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"God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them."
John 4:16b, NRSV

Some of you might have seen the image that the statement that "God is love" can be read in two ways. It reads both as "God is love" and "love is God." I used to thought it was a brilliant idea until I revisited my study on the topic of love.

Let me give you my conclusion first. The statement can only go one way, which is "God is love" like in the scripture and doesn't work the other way around. In other words, love is not God, because even the word agape is not enough to describe the entirety of who God is and what He does.

Conversely, God is the source of love, so it is absolutely correct to say that He is love. That is why John continues to stress that whoever loves God and others lives in God, or is part of God. Isn't this matching what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:27 that we are the body of Christ? Isn't this a mysterious but beautiful picture?

Share with your partner what the statement "God is love" mean to you? Then pray for each other that you will live out more of God's love.