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"God is love."
(1 John 4:8, 16)
An important theological question surfaces when we affirm that God is love. The question is, if God is love, then why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Does the presence of evil and suffering negate the biblical teaching that God is love? No, it does not. The devil, not God, is the source of evil, as seen in Genesis 3 in the Fall of man. God created man with free will, the ability to choose good or evil. Man chose evil then and man chooses evil today. With the Fall of man, sin entered the world, and with it, moral and natural chaos. Wise and mature is the Christian who maintains that God is love even amid personal pain and suffering.
John and Abigail Adams knew about suffering, yet even during great pain, they maintained their deep conviction and belief in the love of God. David McCullough's fine biography of our second president, John Adams, is a must read for those interested in presidential history or the founding of our nation. He maintains that Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, was the greatest intellect of all the presidents in the history of the United States. He said his father was a close second, and that Abigail, his wife, was his equal. In fact, after finishing the book, I concluded that the true hero in the Adams family was Lurch — just kidding! It was Abigail!
This couple knew suffering. In 1800, Adams lost his bid for reelection to the White House to Thomas Jefferson in a most contentious election. Shortly thereafter, he received news that his son, Charles Adams, died at age 30 from alcoholism. The Adamses saw their beloved daughter Nabby suffer excruciatingly from breast cancer and eventually die at age 49. In 1813, the year Nabby died, John Adams wrote these words in a letter to President Thomas Jefferson (p. 614): "The love of God and His creation, delight, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existence are my religion."
Though Adams and Jefferson were political enemies when they were younger, as they aged, they put those differences aside and became very close friends, as seen in their letters to each other. They traded hatred for love. I think it is very interesting that both our second President, Adams, and our third, Jefferson, both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
God is indeed love, as the Apostle John states. There is nothing that will ever happen that will diminish or taint the eternal fact that God is love.
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