Abusing God’s Love?
God created every living soul with an innate desire and hunger for love. Though love will not fill your stomach, quench your thirst, or warm your body, none of us can live without it. In his effort to explain this unique human need, the Apostle John insists that love is from God (1 John 4:7) because God is love (1 John 4:8). The magnitude of these statements is just as great as the likelihood of their misinterpretation. Tragically, some pounce on John’s reassurances as a means of justifying immoral behavior. So, what do these words mean?
The idea that “love is from God” is not a blanket endorsement of all actions that bear the label of love. Every expression of pure, holy love that is consistent with God’s nature is from Him. But according to God, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth (1 Cor. 13:6). The God who loved the world enough to offer His Son as a sacrifice on the cross (John 3:16) takes no pleasure whatsoever in wickedness (Psalm 5:4). In other words, God’s love for us does not result in His turning a blind eye to our sins, but His covering them through the shedding of Jesus’ blood instead (1 John 4:10).
Furthermore, the assertion that “God is love” is not an affirmation that “love is God.” While it is true that God defines love; it is not true that love defines God. Failure to make this distinction blurs the lines of God’s essence and diminishes the complexity and nuances of His glory. Perhaps an illustration will clarify what’s at stake.
One of the more remarkable beauties of the created world is the nightly luminary we call the Moon. Its light is both peaceful and practical as it pierces the canopy of darkness that covers the earth. Yet, would you be surprised to learn that the Moon possesses no light of its own? This celestial satellite merely reflects the light of the sun. Or, the sun’s light is the only moon we see, even though the moon itself is not the sun.
In a similar way, God is love, but love is not God. Love is an accurate reflection of who God is, but it does not capture the totality of our Creator. Sound like semantics? Hardly. God’s love for all people is not a divine stamp of approval of errant lifestyles and wickedness. Certainly, God tempers all His actions with love, but such does not make Him incapable of hating what is evil. According to Solomon, “There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers (Prov. 6:16-19).”
Divine hatred also appears in the prophetic book of Zechariah: “‘Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the Lord.” In the book of Revelation, God singles out the blasphemy and sexual immorality of the Nicolaitans while affirming the Ephesians, “you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate (Rev. 2:6).”
For many, love can become nothing more than an idolatrous expression of narcissistic behavior that contradicts the holiness of God. Some recklessly diminish the sacredness of marriage in their pursuit of selfish love (Mal. 2:16). Others dismiss the natural function of their gender for the pursuit of dysphoric love (Rom. 1:26-27). The deeds of the flesh which war against the Spirit of God, including immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (Gal. 5:19-21), can all be justified if we twist and manipulate both the definition and expression of love.
Identifying love as the motive for disobedience, however, does not make vile actions more honorable to the Lord. Citing God’s love as a justification for ignoring what God says is a gross misinterpretation of Scripture. Christians do not worship love; we worship the God who demonstrates love toward us even while we are sinners (Rom. 5:8).
The human tendency to abuse the gift of God’s love should not cause us to cease marveling over the wonderfully profound nature of the Lord. Though God will judge all sinners because He is holy, He is patient toward us, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He rejects the wicked (Psalm 11:5-6), but He provides His Son as a way of escape (Rom. 10:13). In fact, there is no greater love than laying down your life for your friends (John 15:13). Who can fully comprehend the depth and magnitude of God’s love? The hymn writer said it best:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Adam B. Dooley
October 15, 2024