The fear of condemnation — the fear of punishment as we justly deserve.  When God gives us the promise of salvation, we no longer have this fear.  The one who refuses this gift forces him or herself to continue living in the fear of condemnation and punishment, therefore God's love is not perfected with them.  However, just because they don't believe and therefore claim they don't fear it does not mean that the fear isn't real.  They'll experience that fear once Jesus returns (Revelation 6:15-17, "Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?").

God loved us first by creating us (He didn't need to) and then saving us from damnation by our own doing (which He also didn't need to do), thus enabling us to love Him and to love others since His love remains with us.  If we say we love God but have hate for someone else, we're lying about loving God.  It is impossible to love the God of love yet have hate in your heart for someone.  You can dislike someone, but hate?  Hate is unacceptable in the Lord's eyes.  Likewise, if we say we love God but don't abide in Him (ac in accordance with what He says), then He is not in us and we are not in Him.  Just look at the Westboro Baptist Church cult members.  They claim to love God, yet they preach such immense hatred and self-righteously condemn others.  God's love remaining with people such as these is impossible.  However, it is also the same for those who condone sinful practises  such as homosexuality.  God's Word unmistakably speaks against it, yet out of ignorance people condone the sin.  That doesn't mean that such people are unlovable, however, especially by God.  But it does mean that people who condone sins such as this do not abide in God since they refuse to act in accordance with His commands.

It is impossible to love God whom we have not seen when we fail to love someone else whom we have seen.  God commands that those who love God also love his brother.