Perhaps the best-known declaration in the scriptures is God is Love. It is a philosophy that has been debated over and over again through the ages; however, most of these debates are really debates over the definition of love. Let’s step back a bit and look at a bigger picture. What are the implications of God as love?
I remember reading a story, which I can’t find, about the world’s greatest general. It ended up being, if I remember correctly, a Chinese peasant who had never gone to war. The implication was that your inherent abilities are who you are.
I realize now that this is a load of crap. One is what one does, not what one could do or intends to do. I’m a good guy based on what I have done for people, not for what I could, or even will, do for them next year. And this brings us to the point I made in the last post:
God is not theoretical.
God can’t be declared to be a thing unless he is that thing, not even if he has the potential to achieve, any more than a man who has never gone to war can be the world’s greatest general. And this brings us back to the sticky business of God being love.
God can only be declared to be love through his expression of love. Even more astonishing is perfect love. This is possible only of someone who has taken something complete outside of one’s self, something totally separate, and brought it into themselves.
And now we see some of our pieces coming together. We spoke of how God created the world outside of symmetry. A break, as it were. It was made dark, complete outside of he who is light. David declares,
God looks down from heaven on all men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. But all of them have turned away, they are all corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one man.
And there we are, completely outside of God. And that is just the way it had to be. We are those outside of him, and we are those who are brought in.
I will make man in my own image.
This is God’s declaration of creation. John tells us that we are accepted in the beloved. We are not made a simulacrum of God; we are brought in, we are made who he is.
This is why we are given eternal life. Having brought us in, we now exist immemorially. We are then no longer even brought in, but have always been. And God is not the I Could Be or even the I Will, but is now the I Am. Thus, God is Love.