God Is Love - Samuel Davies
“God is love.” – 1 John 4:8
Introduction
Love is a gentle, pleasing theme, the noblest passion of the human breast, and the fairest ornament of the rational nature. Love is the cement of society and the source of social happiness; without it, the great community of the rational universe would dissolve, and men and angels would turn savages, roaming apart in barbarous solitude. Love is the spring of every pleasure; for who could take pleasure in the possession of what they do not love? Love is the foundation of religion and morality; for what is more monstrous than religion without love to the God who is the object of it? Or who can perform social duties without feeling the endearments of those relations to which they belong? Love is the softener and polisher of human minds, transforming barbarians into men; its pleasures are refined and delicate, and even its pains and anxieties have something soothing and pleasing. In a word, love is the brightest beam of divinity that has ever irradiated creation; the nearest resemblance to the ever-blessed God; for God is love.
God is Love
There is an unfathomable depth in this concise, laconic sentence, which even the penetration of an angel’s mind cannot reach; an ineffable excellence, which even celestial eloquence cannot fully represent. God is love; not only lovely and loving, but love itself; pure, unmixed love, nothing but love; love in His nature and in His operations; the object, source, and quintessence of all love. My present design is to recommend the Deity to your affections under the amiable idea of love, and for that end to show that His other perfections are but various modifications of love.
I. Love Comprehends Divine Beneficence
Goodness extends its bounties to innumerable ranks of creatures and diffuses happiness throughout the universe, except that which is set apart for the dreadful, but salutary and benevolent purpose of confining and punishing incorrigible malefactors. Grace richly showers its blessings upon the undeserving, without past merit or the prospect of future compensation. Mercy commiserates and relieves the miserable as well as the undeserving. Patience and long-suffering tolerate insolent and provoking offenders. What is all this beneficence in its various forms, toward different objects, but love under different names? It is gracious, merciful, patient, and long-suffering love; love that is variegated, overflowing, and unbounded. What but love was the Creator of such a world as this, so well-accommodated, so richly furnished for the sustenance and comfort of its inhabitants? And what but love has planted it with an endless variety of beings, all capable of receiving some stream of happiness from that immense fountain of it, the divine goodness? Is it not love that preserves such a vast world in order and harmony from age to age and supplies all its numerous inhabitants with every good? And was it not love—free, rich, unmerited love—that provided a Savior for the guilty children of men? It was because God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Oh love, what hast thou done! What wonders hast thou wrought! It was Thou, almighty love, that brought down the Lord of glory from His celestial throne to die upon a cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. And what but love is it that peoples the heavenly world with colonies transplanted from this rebellious province of Jehovah’s dominions? What but love forms such miracles of glory and happiness out of the dust and the shattered, polluted fragments of human nature? What but eternal love perpetuates their bliss through an eternal duration? It is so evident that these instances of divine goodness are only the effects of love, that it is needless to attempt any further illustration.
II. Divine Wisdom as a Modification of Love
What is divine wisdom but a modification of divine love, planning the best-adapted schemes for communicating itself in the most advantageous, beneficent, and honorable manner, promoting the good of the great whole or collective system of creatures by the happiness of individuals? Divine wisdom discovers ways and means to exercise love to the greatest advantage. In creation, as in nature’s order and harmony, we see divine wisdom at work for the good of the whole. Divine wisdom in the scheme of providence and in the work of redemption are only signatures of divine love. Why was the sun placed where it is, and enriched with vital influences? Why were our bodies so wonderfully made, and all their parts so well-fitted for action and enjoyment? Why was the manifold wisdom of God displayed, not only to mortals but to angelic powers, in the scheme of redemption? It was because divine love would otherwise be under restraint and incapable of giving full scope to its propensities in a manner honorable to itself and conducive to the public good. Divine wisdom always acts under the benign determination and conduct of love, it is the counselor of love to project schemes subservient to its gracious purposes; and in all its councils, love presides.
III. Divine Power as the Omnipotence of Love
Why did omnipotence exert itself in the production of this vast, amazing world out of nothing? It was to open a channel through which the overflowing ocean of love might extend itself and diffuse its streams from creature to creature, upwards as high as the most exalted archangel, and downwards as low as the meanest vital particle of being. Why does divine power still support this prodigious frame? It is to keep the channel of love open from age to age, and for this purpose, it will be exerted to all eternity. Divine power is the acting hand, the instrument, the servant of love, executing its gracious designs.
IV. Holiness as Pure, Refined, and Honourable Love
What is holiness but love—love of excellence, rectitude, and moral goodness? Holiness promotes the happiness of the universe. It is the health, the good constitution of a reasonable being. Every creature in the universe, as far as it is holy, is happy. Therefore, the more holy Jehovah is, the more fit He is to communicate happiness to all that enjoy Him, and consequently, He is an infinite happiness, for He is infinitely holy. His strict laws and the penalty of disobedience are not arbitrary but reflect His infinite benevolence, warning and guiding His creatures to their greatest happiness. Holiness is essential to happiness, and holiness is the greatest expression of God’s love.
V. Divine Justice as a Display of Love
What is divine justice, especially punitive justice, but a modification of love and goodness? By divine justice, I mean that perfection of God’s nature which executes the sentence of His law upon offenders. While this may appear terrifying and cruel, it is in reality an expression of God’s infinite love for His creation. The law, the penal sanctions, and the execution of those sanctions, are all designed with the good of the whole community in mind. Divine justice seeks to prevent sin and promote the happiness of the universe. Just as human governments must execute punishments to maintain order and public good, so too does God’s justice display His love for the greater good of the universe. Even though the penalty may be severe, it is meant to preserve the public welfare and deter sin, thus acting out of love.
Conclusion
May we conclude that all the acts of the Deity may be resolved into the benevolent principle of love? God is love; therefore, He created the world and still rules it, inflicts chastisements, and executes justice—all out of love. As love, He spared not His own Son, made Him the victim of His justice, and requires perfect holiness and obedience from His subjects. God is love; therefore, He made the prison of hell to confine malevolent creatures. Whatever He does, He does because He is love. How amiable a view of Him is this! Therefore, may all His creatures love Him.
FOOTNOTES
Penalties operate by a kind of retrospective influence: while they are only threatened and the subject expects them to be executed, they have a powerful tendency to deter him from disobedience. However, they could not have this benevolent tendency unless they are executed upon those, on whom their primary design is not obtained: namely, the restraining of them from sin. It is enough that the offenders themselves once had an opportunity of taking warning and reaping the advantage of the threatened penalty, while they were in a state of trial, and candidates for eternity. But it is absurd that they should receive any benefit from it when, after sufficient trial, it appears they will take no warning but are resolved to persist in sin, in defiance of the most tremendous penalties.
I do not forget that the original is myriads of angels. But the word is often, I think, generally used in the Greek classics, not for any definite number, but for a great and innumerable multitude. And so it is used here.
Pope’s Essay on Man.
It may perhaps be objected, “That to represent justice under the notion of love is to affect singularity in language, to destroy the distinction of the divine attributes, and the essential difference of things.”—To which I answer,
- That a catachresis may be beautiful and emphatical, though it be always a seeming impropriety in language. Such is this representation, “Divine justice, divine love.”
- I do not deny that God’s executing righteous punishment upon the guilty may be called justice; but then it is His love to the public that excites Him to do this; and therefore His doing it may be properly denominated love, as well as justice, or love under the name of justice, which is love still.
- I do not mean that the usual names of things should be changed, but that we should affix suitable ideas to them. We may retain the name of justice still, but let us not affix ideas to it that are inconsistent with divine love. Let us not look upon it as the attribute of a tyrant, but of a wise and good ruler.