God is Love (Sermon)

Scripture Reading: 1st John 3: 1-3; 4: 7-21; 2: 9-11.

Text: 1st John 4:8 - "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love." 

This is fundamental and forms a foundation or groundwork for that which follows. This is God's way of revealing His truth. He who understands the first chapter of Genesis understands the new birth; and the whole everlasting Gospel. He who understands the first commandment, has the whole decalogue. 

There is nothing more fundamental to our understanding of divine truth, and to the nature of our worship, and of our spiritual life, than our concept of the character of God. There is a sense in which it may be said that every man creates his own god. This in no way controverts the fact of the eternal, unchangeable character of God, for the true understanding of which we ever seek, and open our hearts to His Spirit. That is, inevitably, and unavoidably, God is to us what we think Him to be. 

The nature of our worship, and of our spiritual experience is determined, not so much by what God is, as by our concept and understanding of Him. Make me aware of any man's concept of the Divine, - of Deity, and I will at once be able to tell you about the nature of his worship, and of how it effects his life. And this is true always, from the lowest savage, cringing in abject fear before his fetish, to the highest, most spiritual man whose soul expands and unfolds, and grows beautiful like a lily, in the conscious presence of his God. 

This is why to know God truly is spiritual life, life eternal. It is this that saves from sin and glorifies the soul. This is why God, in His works, in His Word, and most of all in the person of His Christ, is ever in His infinite saving love seeking to reveal Himself to us more fully. Beloved, there can nothing please Him more than for us to seek to come nearer, to reverently penetrate a little father into the holy of Holies of His Presence. And surely no one will, for a moment, think he has already gone all the way into the "Secret place of His Presence, where He wants us to abide. He still dwelleth in the light which no man hath approached. It is the daily, constant prayer of my life, 

"Blow winds of Heaven, and blow the mists of earth away, Shine out, 0, Light Divine, and show how wide and far we stray." 

"God is Love". These three words of only nine letters contain a revelation of God greater than any man has yet fathomed, - a mystery into which even the Angels desire to look. What can they mean other than that Love is the all, - embracing attribute of God; the one attribute from which all others spring, and back into which all actions can be traced. What other definition of God is there in Scriptures? Is there any contradictory statement concerning Him?

We read, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." This, by the same writer who has told us that "God is Love." Light is what reveals, makes clear and plain, just as darkness is what conceals, deceives. The whole kingdom of God is called the Kingdom of Light, just as in contrast the kingdom of evil is called the kingdom of darkness. God, then does not hide Himself, but He ever, in every way, seeks to reveal Himself that we may know Him, and be saved. When He says that ‘’He dwelleth in the light which no man hath approached or can approach", it does not mean that He is hiding Himself and will not let us approach Him. It means that our spiritual eyes are sin-dimmed so we cannot see Him as He is. "The Light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Nevertheless, the Light is every struggling up through the darkness, seeking to make himself seen and felt.

Again, Christ said "I am the Truth". "I and my Father are one," "In Christ is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily", Paul tells us. It means God is the Truth and in Him is no falsehood at all; and every truth in the universe is one of the thoughts of God. 

In the study of philosophy, we learn that no two truths can contradict. All truth is harmonious. In logic we have what is called the law of consistency, which requires that every item of our belief shall be in harmony with every other item. This last is only the first truth carried up to God. All truth is harmonious because all God's thoughts are harmonious. 

All our seeking after truth is seeking after God, though we know it not. In Botany, Chemistry, Astronomy, it is the same. The Psalmist says, "O God how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep". There is in this, if apprehended, that which would transform and uplift all the educational systems of the world. O that all our educators could know that Truth is not a mere theory, dead and impersonal, but truth is personal, Divine, Godlike. All seeking for truth should be a conscious seeking after God. This would be a development of heart education as well as head education.  

God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all. and in Him is no error; God is Love and in Him is no hatred. And are these three statements conflicting? No, because Light and Truth and Love are all in harmony with each other. It is three different ways of stating the same thing. What light is to the physical world truth is to the intellectual world and Love is to the moral and spiritual world. "He that loveth not knoweth not." 

"God is Love" is the greatest statement in human language of what God is, so let us study it a little. Some may say God is Power, but the scripture does not say that. God is powerful, Almighty, but His power if separated from His love might make us look contemptible in His sight. He is all-knowing because He is all loving. You cannot say God is love and justice because that places justice outside of love and there is no real justice outside of love. Justice is an attribute of love. To know God is to be loving like Him. "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." 

George E. Fifield