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13 March 2015

God is love?

Of course. It says it right there in the Bible. In those exact words. In 1John. End of post.

Except actually not. As C. S. Lewis wrote, a lot of people say "God is love" when what they mean is "Love is god." Even worse, we think our 21st century Western view of love is god.

The current version of love is largely negative; we can't say anything about someone's "choices" -- which are immutable -- and we can't push our religion on anyone, which is defined as bringing it up or letting it affect our opinions.

In contrast, the Bible sees this as terribly unloving. There, love is seen as a positive motivation; it makes people do things. In the Bible, love equals action.

Think about that for a moment. To the world, love basically equals sex. You can do whatever you want with whomever you want provided you "love" them. The biblical definition of love includes wanting the best for a person, not just for now but for the long haul ... and according to the Bible, the long haul is very, very long.

The simple fact is that revelations about God are meant to do one thing first and foremost: reveal something about God. "God is love" tells us that God is love. It does not provide a convenient loophole that allows you to do all kinds of things the rest of the Bible condemns.

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