Perfect Theology…Love

“…God is love….We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 Jn.4:8, 19)

Theology is the study of God. God is love, therefore, perfect theology is about Love.

And we find this perfect theology all wrapped up in God as a Father, expressed to us by His Son, Jesus. And Love’s mission is for Him to be lived out in human beings who have received His Spirit.

It seems to me that our first priority, then, should be to pursue Love. This, of course, is exactly what Jesus said.

He said that we should, first and foremost, love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mk.12:30-31).

But the problem is, we read such things and set out to actually attempt to do it, which is just an absurd exercise in frustration…or worse, we become religious. Why so, you may ask. (Are you still trying to do this?) Because, as I mentioned in my last post, we cannot give something we have not received.

But the good news is, Love solves the problem for us. Love loved us first. You see, perfect theology must begin and end with God.

Think of it this way. You can only love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength because He first loved you with all of HIS heart, soul, mind, and strength. Try to imagine what this looks like for a moment. What does it look like for God to love YOU with all of HIS mind? …with all of HIS heart? …with all of HIS strength? How do we comprehend such love? After all, it was this Father who bankrupted heaven for you. You are His treasure in the field. In other words, He sold everything to buy…you. He gave what was most precious to Him…Jesus…for you. Do you see your value yet?

And with this revelation is where it all starts. And to the degree that we see how we are loved by God, we can begin to receive love from God, which enables us to actually love Him for the first time. In fact, we are loving Him with His love. And from there, we can express His love to others. Of course, the means by which we receive Love comes by receiving His Spirit by His grace through faith (Eph.2:8). But even here, Love chose you (Jn.15:16), and Love chooses anyone who will say “yes” to Him. (Jn.1:12). For Love has already made His overture. The proverbial ball is always in your court.

Getting back to loving others, we can do this only as far as we love ourselves (and we will also hate others as we hate ourselves). But now, we can truly love others because we see them through Love’s eyes. For when we begin to see our value to this Father of Love (Jn.3:16), that He paid Jesus for us, we can begin to value others around us in the same way we are valued. See how that works?

This is the whole point of all theology. God is love. And Love is a Person.

One more thing. By definition, love must be expressed from one person to another. So, for God to be love, He must be able express love within Himself. And we see this perfectly demonstrated within the triune nature of God. The Father loves the Son (Jn.3:35; 5:20; 15:9), and the Son loves the Father (Jn.14:31). And then Love invites us into this holy dance by sending His Spirit (Rom.5:5), so that we could respond to Him and invite Love to make His home in us (Jn.14:23). And when Love has found a home in us…voilà! Mission accomplished!

Yes. Perfect theology…Love.