I John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” The love of God is a frequent theme in the Bible. Perhaps the most famous verse in all of Scripture begins with the words, “For God so loved the world…” We even see God’s love back in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31:2-3 says, “Thus says the Lord…‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’”
Not only do these verses teach us the succinct truth that God is love, but they highlight the fact that God’s love is outside of time. In fact, God’s love is eternal. Love is part of God’s nature; it is not just something that He chooses to do, it is who God is. God is love.
Philosophers have used this great doctrine as an attack against God. The critique goes like this: God claims to be a God of love, but before He created mankind, there was no one for Him to love. Thus, God’s love relies on humanity. God cannot be loving unless we exist, so God becomes dependent upon His creation.
That argument can be applied to the god of Islam as well. Muslims refer to Allah as “The Loving,” but how can he be loving before he allegedly created people?
This is a real problem for Allah, but not for Yahweh (the God of the Bible). The solution for the Christian is found in the Trinity. We believe in the three-in-one, that God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simultaneously. This tri-unity is unique to Christianity. Islam fiercely rejects this doctrine.
Passages like Matthew 3:16-17 illustrate that the members of the godhead enjoy each other. There we read: “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” Isaiah 42:1 says the Father “delights” in His Servant, a reference to Jesus.
So long before there was Adam and Eve, God was love. The warm relationship that existed among Father, Son, and Spirit is now extended to mankind, but God’s love did not originate in the Garden of Eden.
If God’s love existed from eternity, then it stands to reason that it will continue for eternity. Our God of love is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8),” so we need not worry that His loving nature will change. I Corinthians 13:8 tells us, “love never ends.”
True children of God will live in His kingdom forever and ever and ever, and the God who makes that possible will be the God of love for just as long.
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