Love

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 7
The second of the two attributes of God. God is said once to be light, 1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5); and twice to be love, 1 John 4:8-168He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:8‑16). Christ on earth, being the fullness of the Godhead, possessed both these attributes, only with their characters modified in relation to the world where they shine. Thus love in the midst of need becomes grave, while light in the midst of darkness and error is necessarily truth, both of which carne into this world by Christ alone. No part of that sublime prayer in John 17 is more wonderful than those words, which tell us that this love rests on us, as it rested on Christ. We must never separate these two attributes of God. Light without love in God is inconceivable, and simply annihilates us; in us, however, it leads to coldness and hardness. Love without light in God is equally impossible, in us it leads to laxity and carelessness.