John’s point in 1 John 4, “God is love,” is that those who really do know God come to love that way too. Doubtless we do not do it very well, but aren’t Christians supposed to love the unlovable-even our enemies? Because the Gospel has transformed us, our love is to be self-originating, not elicited by the loveliness of the loved. For that is the way it is with God. He loves because love is one of His perfections, in perfect harmony with all His other perfections.
— D.A. Carson (b. 1946), Neutestamentler, Theologieprofessor und Autor
Related Bible passage: 1JN.4.8
Topics: Love, God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit
Occasions: For Reflection
D.A. Carson
Der kanadische Neutestamentler Donald Arthur Carson (* 1946) lehrte über vier Jahrzehnte an der Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in den USA und ist Mitgründer des Netzwerks The Gospel Coalition. Er steht für eine reformiert-baptistische Theologie, biblische Irrtumslosigkeit sowie detaillierte Exegese und trat publizistisch als scharfer Kritiker liberaler und postmodern-relativistischer Strömungen auf. Bibellesern bietet sein Werk fundierte konservative Kommentare und theologische Orientierung, während andere Stimmen seine hermeneutische Unnachgiebigkeit kritisieren.
All quotes by D.A. Carson (51)
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa
I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.
Henri Nouwen
It wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was love.
Max Lucado
To love a person means to see them as God meant them to be.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
I ask myself: what does hell mean? I maintain: it is the inability to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A drop of love is worth more than an ocean of reason.
Blaise Pascal
Love keeps no record of wrongs, but bitterness keeps detailed accounts.
Craig Groeschel
The world consists of nothing but opportunities for love.
Søren Kierkegaard