Is God Love or not?

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One of my conservative Christian friends on facebook shared this comic by Christian comic artist Adam4d. I used to take this line of reason, but now I disagree with it because the "bottom line" for Adam's theology is not what I find in Jesus.

For Adam's comic, the basic gospel message is about us. I think instead the basic good news from Jesus is God is a loving entity that seeks everyone who is lost to restore them to full relationship, like a widow and lost coin, a shepherd and a lost sheep, or a father and lost son. As Jesus' brother James writes, "Mercy triumphs over judgment." As his beloved disciple John writes, "God is love." I join many great theologians in the church's history who start from this ground floor instead of an anthropolgical statement.


 Catholic monk and scholar Meister Eckhart (1200's) writes "How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad?"A view of God that starts with his love instead of his justice has unexpected hopes. A justice-first God makes sure an adulteress woman is stoned to death. A love-first God makes sure she lives and gives her accusers a different perspective. 

 Catholic Saint Francis of Assissi (1100's) writes "God came to my house and asked for charity. And I fell on my knees and cried, 'Beloved, what may I give?' 'Just love,' He said. 'Just love.'" Francis gets that Jesus, God's icon on earth, is love. His orientation is love, first and foremost.



from Adam4D


One of the church's greatest philosophers, Saint Thomas Aquinas writes in the most merciful way, "One may never have heard the sacred word "Christ," but be closer to God than a priest or nun." The answer to the "mind-boggling" question in the last panel, "Why does God save anyone?" is because God is love. Even us wicked fathers, as Jesus tells us, won't give our kids a snake if they ask for an egg. How much more the good father of all creation will do. A good father rescues every kid drowning. God loved the world so much he created it and redeems it, all of it, even Trumps.

The quotes are from the book "Love poems from God." I highly recommend reading it.

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