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“GOD IS LOVE.” 1 JOHN 4:16

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Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

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“GOD IS LOVE.” 1 JOHN 4:16.

By Stephen Pierce

BY ELD. STEPHEN PIERCE.
Perhaps there is no plain, simple expression of Scripture more difficult to understand than this. If God is infinite in each of his attributes, why does not Inspiration say, God is goodness; God is justice; or God is mercy, as well as, God is love. But no such expressions are found. Therefore, we conclude that love is the source from which all other divine characteristics originate, or the foundation of them all, although there are other attributes not necessarily connected with it; as, wisdom, knowledge, power, etc.
From a variety of scriptures it is evident that all goodness in finite beings proceeds from love. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. Therefore love must be the source of all goodness. If further evidence is required, we refer the reader to the two great commandments enjoining upon us the duty of loving God with all the heart and our neighbor as ourselves, upon which hang all the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:37–40); also to the saying of the wise man, “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12:13. No further evidence is necessary to show that all good acts of created beings proceed from love. How, then, can it be otherwise with the acts of the Creator? The execution of justice upon the sinner may not originate directly in love to the offender upon whom it is to be executed; but it proceeds from a universal love of all, or more especially a love of right or impartiality. From it originates also pity or compassion. It is that from which springs the attribute of mercy, so necessary in the salvation of lost men.
Then if all other excellent moral principles originate from love, it is far greater than any other which human beings can possess (1 Cor. 13), it being perfection itself,—“the bond of perfectness.” Col. 3:14. Hence we clearly see the force of the expression, “God is love,” in its infinite magnitude; for love is the leading characteristic of an infinite being.
The love of God extends to all his creatures. We learn from his word that his parental love, or guardian care, is over all that have life. Even the fishes of the sea are the beneficiaries of divine Providence. “So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. . . . There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.” Ps. 104:25–28. God has not told us what the food of fishes was to be; but it appears that they are well supplied from his inexhaustible, unknown storehouse. Again: “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.” Verse 21. In Ps. 147:9, we read: “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” He “giveth food to all flesh; for his mercy endureth forever.” Ps. 136:25. In the beginning all created beings upon the earth had their food assigned them; but it appears that all carnivorous animals, and birds of prey, became estranged from their natural food, and learned to prey upon other animals. If anything could cause them to forfeit God’s care, it would seem that this would. But notwithstanding this, his guardian care is still the same. “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Ps. 145:15, 16. The above scriptures prove God’s care over all, even the lower orders of animated nature.
He loves and cares for a lost world of human intelligences. “God so loved the world [a race of rebel sinners], that he gave his only begotten Son [the darling object of his affections], that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:7, 8. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends;” but Jesus died for his enemies, to rescue them from eternal destruction. Not for a part merely; he tasted death for every man. Heb. 2:9. The invitation is universal. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” Isa. 45:22. The gospel of Christ, which is the richest production of this excellent characteristic, is called “the mystery of God.” 1 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 10:7. The gospel will soon be finished, but that love which devised and achieved it will ever remain a mystery to angels and men. Here is a miracle of love which caused all unfallen created beings to marvel, which even the angels desire to look into. 1 Pet. 1:12.
We understand by the language of John 3:16 that Christ’s love for sinners is inexpressible; but his love for his people is inconceivable. It “passeth knowledge.” Eph. 3:19. It is so deep and boundless that the wisdom of all created beings can never fathom or comprehend it.
His love for his people is also everlasting. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jer. 31:3. Jesus says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” And this is the way they are drawn: The Holy Spirit shows the sinner something of his lost condition, and something of what God is willing to do for him; and thus wins him back to his allegiance to God.
God loves backsliders, though they are in a worse condition than that of the sinner who never was converted. But when an individual, a church, or a nation refuses offered mercy, though the Lord sends to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending, because he has compassion on his people (2 Chron. 36:15), when all has been done that infinite wisdom and goodness can devise, and the sinner will not turn from his evil ways, there is no remedy, and justice must take its course. But even then the loving heart of our Heavenly Father yearns over the lost one. Listen to the words of Inspiration: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? [i. e., to the tormentors.] How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? [Admah and Zeboim were destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah. Deut. 29:23.] Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” Hosea 11:8.
The tender mercy and loving-kindness of the great heart of Love are further expressed in the following pathetic lament over his backslidden people: “I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.” Jer. 12:7. Such compassion might a tender parent manifest toward a reckless son, who, guilty of capital crime, has been sentenced to punishment. Read the words of Jesus, as he wept over Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matt. 23:37. Why will men mock the messengers of God, and despise the words of the Almighty, until his wrath arises against his people, and there is no remedy? Why will they resist the pleadings of the Spirit of God till even infinite resources are exhausted, and the Great Vinedresser exclaims, “What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?”
Though infinite justice is found in the embodiment of the divine perfections, the execution of it upon the wicked, is to the Lord, a strange work. “Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?” Job 31:3. “The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.” Isa. 28:21. Then this act is so inconsonant with the divine predilections, that it is called “his strange work,” “his strange act.” “Say unto them, As I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel.” Eze. 33:11.
(Concluded next week.)