The Nature of God: Love
By Peter Amsterdam
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One of the best-loved Bible verses is 1 John 4:8, which states that “God is love.” This truth about God’s nature is evidenced throughout the Bible from the beginning to the end, and is clearly manifested in the lives of those who know and love Him. His love is seen in many ways in our personal lives so that we can, from our own experience, say that God is love. Of course, love is not all that God is, as He is each of the attributes that are His nature and character.
God’s love is seen in the triune nature of God—God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are love, and they love one another. Jesus spoke of the Father’s love for Him and His love for the Father, saying, “You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). And we also read of the Father proclaiming His love for the Son at the baptism of Jesus: “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17).
While there are no specific verses referring to the Father and Son loving the Holy Spirit, it can be inferred. Scripture does speak of the “love of the Spirit” in Romans. “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf” (Romans 15:30).
God’s love extends to every human being. Ever since He created human beings, He has loved them. No matter where they stand relationally with Him, He loves them. They may not believe He exists; they may believe He exists but hate Him; they may want nothing to do with Him; but nevertheless, He loves them. His love, kindness, and care are given to them by virtue of their being part of humanity. Human beings were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). He loves every single one of us, and His love for us translates into loving action on His part—His care and blessings given to humankind.
You visit the earth and water it; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, for so You have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with Your bounty; Your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.—Psalm 65:9–13
When Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies, He said that in doing so they would be imitating God’s love, for God shows His love and kindness to all, even to the ungrateful and the evil.
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.—Matthew 5:43–45
Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.—Luke 6:35–36
Jesus also expressed God’s love toward everyone when He made the point that if God takes care of the birds of the air, certainly He will care for people, as they have more value than the birds.
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?—Matthew 6:26–27
Paul, when speaking to the Greeks, made the point this way:
In past generations He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, for He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.—Acts 14:16–17
God’s love for all humankind is most clearly seen in His answer to humanity’s need for salvation. Every human is a sinner and in need of redemption to be reconciled to God (Romans 3:23, 6:23). God’s love for each human being brought forth the plan of salvation by which Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, and died, taking our sins upon Himself, thereby making atonement for us (1 John 2:2). This means that every person can now be reconciled to God, no matter who they are or what sins they have committed through faith in Jesus and His sacrifice for our sin. Jesus sacrificed His life for everyone, so salvation is available for all who believe in Him and receive Him. He did this because of His love for all people, for the whole world.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.—John 3:16
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.—1 John 4:10
We can see by the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us that God loves and cares for us and has made provision not only for our physical lives but for our spiritual lives through salvation. He has borne the full weight of our punishment, even though we all are sinners. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we can see that God’s love is self-giving love—it is God’s very nature to give of Himself to bring about blessing or good for others.
Many people express some difficulty in understanding God’s love for humanity in relation to God’s righteous judgment of sin and evil-doing. God’s love can be seen in His patience with humanity, in His being by His very nature “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). God’s love is evidenced in His longing for people to receive His gift of salvation and giving them time to do so (1 Timothy 2:3-4). God postpones deserved judgment because of His deep love for those He created in His image. Theologian Jack Cottrell puts it this way:
If God determined to give us what we deserve as soon as we deserve it, we would all have perished long ago. It is His loving patience that puts the punishment “on hold” until it is either set aside (with regard to the one who deserves it) or ultimately applied.1
The reason for God’s patient delay in bringing judgment for sin is to give people time to repent, to receive salvation, and by doing so avoid God’s judgment or wrath. It is God’s nature to give people time to choose redemption. He doesn’t wish for anyone to perish, and His patience gives people time to receive His redemptive love through Jesus Christ, as expressed in the following verses.
Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?—Romans 2:4
The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation.—2 Peter 3:9, 15
God in His love has made a way that people can avoid the just punishment for sin and be reconciled to Him in a loving relationship. He sent a substitute, His Son, to take that punishment for our sin. He doesn’t pour out His judgment and wrath on the sinner because Jesus has taken it upon Himself.
All that is left is for individuals to believe in Jesus and accept Him as their Savior, and if they do, their sins are forgiven and atoned for. That is the nature of God’s love and His gift to humankind. He makes forgiveness of sins possible through His self-giving love. Jesus laid down His life so that everyone who believes in Him could be reconciled with God. God doesn’t force anyone to accept His gift, because He has given humankind free will, but in His love, He patiently waits, longing for all to accept it.
Those of us who have received God’s gift of salvation experience His love in profound ways. We have become His children (John 1:12) and we will live with Him forever (John 14:2–3). We have entered into a personal relationship with God. We commune with Him, we grow closer to Him, we get to know Him better, His Spirit abides in us and works to transform our lives into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
We experience God’s love in ways that only those who know and love Him can. Jesus has called us His friends, and the God of the universe is our heavenly Father (John 15:15). “There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6).
As His children, we have been commissioned to share the good news of His love with as many as we can, to invite them to become His children and the heirs of His blessings along with us.
You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.—Romans 8:15–17
Originally published May 2012. Adapted and republished March 2026. Read by Jerry Paladino.
1 Jack Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Redeemer (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2000), 358.
