God is Love (full stop)?
What we often hear is: God is love. Sermons full of it. The superlative is: God loves everyone! And when we hear that…. we listen VERY carefully to what else is being said… because:
Yes, He is love. But he is WAY more than that…. If we just say “God is love” and then stop…. that is a half truth… and a very dangerous one….
Let’s start with this Bible verse:
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:16b
Take a good look at that verse… sounds good, right? But what do you notice? Tip: it’s not even one verse… it’s only half of one verse…. Let alone one chapter… This was verse 16b…. And we’re going to take a look at that. Let’s take a look at the whole verse:
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16
And now it becomes a completely different story… Yes, God is love, but if you want to have that love in yourself, then you have to know God, and believe in God(!) Do you see that that love does not come “just like that”? There is a price to pay for that love…know and believe. Let’s change that verse to negative… what does it become:
We don’t know, and don’t believe, the love that God has for us. Then, God is not love, and if we do not abide in our love for God, God is not in us.
1 John 4:16, but reversed.
Wow! That’s a totally different ball game! Let’s dive a little further. Let’s start with verse 1 of that chapter:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1
And here we go… the “God is love god” we hear (almost) in every sermon, every Sunday, except for the warning
about false teachers…when was the last time you heard that in church? Or somewhere else? But both
things are in the same chapter… Being in the same chapter means something… God loves us so much, He also warns us against bad behavior and tells us the consequences of sinning… so God is more than ‘just’ Love…. God is also:
Righteous (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Merciful (Proverbs 28:13)
Holy (Leviticus 20:26)
Righteous (Psalm 145:17)
Grace (John 1:14)
Truth (John 1:14)
Faithfulness (1 Corinthians 10:13)
And so forth….
And here we come to the point of this meditation… we need to have a balanced view of who God is. If it is not balanced (in any way or form), then what kind of God do we believe in? The true God, or one we made up ourselves…
God likes truth, Satan likes half-truths.
Satan is excellent at using half-truths instead of outright lies. He likes to tell just enough truth about God that seems biblical…but isn’t…
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (top tip: read the whole chapter)
God’s love does not exist without His standards for you, His salvation without repentance by you, His blessings without responsibilities for you. (for example) God is love (period), seems right, but it is a half-truth…
Let’s look at some examples in the Bible where Satan himself does just that:
- Satan quoted Psalm 91 to Jesus to trick Jesus into a half-truth. (Matthew 4:1-11).
- In Genesis 3:4-5, we see Satan trying to trick Eve into eating “the apple” and Satan’s words.
If you look at those words, satan said to Eve… there’s a piece of truth in it… But it’s not the whole truth. Half of what Satan told Eve was true: her eyes were opened to good and evil. But that didn’t make her like God. Instead, unbelief and sin made her way less like God.
Satan uses a half-truth in Matthew 4:5-6:
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
Matthew 4:5-6
And that, too, was a half-truth. For what does Jesus say in the following verse:
Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
Matthew 4:7
And where is that written in the bible?
You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.
Deuteronomy 6:16
What Jesus did there was a huge example to you and me. Jesus knew the Bible inside out. And He immediately knew that Satan was speaking half the truth and was trying to misuse Psalm 91:11-12.
And to finish him off… Jesus says this:
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
Matthew 4:10
And there, too, Jesus himself quotes a verse from Deuteronomy 6:13. So what is that biblical love?
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
And that’s a long list! Wow… and since God is love, He is also all of the above and expects us to be and do the same… only then is He love to you… And that’s a problem. If that’s true biblical love, it’s impossible to be all of that. We are humans and sin.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23
And if you also look at 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:20, you really see the problem arise.
And the consequences of that are clear:
For the wages of sin is death
Romans 6:23a
but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Romans 3:18b
And if you look closely, do you also see what happened to those 2 verses? Yes, those too, were just one part of one
verse….. And thank God, His love isn’t just verse 23a or verse 18b… no, it’s more. So, once again, let’s look at the whole verse:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:18
However, a huge price has been paid for that love…. because note:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
And only if you believe in that, then God loves you so much that you will go to heaven…if you don’t believe that…you will not go to heaven…and God will show that He is not only love, but also justice, and you will be held accountable for everything(!) you did wrong. Everything. Wow.
And with that, we come to a close. Please share the whole gospel and the true God. The “God is only love” “movement” is an insult to God. He is WAY more than that. And we must bring a balanced gospel, the whole gospel, which includes talking about sin, the consequences of sin, that God sends His own son to die for our sins, that Jesus has conquered death, and if we believe that, God forgives and will forget your sins by His grace.
If we deliver a message that is 90% “God is love” (or even more than 90%…), and ignore the rest… sometimes… or maybe not… then that is a false Gospel. The same is true if we talk 90% about sin and its consequences, and don’t talk about the rest… that too is a false gospel.
Bring a balanced gospel so that people hear about the true and biblical God. That’s real love.
