1 John 4:8 doesn’t just say “God is loving.” It uses the noun. “God is love.” John describes love not as one of God’s actions, or even as one of God’s attributes, but as God’s very nature.
“God is love.”
It’s a well-known, feel-good phrase from Scripture, the kind someone would frame on a wall or put on a youth group t-shirt. But that simple phrase hides a host of questions.
God is loving, but what about his holiness, justice, faithfulness, patience, and many other attributes? Is it really fair to say love is more important than the others?
And is God’s love truly unconditional? Christians are called to holiness. There’s even a verse that says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Do God’s commands put a condition on God’s love?
Even if that’s not contradictory, how are we supposed to imitate God’s love perfectly? That’s an impossible standard. Are we just supposed to fake it till we make it?
Fortunately, the Bible has a lot to say about love, and many of the answers to these questions can be found in the context around this famous phrase. Let’s explore 1 John 4.
What Does “God is Love” Mean?
Many Bible verses call us to imitate God’s virtues. But John goes a step further to illustrate love’s significance.
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” 1 John 4:7-8.
Many verses talk about God’s attributes: his holiness, his faithfulness, his kindness, his justice…. the list goes on. But 1 John 4:8 doesn’t just say “God is loving.” It uses the noun. “God is love.” John describes love not as one of God’s actions, or even as one of God’s attributes, but as God’s very nature. John points to God as love’s true source (1 John 4:7).
God has many attributes, and without even one of them, he would cease to be God. But love is his core motivation and his greatest command.
While we were still sinners and had done nothing to deserve it, God proved his love through Jesus’ sacrifice for sin (Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9-10, John 3:16).
When Jesus was asked to describe the greatest commandment, he described two: to love God, and second, to love others. He declared that all God’s commands were built upon this foundation of love (Matthew 22:36-40).
In fact, without knowing love, it is impossible to know God (1 John 4:8). John repeats this concept in verse 20:
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” 1 John 4:20, NIV.
This same concept appears in Paul’s famous chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13.
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, NIV.
Paul says that spiritual gifts, deep knowledge, rock-solid faith, and sacrificial good works are pointless without love. Paul goes so far as to state that, of all the great, eternal virtues, “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 3:13).
Throughout Scripture, we can see evidence of God’s love and the priority he places on it. But there are many other virtues essential to God’s character: faithfulness, justice, truthfulness, self-control, etc. Of all these virtues, there is one that most often seems to come in conflict with God’s love: his holiness. Can a holy God truly offer unconditional love?
Love vs. Holiness?
Salvation is by grace alone. There is nothing we can do to earn it (Ephesians 2:8-9).
But God didn’t only save us from something, he saved us for something. After accepting God’s free gift of salvation, we begin the journey of learning and growing into all we were made to be—to become like Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 John 2:6, 1 Peter 2:21).
There is a joy in that journey. A relief of casting aside the sin that entangles, an excitement in running the race we were made to run, a satisfaction in keeping our eyes on the prize (Hebrews 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:24, Philippians 3:13-14, 2 Timothy 4:7).
But amidst all that, we may also hold an anxious fear. I know I’ve felt it.
I’ve often measured my walk with Christ by my accomplishments. I felt that my worth in God’s eyes was dependent on the fruit I produced (Matthew 17:16-17). The parable of the talents warned me not to waste what I’d been given (Matthew 25:14-30). 1 Corinthians 3 told me to use only the best materials in building my life on Christ’s foundation. And didn’t Matthew 5:48 call me to a life of perfection? So, I worked hard. I achieved. I was a writer and editor, delighting in bringing God’s truth to my readers—finding my worth in my work. But then, something happened that forced me to look at life differently.
I became unable to write.
An onset of severe eye fatigue took me out of commission for weeks. Then months. At most, I was able to work two hours a day, and only with frequent breaks. I had to drop multiple projects—projects that contributed to God’s Kingdom—because of my limitations.
I felt worthless.
During that time, I experienced helplessness and frustration like I’d never felt before. Temptations pulled at me, promising an escape, and sometimes I fell into them. But during that time, God also showed me a glimpse of his love. There were people in my life who encouraged me, prayed for me, and genuinely loved me even when I felt I wasn’t accomplishing anything. Even when I felt like a burden. A failure.
I don’t like feeling weak. I don’t like being the lame sheep who struggles to keep up with the herd, or the dumb sheep who wanders off and loses his way. But my weakness and failures didn’t change the Good Shepherd’s love for me. In fact, it was in that weakness that I realized how deep that love was.
I’m still striving to listen to the Shepherd’s voice. I’m still learning to follow him wherever he leads. But I’m realizing his commands are not the conditions for his love—they are an expression of it. And I had to become a helpless sheep to believe that for myself.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:1-4, NIV.
Loving like God
There is a funny thing about the verse that called me to perfection. The context of Matthew 5:38-48 is about loving people—particularly those who don’t deserve it. The perfection God calls us to is not a perfect performance, but a perfect motive: love.
Love isn’t something we can measure, though its fruit will become evident in our lives. Love is not something that can be achieved through mere duty or obligation, though it is certainly faithful, self-controlled, and sacrificial. Love isn’t something that requires a specific level of emotion to be real, though it certainly creates a deep sense of joy, purpose, and affection.
But if we cannot measure love through our actions or our emotions, how are we supposed to grow in it? How can we truly be motivated by love?
If we look closely at 1 John 4:9-11, we may find the answer.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” 1 John 4:9-11.
Read through these verses again. At first glance, we might assume John is upholding Christ’s sacrifice as an ideal for us to achieve. But while John is calling us to imitate Christ, he’s not just saying “try harder!” or “set higher goals!” Instead, John is telling us to love because we are loved.
1 John 4:16-19 finishes this thought:
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us” 1 John 4:16-19, NIV.
The way to love is not to try to match God’s love with our own efforts and “pay off” our debt. The way to love is to embrace God’s love and let it overflow from us. To let that love shape us to become more like him (1 John 4:16).
This is the Gospel, the good news.
We do not need to be driven by fear of failure, inadequacy, or punishment, because there is no fear in love (1 John 4:18). The gospel isn’t something we share out of obligation, but something we share out of joy, out of gratitude, and—most of all—out of love.
Because God is love.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/taa22
This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy to read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. It is our hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in relation to your life today.
This Is the Day the Lord Has Made
Iron Sharpens Iron
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Faith without Works Is Dead
Be Anxious for Nothing
