GOD IS LOVE

 November 7  

The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8

One day C.H. Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the pastor noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. "Weather vanes are changeable," he said, "but God's love is constant." "I don't agree with you about those words, Charles," replied his friend. "You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love." Spurgeon’s friend made a good point. God’s love is immutable. It doesn’t change no matter what winds of circumstances may blow upon us. 

In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer wrote: “So the God who is love is first and foremost light, and sentimental ideas of His love as an indulgent, benevolent softness, divorced from moral standards and concerns, must therefore be ruled out from the start. God’s love is holy love. The God whom Jesus made known is not a God who is indifferent to moral distinctions, but a God who loves righteousness and hates iniquity…God’s love is stern, for it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness for the beloved. Scripture does not allow us to suppose that because God is love we may look to Him to confer happiness on people who will not seek holiness, or to shield His love ones from trouble when He knows that they need trouble to further their sanctification.” 

As the hymn writer wrote: “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade; to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.” 

Ike Graham