Why We Still Need to Talk About the Love of God
God is Love
The love of God is an attribute that can never be spoken of enough. Its doctrine can be manipulated, reinvented, and reinterpreted, but the love that springs from the Triune God can never be spoken of too often. It is supremely fitting for the souls of all men to meditate on this attribute. What could be more needful for such needy, sin-sick people? Paul prayed that Christ would strengthen the saints to comprehend the incomprehensible, to grasp (καταλαμβάνω) that which goes far beyond understanding (ὑπερβάλλω γνῶσις), and to know the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ (Eph. 3:18–19).
One of the greatest attributes in God is His love – for God is love (1 Jn. 4:8, 16). The Scripture says that God is love, light, spirit, and a consuming fire, but interestingly, Scripture uses the highest language for God’s holiness. He is said to be “holy, holy, holy” (Is. 6:3, Rev. 4:8). Perhaps holiness is the greatest of God’s attributes for this reason, or perhaps it is vain to set His highest attributes against one another due to His divine oneness. Yet theologians such as John Gill were not afraid to say, at least of His affections, that God’s “love stands in the first place,” and points out that even the heathens, such as Plato, give the same name to God.[1]
What does it mean that God is love? Many truths about God should be considered with reverence and fear before considering what it means for God to be love. First, God is incomprehensible. He is infinite, absolutely self-sufficient, and entirely simple in essence, and thus He is incomprehensible to the creature’s mind – men or angels – and must use creation itself to communicate (Exod. 3:13–15, Job 11:7, 36:26, Ps. 90:11, 139:6, 145:3, Rom. 11:33–36). People, relationships, animals, and things of nature are all used in the Bible to make God known.
God does not reveal Himself univocally or in language that has a one-to-one correspondence to Him, for no creature could comprehend the essence of God in His fullness as He exists (Is. 40:18, 25, 46:5). Nor does God communicate Himself equivocally to man, using obscure or ambiguous language, but by propositional truth meant to be understood by them.
Neither of these ways of communication will do. In between these two pitfalls lies a proper understanding of Scripture’s language to communicate God – that is, analogy. Analogy is to speak in certain respects of one thing to another, or to speak of similarity between two things. There is a sense in which Christ loves the Church as a husband loves his wife, but there is another sense in which the love of Christ is categorically different due to the incomprehensible otherness of God. The Lord humbles Himself by coming down from heaven to speak on the level of His creatures (Ps. 113:6), for He “knows our frame,” remembering “that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14).
God speaks to man in baby-language. As Calvin put it, “God, in so speaking, lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children.”[2] When it is said that God is love, Scripture is not revealing what His essence is made of, but what the quality of His essence is.[3] In other words, God is love, but that cannot mean that love is God.
Secondly, God is impassible. He does not suffer, as the word signifies, nor change. In His impassibility, God is revealed to be eternal, infinite, self-sufficient, and immutable. God is self-determined and cannot be changed, moved, manipulated, or argued with (Job 40:4, Rom. 9:20–21, 11:33–36). This means that, instead of possessing the fickle emotions of men, God possesses infinite and eternal affections. Therefore, when speaking of God’s love, it must be understood as the infinite and supreme love flowing from His boundlessness. His love is not human-like, often being based on need, worthiness, reciprocity; but rather God sets His love on an object based on His good and holy pleasure.
Third, God is simple. God is not simplistic, or easily comprehended, but He is simple in that He is not composed or made up of parts outside of His own essence. The perfect, eternal, and ultimate Being does not derive love from somewhere other than Himself (Acts 17:25, 28). God is simple in that He is absolutely one. This means that God’s attributes are equivalent to His essence – He is love! And rather than taking His attributes and conflating them into one unknown characteristic, they must be distinguished. Thus, God’s love is far more than love – it is a holy, righteous, eternal, and immutable love.
It should be noted that God’s love and justice can never be separated or thought of as opposing one another. Scripture itself and the evidence of life make clear that justice and love are two sides of the same coin. For “open rebuke is better than hidden love” (Prov. 27:5), and the ultimate example of love and justice meeting is in Christ’s substitutionary atonement, making God the “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Those who would say “God is love” in a way that fits with their own conception of love are taking their understanding of love from the devil.
Fourthly, God is eternal. God is outside of time and has no succession of moments. He is the never-ending present. God in eternity has sovereignly decreed to love His chosen people (Eph. 1:4–5, 11, Rom. 9:11–13). This means that God’s love does not depend on man’s good works, faithfulness, or attractiveness. It means that God’s love is unceasing and unchanging for His people. This means that they were sent into the world to be His forever, and it further means that God has had His heart and mind set on them from the beginning. John Gill writes, The love of God is eternal, it does not commence in time, it is without beginning, it is from eternity: this is evident from the love of God to Christ, which was before the foundation of the world; and with the same love he loved him, he loved his people also, and as early, John 17:23, 24. And from various acts of love to them in eternity; as the election of them in Christ, which supposes the love of them Eph. 1:4. The covenant of grace made with them, in which, grants of grace, and promises of glory, were made before the world began; and Christ was set up as the Mediator of it from everlasting: all which are strong proofs of love to them, 2 Tim. 1:0, Tit. 1:2, Prov. 7:22, 23.[4]
Part of what strikes the Christian with awe and wonder at the love of God is that it is God’s love! He who is incomprehensible and has a love that goes beyond anything man could ever fathom; who has infinite and immovable affections of love which could never be disturbed by anything outside Himself; who is simple and therefore has a holy, eternal, and omnipotent love; and who is eternal and loves eternally – electing from eternity past all whom He has chosen to be His people, is the God who is love, and is therefore loved by His children. Oh, the width, length, breadth, and height of such love! How unsearchable and inscrutable it is. May these truths always come to mind when considering His love!
What is this love of God’s? This question must be answered on the basis of Scripture and not by man’s own imagination. The word used in 1 John 4:8 is ἀγάπη (agapé). This word has been believed to mean divine, selfless love, contrasted with the loves of eros (desire), storge (family), and philia (brotherly), but it does not mean that in every instance of the Bible. The noun and verb are used of Amnon loving Tamar with sexual passion and the Pharisees loved (ἠγάπησαν) the praise of men more than the praise of God (Jn. 12:42). Although the Greek word agapé is particularly used for the love of God in the Bible, Joel Beeke says, “The agapé of God is best understood not by lexical distinction but in the usage of the term in Scripture.”[5]
Sam Waldron provides the most fitting definition of God’s agapé from 1 John 4:8, stating, “Love is that delight, affection, and unselfish impulse which desires and seeks the blessing and benefit of another and the actions to which such an impulse gives rise.”[6] This is the marvelous love of God, desiring, seeking, and working unto the ends of blessing another for their benefit and not the benefit of Himself. He demonstrates this matchless and incomparable love by sending His Son to redeem His people and in sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within them (1 Jn. 4:10–16).
God has given the greatest of all possible gifts, and it makes man’s love look like something completely inferior and different.[7] The Puritan, Matthew Mead, puts this love in perspective when he says, “Love is the only attribute which God hath acted to the utmost. We have never seen the utmost of His power, what God can do, but we have seen the utmost of His love: He hath found a ransom for souls (Job 33:24).”[8]
Is what has been said of God’s love true about every person trusting in Christ? Then let J.I. Packer’s questions cause self-examination. He asks, Why do I ever grumble and show discontent and resentment at the circumstances in which God has placed me? Why am I ever distrustful, fearful, or depressed? Why do I ever allow myself to grow cool, formal, and half-hearted in the service of the God who loves me so? Why do I ever allow my loyalties to be divided, so that God has not all my heart? John wrote that ‘God is love’ in order to make an ethical point, ‘Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11). Could an observer learn from the quality and degree of love that I show to others – my wife? My husband? My family? My neighbours? People at church? People at work? – anything at all about the greatness of God’s love to me? Meditate upon these things. Examine yourself.[9]
The Difficulty of the Doctrine of Love
There can be difficulty when speaking on the love of God because of the various ways God reveals His love in Scripture. D.A. Carson highlights this in his book, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Carson lays out five distinguishable loves of God that will be helpful in thinking and speaking clearly on the subject of God’s love.
Those five loves are 1) “The peculiar love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the Father;” 2) “God’s providential love over all that he has made;” 3) “God’s salvific stance towards his fallen world;” 4) “God’s peculiar, effective, selecting love toward his elect;” 5) “God’s love…directed toward his own people in a provisional or conditional way – conditioned, that is, on obedience.”[10]
The first love is God’s natural love for Himself, contrary to His voluntary love to His creation. This love is often ignored or unknown to the Christian, but it is essential to God’s love for them. This love sets God’s love on the highest plane of His attributes (1 Jn.4:8). If God’s love was known to only be for His creatures, then love would be one of the lower qualities, placed in the same category as wrath or mercy, but because the Triune God has loved for all eternity, love is supreme and primary. The love for His creatures is secondary, and this is a reflection of the two greatest commandments.
The Son is revealed to have been with the Father from all eternity (Jn. 1:1–3, 14, 17:5, 1 Jn. 1:2). This sharing of glory, being face-to-face with one another, and the Son being in the bosom of the Father, shows the intimacy and love they had for one another. The Father is said to love His Son (Matt. 3:17, 12:18, 17:5, Jn. 3:16, 3:35, 5:20, 10:17) and the Son is said to love His Father (Jn. 14:31, 15:9, 17:23–26).[11]
Furthermore, in the immanent Trinity, between the persons of the Godhead, the Son’s generation and subordination reveal a natural love between the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit.[12] This incomprehensible and enigmatic love between the Father and Son is reflected in and ensures redemptive history, bringing the love between the Father and Son to His elect (Jn. 17:26). Carson speaks to this intra-Trinitarian love by saying, We are the friends of God by virtue of the intra-Trinitarian love of God that so worked out in the fullness of time that the plan of redemption, conceived in the mind of God in eternity past, has exploded into our space-time history at exactly the right moment…. God sent his Son into the world, and the Son obeyed; the Father in love for the Son determined that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father; and Father and Son, in perfect harmony of plan and vision, at the time God ordained, played out their roles – the Father sending, commissioning, “showing,” and the Son coming, revealing, disclosing what had been “shown” him, and in obedience going to the cross. And we the heirs of the new covenant are unfathomably privileged to be let in on this stupendous plan. We are the friends of God.[13]
The second aspect of God’s love has to do with God’s love for creation and loving work within it. Though God does not use the word love to describe His creation, it is there. Carson says creation is “the product of a loving creator.”[14] In the creation account, after all things were made, God said that it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). He was and is still working in creation (Jn. 5:17). The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith states, God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges, and governs all creatures and things, from the greatest to the least, by His perfectly wise and holy providence, to the purpose for which they were created…. His providence leads to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.[15]
The implications for this are astounding. The scope of the loving God’s creation speaks to all mankind of His eternal attributes and nature, leaving them without excuse on the day of judgement, and reveals His patience and forbearance towards their sin which is meant to lead them to repentance (Rom. 1:19–20, Ps. 19:1–6, Acts 14:17, Rom. 2:4). Creation is a reminder for the Christian not to be anxious but to trust in God as their Provider, Shelter, and Rock. They are told to look at the birds of the air and consider the lilies and see that God reckons His people more valuable than them (Matt. 6:25–35).
The third aspect of God’s love has to do with His love toward sinners and an ungodly world. John 3:16 is the classic verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Those who see John 3:16 as referring only to the elect are partaking in the same sort of hermeneutical eisegesis as their Arminian opponents do. They’re reading too much into the text.
The glory of this text lies in the fact that God has provided the most precious gift of His only begotten Son to a lost and sinful world (Jn. 3:19–21, 36). The emphasis here on world is the depth of its wickedness in contrast to the emphasis being on the “whole” world in 1 John 2:2. One speaks of the depth of wickedness while the other speaks of the extension to every lost soul. John 15:19 sheds light on John 3:16 when it says that Jesus has chosen His people out of the world who were once of it.
God the Father, who created this world and the image-bearers in it loved them enough to send His only begotten Son to give eternal life to all who would come to Him in faith. God shows Himself to love sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance and faith (Lk. 19:10, Matt. 9:12–13). More than this, He continues to love the world and those who reject Him by letting the rain fall and the sun shine on them still (Matt. 5:45).
What a marvelous text, displaying the love of God and the free offer of the gospel to all of sinful mankind! Sinclair Ferguson had suitable words for this text when he said, “The greater the lover the greater the love. The lesser the object of that love the greater that lover. The greater the expression of that love the more marvelous the love.”[16] Anyone and all who are alive on earth today, sick or healthy, regenerate or unregenerate, Democrat or Republican, can be told that God loves them, that He will have them, and He invites them to His wedding feast while it is still called today. Christ said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).
The fourth aspect of God’s love is God’s peculiar, effective, selecting love toward His elect. Rather than this being the love for the world found in John 3:16, it is the love for the elect chosen from out of the world (Jn. 15:19, 17:6, 9). Despite being of the world and dead in trespasses, God loved them by making them alive with Christ (Eph. 2:4–5, 1 Jn. 4:19, Gal. 2:20, Rom. 8:31–39, Tit. 3:4–6). This is not the Creator’s love for His creation, but the Father’s “great love” for His children (Eph. 1:5, 2:4–5, 1 Jn. 3:1, 2 Thess. 2:13–16). He loved them before His Son came to earth, choosing and electing them from the foundations of the earth to be holy and blameless (Eph. 1:3).
The apostle John shows that this electing love should be marveled at and meditated upon by the words, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 Jn. 3:1). This is an exclusive, discriminating love given to those who have placed their faith in Christ Jesus and have experienced the order of salvation. This love ought never to be conflated with the third point of God’s love and the two must be carefully distinguished. According to the Bible, then, a preacher has the license to say “God loves you” to a room filled with both believers and unbelievers.
This Calvinistic view of grace and special love spelled out in the acronym TULIP leads the Christian to a peace and assurance that the Arminian position could never provide. Such a position holds to a kind of rose-petaled theology that has the soul saying ad nauseum, “He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not….” This is not where the Bible’s gospel leads, but to full assurance so that the apostle John could say, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:13).
This electing love God has for His people derives solely from His love and good pleasure (Eph. 2:4–5, Ps. 115:3). It is a love similar to the love God had for His ancient nation Israel. Yahweh said, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you” (Dt. 7:7–8). In Malachi 1:2, God says, “I have loved you,” and then lays out how He had loved them. John Piper explains this love and how it applies to us today, saying, I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love; that is how I have loved you. 1) My love for you is electing love because I chose you for myself above your brother Esau. 2) My love for you is unconditional love because I chose you before you had done anything good or evil—before you had met any conditions—while you were still in your mother's womb (Genesis 25:24). 3) My love for you is sovereign love because I was under no constraint to love you; I was not forced or coerced; I was totally in charge when I set my love upon you. 4) And my love for you is free because it's the overflow of my infinite grace that can never be bought. Now I ask you, if you are a Christian here today, and if you say to God, "How have you loved me?" can you answer the way God answered the Israelites? Do you look at your sister or brother living in sin and tremble that you have been chosen? And that your election is not because of anything in you? And that your faith and hope are owing wholly to God? Do you look at that childhood friend or college roommate who took a turn away from God when you stayed on the path, and tremble at the awesome thought that God chose you?[17]
The fifth aspect of God’s love is His love directed toward His own people in a conditional way of obedience. Jude tells the beloved of Christ to “keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). Christ tells believers to abide and remain in His love, as He remains in His Father’s love by obedience (Jn. 15:9). How much of the Father’s love and joy do saints deprive themselves of by not abiding in His love? Much of the love poured over the saints is not thoroughly experienced due to a lack of fighting the good fight and consistently walking up the hill of difficulty. It is this aspect of love that disciplines the saints so that they may live a life conformed into the image of Christ (Heb. 12:5–11, Rom. 8:30).
Considering the various ways God is said to love helps the believer to think rightly and speak clearly about it. It has been proven that God’s love is not monolithic. None can say that all of mankind is saved on the basis of God’s love because that would be overemphasizing point three at the expense of point four, and none can say that only the elect are loved by God without ignoring point three.[18] The historic Reformed tradition has long distinguished between points three and four in terms of God’s general and electing love.
Living in God’s love
The intra-Trinitarian love between the Father and Son has been extended to the Son’s love for His people in the gospel. Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (Jn. 15:9). As Christ abided in the Father’s love, both in His incarnation and divine nature, so Christ’s love is the pattern and example for the Christian’s love both vertically and horizontally (Matt. 22:36–40, Jn 13:34–35, 15:12, 1 Jn. 3:6–18, 4:7–11, 19).
Love is a crucial ingredient in the Christian life. It is the command of God, the bond of perfection, the first fruit of the Spirit, being greater than faith and hope, and is a mark of the elect (1 Tim. 1:5, Col. 3:18, Gal. 5:22, 1 Cor. 13:13, 1 Jn. 4:7). Jesus said that in order to abide in His love, the Christian must keep His commandments. For “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:10), and love is the law (Matt. 22:36–40). Christians ought to therefore love God and others, according to His Word, with both affection and action, especially the Church of Christ, because they are members of the same body, with Christ being the Head (Rom. 12:10, Gal. 6:10, Col. 1:18).
Pride will always be the archnemesis to love. It quite literally takes the place of love – “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart” (1 Tim. 1:5). Pride reckons itself higher than it is. The pride in man thinks that it is higher than the stars when it is dust, high as heaven when it belongs to hell. Christ charged the church of Laodicea with pride: “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,’ not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).
The antidote to pride is found in the love of Jesus Christ, who washed the feet of His disciples and told them to follow His example. For Christ came to serve and not to be served. Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, created the world and everything in it. He is God incarnate, who, though “he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). This is why the apostle commands the saints, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. (Phil. 2:5–9).
Let it be said a thousand times over in the heads of Christ’s people, “Jesus came to serve, not to be served.” The Puritan minister Hugh Binning applies this passage, saying, If he did humble himself out of charity, who was so high, how should we humble ourselves, both out of charity and necessity, who are so low! If we knew ourselves, it would not be strange that we were humble. The evidence of truth would extort it from us. But here is the wonder, that he who knew himself to be equal to God, should notwithstanding become lower than men; that the Lord of all should become the servant of all, and the King of Glory make himself of no reputation; that he pleased to come down lowest who knew himself to be the highest of all. No necessity could persuade it, but charity and love has done it. Now, then, how monstrous and ugly a thing must pride be after this! That the dust should raise itself; and a worm swell; that wretched, miserable man should be proud when it pleased the glorious God to be humble; that absolutely necessity did not constrain to this; that simple love persuaded him! How this heightens and elevates humility, that such a One gives out himself, not only as the Teacher, but as the Pattern of it: ‘Learn of me, For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’[19]
The saints love because God has loved them (1 Jn. 4:19). There is a proper order to loving well. The first four commandments are first and the last six are second. A love ordered to first love God will enable a right love for neighbor. Jen Wilkin explained this well by stating,
When we devote heart, soul, mind, and strength to loving him, we perceive ourselves rightly – no room for pride or self-exaltation – which prepares us to love our neighbor freely. Rightly perceiving ourselves to be the unworthy recipients of the agape of God, we become willing to love our neighbor in spite of himself because God first loved us in spite of ourselves. We do not wait to feel love; rather, we will ourselves to act in love whether we feel it or not. Agape transcends our feelings…. We must first focus on loving God rightly…. When I hesitate to show agape to my husband because he has hurt my feelings or disappointed me, I reveal that I believe agape is earned. Reminding myself of God’s unconditional, sacrificial love for me, I am stirred up to love God more, and I am prompted to extend love to my husband freely, as I have received it freely from God. I love because God first loved me.[20]
Christians need to be continually stirred up to love, and good works (Heb. 10:24). Jen showed how to rightly do this by growing in our love for God. Reading the Word of God and meditating on His love will help fan into flame that love within the Christian to love God and neighbor (Ps. 1:2, 119:48). In order to stir the Church up in the love of Christ, one ought to chew on these four words: Who, How, Did, What. 1) Who was it that loved them? 2) How did He love them? 3) Did the sinner deserve this love? 4) What did they obtain from His love? This draws from the writings of John Owen, who further said, “With such clear ideas of the love of Christ and by worship, you may walk in the paradise of God and enjoy the sweet perfume of His mediatorial love (Song 2:2–4).”[21] Owen then warns Christians, Do not be content to have right ideas of the love of Christ in your mind unless you have a gracious taste of it in your heart. You may taste that the Lord is gracious; that is, you may experience for yourself His grace in your heart. If you do not actually experience the love of Christ in your heart, you will not retain the idea of it in your mind. Christ is the meat, the bread, the food, provided by God for your soul. And there is no higher spiritual nourishment in Christ than His mediatory love, and this is love you should always desire. In His love, Christ is glorious. No creatures, angels, or men could have the least idea of it before Christ revealed it. And after it was seen in this world, it is still absolutely incomprehensible.
The prayer of the Christian should be that of the apostle Paul when he prayed for the Church to know the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19). Such a knowledge and deep sense of the love of God does more than make a man move, it sets him on fire. Thomas Watson said, A godly man weeps sometimes out of the sense of God’s love. Gold is the finest and most solid of all the metals, yet it is soonest melted with the fire. Gracious hearts, which are golden hearts, are the soonest melted into tears by the fire of God’s love.[22]
In conclusion, by speaking of the nature, difficulties, and applications of God’s love, hopefully, it has been shown that this is no ordinary topic. It is one of the most profound and moving topics that also comes with some worldly baggage. There is great urgency for followers of Christ to further grow in heartfelt knowledge of the love of God, to further know its breadth and length and height and depth. Oh, that there would be a revival in the heart of saints today to know this love experientially, and to be so filled and captivated by it. There would most assuredly be more laborers, more unity, more generosity, more joy, and more growth in every area of the Christian life – including the Church itself. May God’s people keep dear to their hearts and proclaim with their mouths the transforming love of Christ.
Author: Jeremy Johnson is a husband, father, an MDiv student at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, and a member of the Reformed Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky.
References
[1] John Gill, A Body of Divinity, (Atlanta, GA: Turner Lassetter, 1965).
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2008), 1.13.1.
[3] Sam Waldron, “The Love of God” (lecture, Doctrine of God, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro, KY, May 30, 2026).
[4] John Gill, A Body of Divinity, (Atlanta, GA: Turner Lassetter, 1965), 80.
[5] Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 4: The Church and the Last Things (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), 790.
[6] Sam Waldron, “The Love of God” (lecture, Doctrine of God, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro, KY, May 30, 2026).
[7] Matthew Poole, Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible (McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Company), 938, on 1 John 4:8–9.
[8] Dale W. Smith, Ore from the Puritans' Mine (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020), 205.
[9] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1973), 143.
[10] D.A. Carson, Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000), 14–19.
[11] Sam Waldron, “The Love of God” (lecture, Doctrine of God, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary, Owensboro, KY, May 30, 2026).
[12] Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitate (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2015), 15.17, 15.27.
[13] D.A. Carson, Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2000), 42–43.
[14] Ibid., 16.
[15] The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), chap. 5.1, https://www.the1689confession.com/chapter-5.
[16] Dial In Ministries YouTube Channel, “What Does John 3:16 Actually Mean? The Gospel Explained in Context,” YouTube video, accessed June 4, 2026.
[17] Desiring God, “The Greatness of God's Electing Love,” accessed June 4, 2026. www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-greatness-of-gods-electing-love.
[18] Let it be noted that there are far deeper theological issues at play than a simple over-emphasis of different categories of God’s love. The 21st century agrees to the sentiments that “God is love” only to the death and exclusion of God’s holiness and justice. The five aspects of God’s love, again, should only be used as a helpful tool in distinguishing God’s love.
[19] Hugh Binning, Christian Love, Puritan Paperback (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth), 79.
[20] Jen Wilkin, In His Image (Wheaton, IL: Crossway), 38.
[21] The Wonderful Love of Jesus, Free Grace Broadcaster, no. 270. (Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library).
[22] Dale W. Smith, Ore from the Puritans' Mine (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2020), 211.
