God is the personification of love

Many people believe that chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians in the New Testament, is the most important chapter in the Bible. Others go even further believing this chapter ranks as the masterpiece of all compositions ever written.

Especially beautiful, are the opening verses.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

These are surprising words considering the emphasis that the great Apostle Paul has put, in the preceding chapter, on other spiritual gifts such as, faith, hope, and miracles. It confirms the opinion of most theologians, that love is the characteristic and most stressed doctrine in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It distinguishes Christianity from all other religions and beliefs relating to the supreme moral principles.

A companion verse concerning love is in 1st John 4:8:

“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

This sentence clearly teaches that God is the personification of love.

Of course, some argue that the universal suffering of humanity proves otherwise for if God were a loving God, He would not allow the many serious miseries that befall good people. Their argument puts the blame for human suffering on God, making Him responsible for all the chaos, wars, murder, and a multitude of evils that afflict the human race. However, the truth is, that a very large part of the race has rejected God’s love and willfully chosen the exact opposite — which is selfishness, greed, corruption, and sins of every description.

A corresponding proposition in the Bible is that the highest level of love has a costly price tag. You cannot truly love without risk, sacrifice, and pain. Not many are interested is experiencing this kind of love at such a price. When we lose someone that is dear to us we begin to understand that sorrow is just a part of the cost of love, for nothing in the physical world endures forever. A good example of the risk of loving is when parents correct their children because they care for them and want the best for them, they risk their affection. It is not uncommon that, in the process of this correction, parents hear the hurtful reaction to their loving care, “I hate you”

In human history, the supreme example of love was demonstrated by the God of the Bible in the sacrifice of His own beloved Son on the cross to restore the original relationship the human race experienced with the Creator immediately following His Creation. This golden verse of the Bible stresses this high price of Divine love most perfectly.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

Pastor Gene Holman of Living Word Fellowship in Gardnerville is a member of Carson Valley Ministers’ Association