Love

"God is love" (1 John 4:8) — not merely that God loves, but that love is the very heart of who he is. Because God is eternally three persons, love is not something he had to create a world to express; the Father, Son, and Spirit have loved one another from eternity. Creation and redemption are the overflow of a love that was already complete.

This love is not sentimental indulgence. It is holy love — love that wills our true good, tells the truth, and will not leave us as we are. Its definition is fixed not by our feelings but by an event: "In this is love... that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). When you doubt that God loves you, the answer is not to search your feelings but to look at the cross, where love put itself on permanent display.