The Love of God

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:8 (ESV)

What’s love got to do with it?

This is a song made famous by Tina Turner. In it she asks, “Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” The song takes the position that if you leave your heart out of your relationships, you won’t get hurt if the relationship fails.

While the song became one of Turner’s biggest hits, I would venture to say that the songwriter never experienced the love that Jesus extends to us, in a relationship that is infinite.

The Bible makes it clear that God is love (1 John 4:8). But it’s so much more than just His affection toward us — God is the very definition of love. Love is one of God’s attributes, one of the core aspects of His character, and He can never act outside His character. His love was demonstrated to us in both His creation of us and His death for our salvation.

Fortunately, His love is constantly extended to us even though we regularly fail at reciprocating love to Him and others. No matter what we do, God’s love never fails us. He tells us, “…My steadfast love shall not depart from you…” (Isiah 54:10) We can never love the way God loves us and the fact is we constantly fail in our relationships. Despite our failings, we can have the assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:38-39).

Aren’t you glad that God’s love is not dependent on the way we often treat Him? His heart breaks when we turn from Him. But we can always know that His love and His heart can never have more affection for us than it does right now.