Love

Love in Scripture is not primarily a feeling. It is covenant faithfulness in action: God binding himself to his people and keeping that bond even when they do not deserve it. John states the claim plainly, “God is love,” and then defines it by an event rather than an emotion: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

Jesus makes the same connection on the night before his death. He loves his own “to the end,” washing the feet of the men who will abandon him within hours, and then gives them a new commandment: to love one another as he has loved them. The love he commands is not a feeling to summon but a pattern to imitate, humble service and sacrifice that does not stop when it costs something.

Paul traces this love to the cross in Romans 5: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is not a response to what is lovable in its object. It is the cause of it. The articles below trace how this love is shown, commanded, and fulfilled through Scripture.