Doesn't the Bible Say "God is Love?"

Ever try to fit a square peg in a round hole?

That’s a good description of what happens when people pick and choose their favorite biblical passages about God and try to make the rest of the Bible fit accordingly. Things can get very inconsistent and messy as we find we must cut corners, throw away inconvenient truths, ignore or discard what doesn’t work, and force meanings on passages out of context in order for them to fit our designer theology.

All that mess describes my conversation with Augustin, who has very strong but inconsistent beliefs that “God is love”; that God would never judge or punish; and that positive and negative “vibrations” determine morality.

So much of the Bible only makes sense in the context of the broken relationship and curse God placed on mankind shortly after the Fall, where Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, and the history of God choosing a people through which a Savior would enter the world to redeem a people for Himself from that curse.

Take, for example, Augustin’s repeated references to the “God is love” mantra. I don’t deny that it’s in the Bible – it’s right there, repeated twice in 1 John 4. It’s such a simple statement, why bother with context? How could it ever be complicated?

Multiple sermons and whole books could be written about this one chapter in the Bible, but maybe a couple simple questions might help here. First, who is it written to? And second, what is the purpose of the chapter in which these verses are found?

Should any casual reader of the Bible assume it applies to all people universally? Does this mean that God’s automatic response is love in any and every situation?

This chapter is found in 1 John, a circular letter meant to be read in Christian churches for the purpose of discerning evil spirits and false teachers and encouraging believers to love one another. It references God’s attribute of perfect love, but this in no way limits God’s character to just one overriding attribute. God’s other attributes – His mercy, patience, and justice for example – are in no way diminished by His love, for He is perfect in every way.

And this creates a paradox, for while “God is love” and loves to shower that love on people, God is also just, and by this very perfect attribute must justly punish sin. So how can God love people, yet carry out the just punishment we deserve? The answer is in the same chapter, which explains how God’s love is demonstrated: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

In the same chapter where we find “God is love”, we find the demonstration of that love in the context of our sin and the just punishment we deserve – all the things Augustin was so desperate to deny.

We need to read the Bible in context, and stop trying to put square pegs in round holes!