Love is the Truth

God is Love

You've heard it before. It says it in 1 John 4:8.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Could you imagine what Christianity would look like if "Love" were the marker of someone who is close to God? Rather than someone who clings to a certain set of postulates?

Instead, most of Christianity chooses to reference John 14:6

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This verse is usually used to set up an exclusivism - God is for Christians only. The fact that this interpretation runs contrary to the life and ministry of Jesus is relegated to a footnote.

A few years ago I heard Bart Campolo re-quote 1 Corinthians 13 based on 1 John 4:8. Since God IS love - not something God chooses or decides - he swapped out love and put GOD in the text. So it read like this:

God always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.... God never fails.

So, in the fashion of Brother Bart, I would like to take that approach to John 14:8 -

Love is the Way, Love is Truth, Love is Life. No one comes to God... except through Love.


Heresy you say?

Heh! I got a million of em'! ;)