Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4: 8-10

This morning I listened to an article by Andy Bannister responding to the question – Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? The author reviewed the key differences between the two views and they are striking. The God of the Bible reveals Himself as a relational Being spending time with humans in the Garden of Eden and in Revelation, God will live again with humans in the new earth (Revelation 21:3). The god of Islam is distant and aloof. And there are several other comparisons in the article, but the last one to consider here is the concept of God and love. You can read Bannisters article here.

In the first epistle of John, we are currently reviewing, again and again, John refers to Christianity’s God as a God of love. Bannister quotes a muslim scholar saying – “[T]here is not a single verse in the Qur’an that speaks of God’s unconditional love for mankind … [Its verses] do not say that God loves all men.” -Daud Rahbar.

God is love, but does that mean that is the only or primary characteristic of God? According to theologian, William Yount, if we study the love of God “without mention of His holiness or wrath, we can walk away with an unbalanced view” of God’s character.

Look again at the words that follow “God is love.” Verse nine tells us that God expressed love through the Son who died for us. If we are to understand God to the best of our ability, we need to be able to see the whole picture. If we see only view God as Holy and Powerful, we may develop a distorted view of God as distant and angry. Or if God is viewed exclusively as all loving, our perspective can be skewed again. Surely, God is not a one dimensional character.

A.W. Tozer said that ““what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If you were to sit down and write a description of your image of God, would your view be an isolated extreme from one perspective or the other? Or do you see a more complete picture of God?