Who is God? Part 1: God is Love

Theology comes from two Greek words. Theos, meaning God, and logos, meaning word or reason. So, theology is simply words about God.

The most fundamental questions for theology is “Who is God?”* People have answered the question in many ways, but as a Christian theologian there are two answers that I find the most compelling.

An early follower of Jesus, possibly his disciple John, wrote a letter knowns to us as 1 John. That letter contains the only two truth statements about God in the New Testament.** After reflecting upon his experience with Jesus, the author wrote, “God is love” and “This is the message we have heard from him (Jesus) and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”

Those are the two most compelling answers to the question “Who is God?” But notice that the author didn’t go back to scripture to find the answer. Scripture is full of different and often competing answers. In scripture, God is sometimes love and sometimes not. Similarly in scripture, God is sometimes light, sometimes darkness, and sometimes a mixture of both.

The author didn’t start with scripture. The author started with Jesus and specifically a message he received from Jesus. It’s the bold message that transforms theology. It’s as if 1 John is telling us, “Despite any of the rumors you may have heard, God is love. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If anyone tells you something different, even if the Bible tells you something different, don’t believe them. In Jesus we have discovered that God is love. God loves you, God loves them, God loves the earth, and God loves the universe.”

All theology should start there.

*There’s a question behind the question, namely, “Does God exist?” I’ll get to that question in a future post.

**See Michael Hardin’s excellent book “The Jesus Driven Life.”

For other parts in this series see:

Who is God? Part 1: God is Love

Who is God? Part 2: The Holy Spirit and judgmental gods not worth believing in

Who is God? Part 3: The Son of God: How the Son subverts violence and patriarchy

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/teachingnonviolentatonement/2015/02/who-is-god-part-3-the-son-of-god-how-the-son-subverts-violence-and-patriarchy/#ixzz3RZfpHgRM

For more brief theological reflections, like Adam’s Facebook page Adam Ericksen – Public Theologian.