God IS Love?

So much ink has been spilled in speculating about what it means to say that God is love. In the last few decades it has become fashionable to make "God is love" into a metaphysical statement about God – that love is the substance of God. I'm not sure anyone really knows what that assertion means. Besides, I'm still convinced that Clark Pinnock was on to something when he said that in order to speak biblically about God's nature, we must speak in terms of person, not substance. So on the question of substance I tend to stop with a moderately qualified claim that God is spirit.

However, there's still the question of whether love is God's primary attribute. Passages like Exod 34:6-7 tempt me to agree with those who say that love is the primary attribute of God (I posted on that a long time ago). But, after further consideration of many other passages on the love of God, including and especially 1 John 4, I now think it is better to continue to say that God does not have a primary attribute, even love. Rather, I will say that love is God's fundamental stance toward himself, humankind, and all of creation. In other words, love is not the basic attribute of God, but it is his basic attitude.

This comports nicely with a way of doing theology that I am beginning to call "First Person Theology." My affirmation of each of God's attributes (or any other doctrine) constitutes not just an affirmation of who God is in himself (the First Person), but it must also reveal an understanding of who he is toward me (speaking doctrine in first person). In fact, it may be the latter of these two categories that is usually the more important. I'm still thinking about this, but I consider the little epiphany above to be a methodological step in the right direction.