What is Real Love?

The Bible tells us “God is love”. So does that mean there is no such thing as hell?

Most people I talk to who believe in heaven also say they believe in hell, and that you can’t have one without the other. But a good percentage say they only believe in heaven, often with the explanation that “God is love”, and therefore would not punish people in hell.

An assumption many make is that a God of love could never hate, but is this really true? I asked this of a man named Damon during a sidewalk outreach conversation, and he was quick to recognize that this world is not what God created it to be, and that there are many horrible situations in life that a loving God must hate by His very nature.

Look a little closer at the context of that “God is love” statement from the Bible. It comes from 1 John 4. It is found in the middle of a chapter which identifies love as a mark of a genuine Christ follower. It is followed by an explanation of what “real love” looks like – God “sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins”.

The key word is “sacrifice”. Real love involves sacrifice.

Many people would like to believe this sacrifice is made when God sees the evil deeds we do and just looks the other way, with no consequence for sin. In so doing, God would have to sacrifice his own justice in the process. But God’s perfect goodness in every attribute means it must be more complicated than that.

Being perfect in every attribute, not just His love, God will not sacrifice one attribute for another. He won’t sacrifice or diminish his perfect love for his perfect justice, or vice-versa. His perfect justice demands a just consequence for our sin, but his perfect love provides a perfect sacrifice.

Both God’s love and justice must be perfectly expressed, then, but when it comes to the consequences for our sins these two attributes seem to be incompatible with one another. We want the mercy we don’t deserve, and we fear the terrifying just punishment we do deserve.

But we don’t have to continue living in fear of the punishment we deserve. 1 John 4 tells us “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Only at the cross are these two attributes of God expressed perfectly. God’s sacrificial love and mercy give us the hope of heaven, driving out the fear of a just punishment in hell. Thanks be to God!