Is God Love?

Last updated on: December 6, 2020 at 5:05 am by James F. McGrath

Is God Love? 2020-12-05T15:50:47-05:00 James F. McGrath

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We tend to focus, when thinking about doctrines of afterlife and eternal punishment, about what is or isn’t fair to the one punished. We rarely if ever take time to reflect on the ramifications of such doctrines for those who presumably won’t be subjected to the torments of hell–humans, but also God.

I heard a sermon many years ago, the ideas in which were not new then and continue to circulate or be thought of since. The sermon began with 1 Corinthians 13, the famous passage about love. It then made reference to the statement in the First Letter of John that “God is love” and suggested placing “God” wherever “love” occurs in the text. “God is patient, God is kind…” The sermon also challenged us to put our own name in the text and to ask how far short of its ideal we fall.

If one believes that God is love, this is an important test of one’s portrait of God. Here I want to focus particular attention on details that relate to notions of eternal judgment. Does God keep no record of wrong? Is God not easily angered? Of course, I am really asking about your ideas about God. If you assert that God is love and yet envisage God as short-tempered and judgmental, then one might judge your portrait of God to fall short of the standard of love articulated in 1 Corinthians 13. Isn’t that a problem?

Other texts may be brought into the picture as well. Matthew 5:46,48 challenges the followers of Jesus to do more than is typical for human beings and human cultures in emulation of God. It does this specifically with respect to loving those who do not love us. Yet more often than not, people have a concept of God as one who loathes those who do not love God. Once again, it might be better to say, those who do not love the portrait of God that their system of doctrine presents. Everyone envisages something as ultimate, as supreme, and that is what “god” means for them. No one, I suspect, hates that which they esteem most. And so there is in fact no one who hates their god, but there are those whose notion of the ultimate, the supremely important and majestic, is misplaced on something less than ultimate.

The late Eva Kor and many other Holocaust survivors have emphasized that forgiveness is less about the ones who wronged them and more about liberating themselves from a hatred and resentment that otherwise might have consumed them. Harboring a grudge gives the other person power over you. If we envisage a God who never lets go of resentment, what would that mean? Is such a concept of God inferior to those who extended forgiveness to Dylan Roof who murdered their loved ones in a church building? The God worshiped by the forgiving must by definition be at least as forgiving than they are, if not more so.

To envisage God accepting endless torment of beings that God created is to reduce God to one who is like us at our worst, not our best. To envisage humans living forever accepting others are being tormented and are eternally deserving of agony without every forgiving is to envisage an afterlife in which those deemed worthy of eternal bliss must be twisted and resentful.

If something is wrong with that picture, don’t jettison 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John, and the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Don’t jettison all your moral instincts and all that seems good and praiseworthy because you think some doctrine requires it. Instead, rethink your doctrine. That’s what others did before you to come up with those doctrines in the first place. They may have been better than what preceded them. If you can do better still, then you should, and must. To refrain from envisaging God as supremely good, loving, kind, patient, forgiving, and so on is to diminish God in ways that surely must be judged theologically unacceptable. Although many of us forego physical images of God, no one completely avoids mental, verbal, and doctrinal images. God condescends to dwell in such houses made by human hands, if they are the best we can offer. Build in a manner that does not diminish God to such an extent that a bit of human poetry from 2,000 years ago seems loftier and better than the mental image you’ve fashioned.

If you build a twisted and perverse image of God, it is not just the product of your own evil mind. It is one that will twist and distort your sense of morality and goodness further still. When we set our mind on whatever is good, noble, and true, it pulls us upwards towards it. When we set our mind on hatred, when we harbor resentment and imagine God applauding and doing likewise, it brings out the worst not only in our image of God, but in us.

Love is a Promise (in 1 Corinthians 13 and Doctor Who)

If I Don’t Have Love (1 Corinthians 13 as Song)

I am grateful, as so often, to my Sunday school class at Crooked Creek Baptist Church for helping me think through these things in conversation with them.

Of related interest:

A final parable from the book of origins: on sheep and goats, on judgement and righteous-justice (Matt 25; Pentecost 26A)

1 Corinthians

afterlife

Gospel of Matthew

Previous Post

December 5, 2020

Is John's Christology the Lowest in the New Testament?

Next Post

December 7, 2020 Defending Religion

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz