Love for God as the Foundation of Faith
The Johannine epistles anchor Christian love in a prior reality: "We have come to know and believe the love that God has for us" [1, 2]. This sequence—knowing and believing God's love before responding with our own—establishes the theological architecture of faith. The believer's love for God does not generate faith; rather, faith apprehends the divine love already extended, and from that apprehension flows responsive love.
The Biblical Priority of Divine Love
Scripture consistently presents God's love as the initiating force. The apostle writes plainly: "God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him" [2]. This mutual indwelling depends not on human affection but on recognition of what God has already done. The tradition preserved in Sirach connects fear of God to love, noting that "the fear of God is the beginning of his love: and the beginning of faith is to be fast joined unto it" [3]. Here fear denotes reverence, the proper posture before divine majesty, which opens into love as one grasps God's character.
The New Testament develops this further. Faith itself is "the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true," with trust as its "primary idea" [6]. Knowledge forms an essential element—one must know something of God to trust him—yet faith transcends mere intellectual assent. It includes the will's commitment, what the tradition calls "assent" [6]. This explains why love to God is "produced by the Holy Spirit" [4] rather than summoned by human resolve. The Spirit works faith, and faith, grasping God's prior love, generates responsive love.
The Commandment and Its Ground
Deuteronomy commands Israel to love God "with all the heart" [4], a directive Jesus identifies as "the first great commandment" [4]. Yet this command presupposes a relationship already established by divine initiative. The Exodus precedes the Sinai covenant; redemption grounds obligation. Matthew Henry observes that the apostolic witness to Christ as Savior—"the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world"—serves as "the foundation of such love" [9]. The sending of the Son manifests "the love of God to us," which in turn produces our love: "we love him, because he first loved us" [4].
This priority appears in the structure of faith itself. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown describes faith as exhibiting "the working reality" that shows itself "in one continuous chain of work" [8]. Faith is not static assent but "a realizing, working faith" [8] that necessarily issues in love. Paul writes that "faith works by love" [5], making love the active principle through which faith operates in the world. The triad of faith, hope, and love forms the Christian's fundamental posture, with each grace manifesting distinctly yet inseparably [8].
Love as Obedience and Union
The tradition consistently links love to obedience. Torrey's compilation notes that love to God "should produce obedience" and is itself "perfected in obedience" [4]. Jesus himself declares, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" [7]. This is not legalism but the natural expression of affection: one who loves desires conformity to the beloved's will. The command to love God is thus both imperative and indicative—it commands what grace enables, and its fulfillment demonstrates the reality of that grace.
Love also marks union with God. To abide in love is to abide in God [1, 2], a mutual indwelling that perfects love and "gives boldness" before the judgment [4]. This boldness arises not from self-confidence but from assurance that one dwells in the God who is love. The believer's love, then, is not the foundation of faith in the sense of a prerequisite condition, but rather faith's necessary fruit and evidence. Faith apprehends God's love; that apprehension transforms the believer into one who loves.
The relationship between faith and love thus forms a circle, though not a vicious one. God's love initiates; faith receives; love responds; and that responsive love confirms and perfects the faith that produced it. The foundation remains always God's prior action, the sending of the Son, which faith believes and love answers.
Sources
- 1 John “We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. -- 1 John 4:16”
- I John “I John 4:16 (BSB) — And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
- Sirach “Sirach 25:16 (DRC) — The fear of God is the beginning of his love: and the beginning of faith is to be fast joined unto it.”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Love to God — Commanded -- De 11:1; Jos 22:5. The first great commandment -- Mt 22:38. With all the heart -- De 6:5; Mt 22:37. Better than all sacrifices -- Mr 12:33. Produced by The Holy Spirit. -- Ga 5:22; 2Th 3:5. The love of God to us. -- 1Jo 4:19. Answers to prayer. -- Ps 116:1. Exhibited by Christ -- Joh 14:31. A characteristic of saints -- Ps 5:11. Should produce Joy. -- Ps 5:11. Love to saints. -- 1Jo 5:1. Hatred of sin. -- Ps 97:10. Obedience to God. -- De 30:20; 1Jo 5:3. Perfected in obedience -- 1Jo 2:5. Perfected, gives boldness -- 1Jo 4:17,18. God, faith”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Love to Man — Is of God -- 1Jo 4:7. Commanded by God -- 1Jo 4:21. Commanded by Christ -- Joh 13:34; 15:12; 1Jo 3:23. After the example of Christ -- Joh 13:34; 15:12; Eph 5:2. Taught by God -- 1Th 4:9. Faith works by -- Ga 5:6. A fruit of the Spirit -- Ga 5:22; Col 1:8. Purity of heart leads to -- 1Pe 1:22. Explained -- 1Co 13:4-7. Is an active principle -- 1Th 1:3; Heb 6:10. Is an abiding principle -- 1Co 13:8,13. Is the second great commandment -- Mt 22:37-39. Is the end of the commandment -- 1Ti 1:5. Supernatural gifts are nothing without -- 1Co 13:1,2. The greates”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Faith — Faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true (Phil. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:13). Its primary idea is trust. A thing is true, and therefore worthy of trust. It admits of many degrees up to full assurance of faith, in accordance with the evidence on which it rests. Faith is the result of teaching (Rom. 10:14-17). Knowledge is an essential element in all faith, and is sometimes spoken of as an equivalent to faith (John 10:38; 1 John 2:3). Yet the two are distinguished in this respect, that faith includes in it assent, which is an act ”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Love to Christ — Exhibited by God -- Mt 17:5; Joh 5:20. Exhibited by saints -- 1Pe 1:8. His personal excellence is deserving of -- Song 5:9-16. His love to us a motive to -- 2Co 5:14. Manifested in Seeking him. -- Song 3:2. Obeying him. -- Joh 14:15,21,23. Ministering to him. -- Mt 27:55; 25:40. Preferring him to all others. -- Mt 10:37. Taking up the cross for Him. -- Mt 10:38. A characteristic of saints -- Song 1:4. An evidence of adoption -- Joh 8:42. Should be Sincere. -- Eph 6:24. With the soul. -- Song 1:7. In proportion to our mercies. -- Lu 7:47. Supreme. -- ”
- 1 Thessalonians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 Thessalonians 1:3: work of faith--the working reality of your faith; its alacrity in receiving the truth, and in evincing itself by its fruits. Not an otiose assent; but a realizing, working faith; not "in word only," but in one continuous chain of "work" (singular, not plural, works), Th1 1:5-10; Jam 2:22. So "the work of faith" in Th2 1:11 implies its perfect development (compare Jam 1:4). The other governing substantives similarly mark respectively the characteristic manifestation of the grace which follows each in the genitive. Faith, love, and hope, are the ”
- 1 John (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on 1 John 4:14: Since faith in Christ works love to God, and love to God must kindle love to the brethren, the apostle here confirms the prime article of the Christian faith as the foundation of such love. Here, I. He proclaims the fundamental article of the Christian religion, which is so representative of the love of God: And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, Jo1 4:14. We here see, 1. The Lord Jesus's relation to God; he is Son to the Father, such a Son as no one else is, and so as to be God with the Father. 2. His relati”