1. God Doesn’t Just Feel Love - He Is Love
This is a very important biblical truth that, unfortunately, is sometimes forgotten or completely overlooked.
If anything, it’s more common to hear about how God loves us (i.e., how He feels love). But God doesn’t just experience love as an emotion. He actually is love.
1 John 4:16 (NLT) says, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” [Emphasis mine.]
God and love are intimately connected because love is part of who God is at His core. It’s a foundational part of His identity and His very being.
Now, there’s the related question of what God’s love is like, right? Because as humans, we’ve all experienced some so-called love that has felt fickle, transactional, or downright false. Even abusive.
So before I move on, let’s take note of 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (NLT) which gives us the definition of God’s perfect love: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
In 1 John 4:18 (NLT), a few verses after the statement that God is love, we read, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”
In other words:
God is love.
His love is perfect.
Which makes it very different from the world’s love. So much so, that we have absolutely no reason to fear it or its source (aka God).
Now, what does this have to do with God’s love being free versus something that we need to earn?
Think about an attribute that is very foundational to who you are. Something that you would have a hard time removing from your identity or the fabric of your being.
For example, let’s say you are highly compassionate. No matter where you are, or who you meet, you’re always thinking about how you can give kindness and compassion. It’s a primary lens to how you see the world.
Here’s my question to you: Do you require others to jump through hoops, and exhaust themselves by trying to meet certain expectations, in order to receive your compassion? Or does it simply pour out of you, being an intricate part of who you are?
It’s the latter, right? The same is true with God.
Love is something that God just gives, without hesitation, reservation, or expectation, because it’s who He is.
And He’s shown that over and over again, as we see in the Bible.
2. If God Required Us to Be Perfect, the Bible Would Read Very Differently
This is one of the things that clearly makes certain religious ideas not just unbiblical but highly illogical.
The Bible is not full of perfect people. Or people who worked really hard to meet some crazy expectation or standard that God placed before them in order to be found “worthy” enough to receive His love.
Yes, God calls His people to do (by logical human reasoning) crazy things. Such as Noah building a gigantic ark. Or Jesus calling men to leave behind the only livelihoods they’ve ever owned, such as fishing or being a tax collector, to follow Him even though they had no idea what that meant.
But these are instances of God placing a calling on someone, usually requiring them to trust Him, and then He delivers on that trust by guiding and providing.
It’s about that person’s growth and the continued revelation to them - and to us - about God’s character.
And as we just touched on, perfect love is a very foundational part of who God is.
This is why the Bible is full of stories of God loving His people who are imperfect and sinful. Who have turned their backs on Him.
Jesus dying on the cross is a primary example. After the Fall in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve chose sin over trusting God, thereby creating a rift between us and God because He’s holy…God could have walked away. He could have washed His hands of us.
But He didn’t. He sent His only Son to die on the cross in our place, for our sins, so that not only can we now be seen as clean and acceptable in His holy sight…but we were spared His holy wrath because Jesus took that on for us.
That in and of itself is an amazing love.
On top of which, what Jesus did is a gift for anyone to receive. There isn’t a checklist of things one needs to meet. All one needs to do is accept the truth of what Jesus did and why.
Think about other stories in the Bible. If perfection had been required, God’s people never would have made it. We wouldn’t be sitting here thousands of years later, with God wooing our hearts and desiring us to be in relationship with Him.
There would be some very different story endings in the Bible:
God wouldn’t have called Noah to build the ark; instead, He would have destroyed all humans.
God might have abandoned the Israelites after rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. He had performed numerous miracles. He had guided them through physical manifestations. Yet they grumbled against Him and wanted to return to Egypt. Still, instead of washing His hands of them, He remained their God and loved them through this season where they needed to not just leave Egypt behind - but get Egypt out of them internally.
God would not have pursued those that blatantly ignored His commands or turned their back on Him - such as Jonah, who tried to outrun God’s command by trying to run away.
In truth, God doesn’t owe us anything. He’s God. He doesn’t need us. But, He wants us - desperately (in a good way).
So we see in the Bible countless ways that God loves His people, freely, even when they’re not in a place to love Him back. In fact, that’s usually the case.
