God is love" (1 John 4:8). Even though God and love are not necessarily interchangeable, yet Scripture knows no better word than love to describe the fundamental nature of God. To speak of God as holy, just, good, gracious, omnipotent, omniscient or in any such manner is to speak of Him only partially. But to speak of God as love is to speak of Him all inclusively. Love embraces God's essential nature--who He is in His whole person and actions.
So when John writes that God is love, he is describing that God is absolute love in His innermost quality. Fidelity to this witness demands that everything said about God should arise from and agree with the truth that God is love.
What then is the corresponding, all inclusive nature of humankind whom God has created in His own image? What is God's imperative demand in the light of Creation, the Fall, and Redemption?
Jesus gives us the answer: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:37-40).
The context of this passage in the synoptic Gospels shows Jesus making three profound statements regarding the command to love. First, love is the most important of all His demands and expectations (Mark 12:31). Second, eternal life demands compliance with the command to love (Luke 10:28). Third, on love "hang all the law and the prophets," the entire Scriptures. What pre-eminence Jesus accorded the commandment to love!
We must also see that the two great commandments make only one moral demand of humankind: to love absolutely, with all cognition, emotion, and action. This demand upon people arises by virtue of their being created by God and can be realized by virtue of their being redeemed by God. Hence John's exhortation: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:7, 8). It is this love that must motivate evangelism.
The essence of evangelism
The nature of the gospel and the task of evangelism are interrelated through love. It is love in its absolute sense that made God send His Son to die for sin and to redeem the fallen humanity (John 3:16). It is love that defined evangelism in the Great Commission given to the church (Matt. 28:20). With an unreserved love, we are to go and teach and baptize that is, evangelize by receiving, modeling, and sharing God's love so as to make humankind complete lovers again.
This inexorable responsibility cannot be discharged by mere doctrinal preaching but by first receiving and then modeling love. Accordingly, it is the degree of love that the church reflects to the world that would determine the effectiveness the church would achieve in evangelism. Hence Paul warns the Corinthians that all their spiritual gifts and sacrifice are worthless and futile without the fundamental motivation of love (1 Cor. 13). Without love the most eloquent of speeches is sheer noise. Without love the gift of prophecy, the comprehension of all mysteries, the possession of encyclopedic knowledge are all pointless. Without love dynamic faith is useless, altruistic philosophy is unhelpful, self-sacrifice and martyrdom are meaningless.
The Ephesians loved doctrine at the expense of the doctrine of love. They were gifted exponents of the Word, fearless defenders of the faith, keen discerners of right from wrong, and yet they were losing the essence of their faith. They lost "love" (Rev. 1:4) and were putting at risk their spiritual standing in God and their effective proclamation of the gospel.
The crisis in the church today is not dissimilar from the crisis at Ephesus. The challenge facing the church, particularly, in evangelism, is not so much the fine art of communicating knowledge, but the divine art of communicating love God's love. "The success of our work depends upon our love to God and our fellowmen." 1 Without love, our doctrine, our pastoring, and our evangelism are all futile. But where a love for God and for human beings is translated into action, pastoral nurture and evangelistic outreach will have boundless success.
1. Ellen G. White, Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1962), 188.
