GOD IS LOVE

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"God is love" is one of the most quoted biblical phrases. But do we really know what it means? The truth is that few know it. Let's see what the Bible says about it.

"God is love" is a direct quote from two different biblical passages: 1 John 4: 8 and 1 John 4:16. However, there are many other Scriptures that express this truth-which describes the essence of God's nature-in a different way.

Some examples are John 3:16 (another much quoted verse): "For God so loved the world ..."; John 16:27: "For the Father himself loves you" and 1 John 3: 1, where the apostle John also tells us about God's love saying: "Look at what love the Father has given us."

And these are only a small sample of many Scriptures that reiterate this fundamental characteristic of the nature of God. God is love, and expresses his love for us in different ways.

"God is fundamental and essentially LOVE: not simply loving."

The purpose of God
The incredible truth of what God is doing for the love he feels for us is revealed in one of the verses above. In 1 John 3: 1, the apostle John tells us: "See what love the Father has given us, that we may be called children of God." God created mankind with the purpose of being his children and conforming his family and wants a family with sons and daughters to share his nature. Let us pause for a moment to reflect on this wonderful reality.

In 2 Corinthians 6: 17-18, Paul also tells us about this incredible fact when he writes: "Wherefore, 'Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean; and I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. '"

The love of the Father and the Son
"God is love" not only describes the nature of God the Father, it also describes that of his Son, Jesus Christ; both members of the divine family love each other deeply and-love is their nature.

As we read in John 3:35 and John 5:20: "The Father loves the Son." And Jesus also loves the Father, as he confirms in John 14:31 saying, "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, so I do."

Love: motivating force of salvation
As we have seen, the ultimate purpose of salvation is for us to become children of God. In their love, the Most High God and the Word want to share their way of life, all they are and have, with their fellow men.

For this, they developed a plan and created the human being with the aim of giving him the incredible opportunity to become a member of his family. This is the plan of salvation.

The requirement to be saved
The only thing that God expects from us to give us the incredible gift of living eternally as part of his family, is that we learn to love him as he loves us. How does God want us to show him love? He himself gives us the answer in 1 John 5: 3: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome. "

What does "God is love" mean?
God is love. And in his love, he wants to make us part of his family as sons and daughters. The only thing we must do to be his children - to be one with God - is to learn to love him, his family and his creation as he loves us.

"The glory that you gave me, I have given them, so that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, and you in me, so that they may be perfect in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and that you have loved them as you have loved me "(John 17: 22-23).