7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12
I did something this week which I never do, I got involved in a discussion online about the interpretation of a scripture. The main gist of the discussion was referencing that part of verse 8 above which states God is Love. Someone stated that God is not identical to Love and that God is Love but love is not God. This statement was made because of someone else's post that stated God and Love are one in the same.
The reason I bring this up is because one individual stated that the more accurate phrase in this verse 8 should be God is loving. I shared that once you change love the noun to a verb loving, it totally changes the meaning of the scripture. He also shared that scholars have been making decisions about word usage all the time. This brings me to my next comment with this scripture.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16
So, if this word is God's word, His intention was it was to be read as written and not change the verbiage which would likely change the meaning. For years people have been developing their own interpretation of scripture and this can create issues when we start changing God's Word. All I know is that if we need to understand something better that God has written, we need to use prayer to our advantage. You can take a moment to do what is stated in Philippians 4:5-7 and God will guard your heart and mind.
Have a great weekend.
Matt
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