Knowing God: God Is Love

Before You Can Trust God, You Have to Know His Heart

When someone first begins following Christ, it is easy to focus on the questions of what they should do.

How often should I pray?

Where should I start reading the Bible?

What do I need to stop doing?

How am I supposed to live now?

Those questions matter, but there is another question that comes before all of them:

Who is God?

Because everything in the Christian life grows out of the answer to that question.

If you think God is constantly irritated with you, you will approach Him cautiously.

If you think He is distant, prayer will feel awkward.

If you think His love depends on your behavior, you will spend your Christian life trying to prove that you deserve Him.

But Scripture gives us a very different picture.

John writes:

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
— 1 John 4:8

That is a remarkable statement.

John does not simply say that God is capable of love. He tells us that love belongs to God's very nature.

God does not occasionally become loving.

He does not wake up one day pleased with us and become less loving the next.

His love is rooted in who He is.

That does not mean God approves of everything we do. Scripture is equally clear that God is holy and that sin matters deeply to Him. But His holiness and His love are not fighting against one another.

God loves with a holy love.

He corrects because He loves.

He warns because He loves.

He forgives because He loves.

And He confronts what destroys us because He loves us too much to pretend that sin is harmless.

That is where we need to begin.

Not with our ability to love God.

But with His love for us.

What the Bible Means When It Says God Is Love

We use the word “love” very loosely.

We say we love a person.

We love a meal.

We love a movie.

We love a song.

In ordinary conversation, love can describe almost anything from deep commitment to simple preference.

Biblical love is much richer than that.

The love Scripture describes is active. It is not merely a feeling. It moves toward another person for their good.

God's love gives.

God's love sacrifices.

God's love remains faithful.

God's love tells the truth.

That last part is especially important.

Sometimes people think that if God truly loves someone, He should never confront them.

But that is not how love works.

Imagine a father watching his child reach toward a hot stove. He does not prove his love by remaining silent. He warns the child. He may even physically pull the child away.

Why?

Because love is concerned with more than comfort.

Love is concerned with what is good.

Hebrews 12:6 says:

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves.”

Discipline can be uncomfortable, but Scripture presents God's correction as evidence that He has not abandoned His children.

He is shaping them.

This gives us a fuller understanding of God's love.

God does not simply say, “I love you exactly where you are.”

He also says, in effect, “I love you too much to leave you exactly where you are.”

God Loved First

One of the easiest mistakes a believer can make is imagining that salvation began when they decided to turn toward God.

Scripture says something deeper.

God was already moving toward us.

John writes:

“We love because he first loved us.”
— 1 John 4:19

Those words put the Gospel in the proper order.

God loved first.

God called first.

God acted first.

Our faith is a response to His grace.

Paul says the same thing in Romans 5:8:

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The phrase that stands out is “while we were still sinners.”

God did not wait for humanity to improve.

Jesus did not die for people who had finally gotten their lives together.

Christ came for sinners.

Romans 5:10 goes even further and describes us as God's enemies before reconciliation.

That language is uncomfortable, but it makes God's grace even more astonishing.

God did not look at rebellion and decide that sin was unimportant.

He looked at rebellious people and chose to provide a way back to Himself.

That is love.

The Garden Shows Us What Sin Does

To understand this love more clearly, go back to Genesis.

Adam and Eve were created in a world without the brokenness we now know.

They experienced fellowship with God.

There was no shame between them.

No fear of death.

No hiding.

Then the serpent entered the story.

What is interesting is that the serpent's first attack was aimed at God's character.

“Did God actually say...?”
— Genesis 3:1

The question was designed to produce distrust.

The serpent wanted Eve to wonder whether God was withholding something from her.

In other words, the temptation was not only about fruit.

It was about whether God could really be trusted.

That same question still lies underneath many temptations today.

“Does God really know what is best?”

“Why would God keep this from me?”

“Wouldn't I be happier if I did things my own way?”

Adam and Eve chose to distrust God.

Immediately, something changed.

They became ashamed.

They covered themselves.

And then they hid.

Genesis 3:8 says:

“The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

That is one of sin's oldest patterns.

Sin makes us hide.

We hide what we have done.

We make excuses.

We blame other people.

We sometimes even avoid prayer because we are ashamed to face God.

But then God asks a question.

“Where are you?”
— Genesis 3:9

God was not confused about Adam's location.

He knew exactly where Adam was.

The question was an invitation.

Adam had withdrawn from God, yet God came looking for Adam.

That becomes a pattern throughout the rest of the Bible.

People run.

God calls.

People wander.

God pursues.

People hide.

God invites them into the light.

When God Covered Their Shame

After Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves.

It was humanity's first attempt to manage guilt on its own.

We still have our own versions of fig leaves.

Some people cover shame with success.

Others use religion.

Others compare themselves with people they think are worse.

Others hide behind humor, pride, work, or distractions.

We become very creative when we are trying to avoid facing what is broken inside us.

But Genesis 3:21 says:

“And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

The verse is brief, but the image is powerful.

Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves.

God provided the covering they could not provide for themselves.

The text does not spell out a complete theology of sacrifice at this point, but the theme develops throughout the rest of Scripture.

Sin brings death.

A substitute is provided.

Blood is shed.

The guilty receive covering.

Later, sacrifices become central to Israel's worship.

Eventually, Isaiah speaks of a suffering servant who would bear the sins of others.

Then John the Baptist sees Jesus and says:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
— John 1:29

What begins as a shadow in Genesis eventually becomes clear at the cross.

Humanity could not fix its own problem.

God provided what humanity needed.

If You Want to Understand God's Love, Look at the Cross

There will be seasons when life makes God's love difficult to understand.

A prayer may seem unanswered.

A relationship may fall apart.

Someone may die.

You may be disappointed.

You may go through a season where God feels distant.

If your confidence in His love is built entirely on circumstances, your understanding of God will change every time life changes.

That is why Christianity points us toward something more permanent.

The cross.

John 3:16 says:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son...”

Love gave.

God did not merely tell humanity that He loved us.

He acted.

Jesus says:

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
— John 15:13

Yet Romans reminds us that Jesus did not only die for His friends.

He died for sinners.

Isaiah 53:5 says:

“He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.”

Peter writes:

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”
— 1 Peter 2:24

The cross tells us two things at the same time.

Sin is more serious than we often want to admit.

And God's love is greater than we often dare to believe.

God did not save us by pretending that sin did not matter.

He dealt with it.

Love and Justice Meet at Calvary

People sometimes ask, “If God is loving, why does He judge sin?”

But love and justice are not enemies.

Suppose a judge repeatedly allowed people who committed terrible crimes to walk free without consequence.

We would not call that judge loving.

We would call him corrupt.

A good God cannot be indifferent toward evil.

He cares about what sin does to His creation.

He cares about injustice.

He cares about cruelty.

He cares about abuse.

He cares about rebellion against what is good.

So the Gospel is not the story of God ignoring justice in order to show mercy.

It is the story of God satisfying justice while extending mercy through Christ.

Romans 3:26 says that God is both:

“just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

That is what makes the cross so important.

God does not compromise His holiness to save sinners.

Christ bears the judgment sinners deserve.

Justice is upheld.

Grace is offered.

The cross shows us both how serious sin is and how far God's love was willing to go to rescue us.

The Prodigal Son and the Heart of the Father

Jesus gives one of the clearest pictures of God's heart in Luke 15.

A younger son comes to his father and asks for his share of the inheritance.

The request would have been deeply insulting.

An inheritance normally came after a father's death.

The son's request essentially communicated, “I want what you can give me, but I don't want you.”

That is a picture of sin.

We often want God's gifts without wanting God Himself.

We want life.

Love.

Success.

Pleasure.

Security.

Purpose.

But we want to define all of those things on our own terms.

The son leaves home and wastes everything.

Luke 15:13 says:

“There he squandered his property in reckless living.”

Eventually the money disappears.

A famine comes.

The son becomes desperate enough to work feeding pigs.

For Jesus' Jewish audience, the image would have been humiliating.

The young man had gone from living as a son in his father's house to longing for the food of an unclean animal.

Then the story turns.

Luke 15:17 says:

“But when he came to himself...”

That sentence captures something important about repentance.

Sin often distorts the way we see reality.

It promises something it cannot deliver.

Freedom becomes bondage.

Pleasure becomes emptiness.

Independence becomes isolation.

Eventually, the son sees his condition clearly.

He decides to go home.

But he does not expect to be restored as a son.

He prepares a speech.

He plans to ask for the position of a servant.

Then Jesus says:

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”
— Luke 15:20

The father saw him before the son reached the house.

The father moved first.

The father ran.

The father embraced him.

The father welcomed him.

The son came expecting rejection.

The father answered him with restoration.

That is the heart Jesus wants us to see.

Why the Father Ran

The detail that the father ran would have caught the attention of Jesus' original audience.

A wealthy older man in that culture would normally carry himself with dignity. Running publicly could be seen as embarrassing or beneath his status.

Yet Jesus says the father ran toward the son.

The father was willing to lower himself in order to reach the child who had shamed him.

That image naturally points us toward Christ.

Philippians 2 says that Jesus humbled Himself, took the form of a servant, and became obedient even to death on a cross.

Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus:

“endured the cross, despising the shame.”

The Gospel is the story of a God who did not remain distant from human rebellion.

He came near.

The Father in the parable runs toward the returning son.

Christ came into our world to rescue sinners who could never rescue themselves.

The Robe, the Ring, and the Sandals

The father does more than allow the son to come back onto the property.

He restores him.

Luke 15:22 says:

“Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.”

The son expected servant status.

The father restored him publicly as family.

The robe communicated honor.

The ring communicated belonging and status.

The sandals further distinguished him from a common household slave.

The father would not allow the son to earn his way back into the family.

That is an important picture of grace.

Ephesians 2:8–9 says:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith... it is the gift of God, not a result of works.”

Grace means we do not purchase forgiveness.

We receive it.

We do not repay Christ for the cross.

We trust Him.

We do not work ourselves into God's family.

Through faith in Christ, we are welcomed into it.

Heaven Rejoices When the Lost Come Home

Luke 15 is not only the story of a lost son.

The chapter also contains a lost sheep and a lost coin.

All three stories follow the same pattern.

Something is lost.

Something is found.

Then there is celebration.

Jesus says:

“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.”
— Luke 15:7

Some people imagine repentance as approaching a God who is reluctant to forgive them.

Jesus presents the opposite picture.

Heaven rejoices.

Repentance does not make sin less serious.

It shows us how extraordinary grace is.

God does not delight in people remaining lost.

He delights in restoration.

The Older Brother Was Lost Too

The younger brother is not the only important character in the story.

When the older brother hears that his father is celebrating the younger son's return, he becomes angry.

He says:

“Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command...”
— Luke 15:29

The younger brother was lost far from home.

The older brother was lost while standing near the house.

That is what makes the story so challenging.

One brother represented rebellion.

The other represented self-righteousness.

The younger brother thought, “I don't need my father.”

The older brother thought, “My father owes me because I have been good.”

Both misunderstood the father's heart.

The same danger exists in Christianity.

A person can attend church, read the Bible, serve, give, and still quietly believe that their good behavior has placed God in their debt.

Grace destroys that way of thinking.

We do not obey God so He will finally love us.

We obey because in Christ we have already encountered His love.

Nothing Can Separate Us from His Love

Paul writes in Romans 8:

“Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 8:38–39

Paul intentionally gives an overwhelming list.

He reaches into life.

Death.

The present.

The future.

Spiritual powers.

All creation.

His conclusion is simple.

Nothing in that list can break God's love for those who belong to Christ.

Jesus gives a similar promise in John 10:28:

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Our confidence is not found in pretending that believers never struggle.

Our confidence is found in the faithfulness of Christ.

The strength of our salvation is not ultimately the strength of our grip on Him.

It is the strength of His grip on us.

God's Love Does Not Promise an Easy Life

A new believer needs to understand this early.

God's love does not mean life will always go the way we want.

The Bible is filled with people who were loved by God and still suffered.

Joseph was betrayed by his brothers.

David spent years running from Saul.

Job suffered tremendous loss.

Paul was imprisoned, beaten, rejected, and shipwrecked.

Jesus Himself was called the beloved Son and still went to the cross.

So suffering cannot automatically mean that God has stopped loving someone.

Romans 8:28 says:

“For those who love God all things work together for good.”

That verse does not say everything that happens is good.

Some things are genuinely painful and evil.

The promise is that God is able to work even through broken circumstances for His purposes.

You can be grieving and still be loved.

Confused and still be loved.

Waiting and still be loved.

Struggling and still be loved.

The cross gives us a reason to trust God's heart even when we do not understand His hand.

Love Changes the Way We Obey

John says:

“We love because he first loved us.”

That truth changes the motivation of the Christian life.

Prayer is no longer an attempt to convince God to accept us.

We pray because Christ has opened the way to the Father.

Reading Scripture is not homework we complete so God will be impressed.

We read because we want to know Him.

Serving does not purchase sonship.

We serve because we have already been welcomed into God's family.

John 1:12 says:

“To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

This is one of the great differences between grace and religious performance.

Performance says, “If I do enough, maybe God will accept me.”

Grace says, “Christ has done what I could never do, so now I live differently because I belong to Him.”

And true grace never leaves us unchanged.

Titus 2:11–12 says that the grace of God teaches us to reject ungodliness.

Grace forgives us.

Then grace begins shaping us.

God's Love Should Become Visible Through Us

Receiving God's love changes the way we treat other people.

John writes:

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
— 1 John 4:11

Jesus told His disciples:

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
— John 13:35

That should make us examine our lives carefully.

It is possible to know many Bible verses and still be harsh.

It is possible to understand theology and still be unforgiving.

It is possible to look religious and still treat people without compassion.

Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 13 that knowledge without love is empty.

Spiritual maturity is not measured only by how much Scripture we can explain.

It is also seen in what Scripture is producing in us.

Are we becoming more patient?

More forgiving?

More truthful?

More gracious?

More willing to serve?

More willing to love people who cannot repay us?

The love of God is not meant to stop at us.

It is meant to move through us.