"Love may be defined as the self-imparting quality in the divine nature which leads God to seek the highest and the most complete possession of his creatures. Love in its highest form is a relation between intelligent, moral, and free beings. God's love to man seeks to awaken a responsive love of man to God. In its final form, love between God and man will mean their complete possession of each by the other" (E.Y. Mullins, The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression, Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1917) 236.
In one paragraph, E.Y. Mullins described the heart of God revealed in the Bible. It is the greatest love story that this world has ever heard. Of all the attributes of God, love is the one which summarizes His very essence and divine nature. The Bible has been described as God's "love letter" to all mankind. The cross of Christ is the picture of God's love for sinners, and that includes all of us. The word in the Greek New Testament describing this love is agape. It has been defined as "unconditional love." In the Bible, God is described in one simple sentence: "God is love" (1 John 4:8).
God the Father is love. God's love for His children is seen in very practical and expressive ways in the Bible. Herschel Hobbs described the loving Father this way: "As our father, God is intimately acquainted with and associated with his children. . . . As father, God is concerned with our welfare (Matthew 6:25-34). As father, God invites us to pray to him (Matthew 6:5-15; Romans 8:15). As father, God punishes or corrects his children (Hebrews 12:5-11), but as father he forgives (Matthew 18:14; Luke 6:36) and comforts his children (2 Thessalonians 2:16). As father, God delights to give good gifts to his children" (Matthew 7:11; Romans 8:23b), (Herschel Hobbs, Fundamentals of Our Faith, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1960) 36.
God the Son is love. The revelation of God's love to man is evident in many ways throughout the Bible, but the full revelation of God's love to all people is witnessed at the cross of Christ. The everlasting good news is this: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . ." (John 3:16). His love is unconditional for us as sinners. It's not that God loves us if we do good. That's not the good in the good news. The good is God's love for us as sinners. He forgives us and takes our sins away through Christ crucified. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet, perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:7-8).
God the Holy Spirit is love. The experience of God's love becomes real to us through the Holy Spirit. We may read in the Bible about God's love, or hear a sermon or song about God's love, without really experiencing God's love. However, when we hear the good news of God's love in Christ and believe, the Holy Spirit makes God's love a real experience in our lives. "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Romans 5:5). The very assurance of our relationship with God is His love in our hearts. It is the greatest evidence that God is at work in us (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love is the evidence, because God is love.
