God and His Attributes

God is love– 1 John 4:8

If there is an attribute of God that is popular with even non-Christians, it is the love of God. But even the love of God is widely misunderstood.

God is love, but love is not God. Therefore, God is able to direct, apply, and sustain his love entirely independent of the standards and actions and philosophies of men. God’s love, when properly understood, is just as awesome and fearful as his holiness or wrath.

Because love is an attribute of God, his love is as infinite and eternal as his person and existence is. He speaks through Jeremiah, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (31:3). His love lasts forever in both directions. He has loved (in the past) everlastingly, and yet (because it is everlasting) his love goes on ceaselessly into the future as well.

But an infinite, everlasting love inescapably implies other aspects to God’s love also. If his love is eternal then it must also be unconditional, because no one was present to earn or touch or plead for God’s love in eternity past. And if God loves unconditionally, he must also love sovereignly; he chooses whom to love and how to display his love for them.

But perhaps most precious of all, if God loves infinitely and unconditionally and sovereignly, then he must love immutably — his love does not change, does not wax or wane with the tides and emotions of humanity or history.

If God has ever loved you, then he has forever loved you! Dear believer, rest in the unchanging, sovereign love of God for you today.