…Love is God is Love is God is Love…
God is Love. Love is God (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16). No one, in this earthly form, has ever seen God. However, we can see manifestations of God. God can be seen in any individual who chooses love, in the moment that they are choosing it. The Apostle John described it in this manner, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression [manifestation] in us” (1 John 4:12 NLT). The invisible God becomes visible, in human form, when an individual chooses, at any particular moment, to love another.
Since God is Love, then, throughout scripture we can supplant every reference to God with the name, Love. The two names are one and the same, and can be used interchangeably. In doing so, we can surmise that Love created all things. This would lead to the understanding that all created things only exist from Love, and because of Love. The invisible God becomes visible through manifestations of Love, such as creation. The core existence, and nature, of all created things is Love, and nothing other than Love.
With this premise, Colossians 1:16-17 can be read in this manner,
For it was in Love that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, weather thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Love, and in Love, and for Love. Love existed before all things, and in Love all things consist (cohere, are held together).
Likewise, we can read Romans 1:20 in this manner, “since the creation of the cosmos Love's invisible qualities, Love's power and divine nature, are clearly manifested [seen] in what has been created.”
Manifestations of Love, and, therefore, manifestations of God, are evident in creation and when an individual loves another. This premise, of God being Love, and Love being God, raises a question. Can any act of love, any choosing of love, or any manifestation of love, not be from God? Since God is Love, then, it would seem, that no action, deed, choice, or any other manifestation of love, can be from anything other than God. It is impossible.
Any act, deed, thought, intention, creation, creative idea, or solution, if initiated from an intention or motive of Love, is therefore a manifestation of God. 1 Corinthians 13, says that Love is patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control, among many other things listed. Since God is Love, then God is also these listed attributes of Love. This would infer that these attributes can come from none other than God, since love and its attributes can come from no other. God is Love. Nothing else can be Love. Nor can Love come from anything but God; because, Love is not a thing. Love is a being, Love is The Being. It is not a separate item that can be given or taken. Love is not an object or a created thing. Love is God, and can therefore only come from God. God and Love are not, nor can they be, separate. They are one and the same.
However, there can be acts, deeds, etc., that are meant to appear as though they are from love, but are in fact done from a selfish love. These are committed by those who are actually living from a place of, and under the veil of, fear. Although the individual is often ignorant of this, their actions are derived from selfish love. Selfish love is developed from blindness, aka, fear. This is a blindness which veils the truth that one came from Love, and is fully loved. For them, the veil has not yet been fully removed.
These acts, however, do not need to be highlighted or focused upon. We must always, only, keep true Love - God - before us. Our eyes, fixed on Him - Love - beholding Love only. Our eyes must be fixed on Love and what Love is, not what Love is not.
Whenever someone turns to Love, the veil [of fear] is taken away. For Love is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of Love is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had the veil removed, [the veil which causes the forgetting of Love - the veil called fear], and constantly behold, [look upon, and contemplate], the glory of Love, can see, and reflect Love. As we gaze upon Love, and reflect Love, Love makes us more and more like Love. We are changed into Love's glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).
To pursue God is to pursue Love. To know God one must know Love. To grasp a deeper understanding of God, one must more deeply understand Love. If an individual pursues higher spiritual aid, knowledge, wisdom, power, experience, etc., from an intention other than selfless love and humility, then that individual will not be accessing the throne of the One True God. One’s pursuits, requests, and desires, are only as pure as the intentions behind them. Intention is what carries and transports any request, pursuit, or desire. Any intention that falls short of Love, can only be carried to the heights, and to the ears, of the lower gods, of which there are many.
It is, therefore, Love's highest priority, not to meet all of our desires, pursuits, and requests; but instead to transform the intention behind our desires, pursuits, and requests into intentions of Love. This transformation of intentions can only take place as Love is more deeply grasped and understood by the individual. Only Love can shed light onto our intentions, revealing them for what they truly are. Only Love can cast out fear; the fear which creates a veil and a blindness to Love. As fear is cast out, Love begins to be seen in all things, because Love is in all things.
The Apostle Paul knew this truth very well. With interchangeably using the name Love, here is one of Paul's divinely inspired prayers.
May Love, through your faith, dwell [settle down and make its permanent home] in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in Love and founded securely on Love. That you may have the power and strength to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep this Love is. May you experience this Love, though it is too great to understand fully. Then, upon experiencing and beginning to understand Love, your entire being will be filled with Love’s presence, and become filled and flooded with Love itself (Ephesians 3:17-19).
Love is the beginning and the ending of all things. It is the purpose behind our existence, and the fabric upon which all things exist. Love is ‘The Kingdom of God’, and is the only thing worthy of being pursued. If one were to pursue anything other than love it will be found to be futile, for apart from Love nothing exists. On the contrary, to pursue Love is to discover all things, for Love is the source from which the substance and essence of all things derive.
In the beginning the Word existed, and the Word was with Love, and the Word was Love… All things were made through Love, and without Love nothing was made, that was made. (John 1:1,3)
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