God is Love

1John 4:18 God is love

That God is love is a continental divide of a thought running through Scripture, though one might have to see it to believe it; might have to follow trails like wounds through thicket and slope (desire and hope). But maybe there, above the tree line, at the winded edge, we could see, like raindrops falling on either side of the divide, that all biblical interpretation will go either one direction or the other––toward love or toward a type of misunderstanding about love. Not to say that I’m without misunderstanding about love so, let me try again: All biblical interpretation, like raindrops falling on either side of the divide will either run toward love as God’s nature or love emanating from some other source of God’s nature.

Questions beg to be asked:
What other source could there be?
What is more fundamental to the characteristic of God’s nature than love?
What is ultimacy?
What in God’s name is the source of God’s name?

Well, I’ve been told at various times in various ways (by red-faced preachers of various shades) that the essence of God is holiness. Period. End of dialogue, where, of course, dialogue means monologue. Except. I’ve also been told that it is Justice. Oh, and Order. Definitely power. Pure-omnipotent-POWER. Let’s see, Light? Yes, yes, I’ve heard that, as well as Other-ness, also Fire, Perfection, Self-sufficiency, Changelessness, and of course, everyone’s favorite: Wrath. On and on it goes, one blunt and imperious term after another; the provenance of God’s nature trailing off into the distance like a banner flapping into a void of windy spaces.

Please know, I’m not looking to provoke the enforcers of Omnipotence who have long been waiting for me to slip up, mess up (misstep or give up). And I certainly mean no disrespect to their well-intentioned adherents, but these performance enhancing terms capturing the fundamental essence of God’s nature are simply not stronger than the vulnerability of love.

Is God required to ask for Perfection’s permission before offering forgiveness?
Has Light ever chastised God’s tendency to hang out with sinners in the dark?
Does God ask to hold hands with love before reporting to Justice?
Does God wait for Holiness to fall asleep before he slips coded letters of grace into the outgoing mail?
Does mercy give God a hug before he has to report to Sacrifice yet again?
Does creativity and anomaly dress the wounds on God’s body after a visit from Order?

The answer, I would hope, all of creation hopes, is no. Love cannot be controlled… though, neither is love controllable.