Abstract
Christians will never be able to fully grasp the identity and character of God. The Bible, despite acknowledging its divine inspiration, cannot fully communicate and explain the attributes or qualities of a God nobody has ever seen (Jn 1:18; 1 Jn 4:12, cf. 4:20). Christians do believe in the love, forgiveness and grace/mercy of God, but will never comprehend it completely; although, we still need to continuously investigate it. The objective of this study, from the perspective of the Gospel of John, was to investigate the concept of God’s transcendent love and how God can immanently be experienced as a God of love. Firstly, the article constructs a Johannine picture (concept) of love between the Father and the Son. Secondly, it points out how the love of God is foundationally linked to and ‘experienced’ of the familia Dei . Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article explores one of the qualities (attributes) of God, namely, the love of God as referred to in the Gospel of John. The exploration is carried out from two perspectives: God’s love within the divine being and love of creation. It relates to biblical, systematic and practical theology and also has some implications for missiology.
Highlights
Neither the concept of love nor the term ‘love’ is uniquely Christian
The clearest expression in the Bible of the loving character of God occurs in 1 John, which contains the statement that God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16)
The Evangelist succeeds in the presentation of Jesus as the personalisation and objectification of God’s love and the content around which the love of God revolves and emanates, for the Son is part of the divine
Summary
Neither the concept of love nor the term ‘love’ (ἀγάπη) is uniquely Christian. The love of God has already been proclaimed in the Old Testament. It is the gift that is given, through love only to those who believe in the Word (Ridderbos 1997:46) This new birth into the familia Dei was made possible by means of God’s love for the world (3:16) through the incarnation (1:14), crucifixion and resurrection (19 & 20) of Jesus, the Son of God and the purifying work of the Spirit (16:8). This ‘birth from God’ is essential for believers to become aware and experience God’s love involvement in their every-day life. The Father will be further glorified when his children love one another and are obedient to Jesus’ commands
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