God is love. Is love God?

If someone loves to love, does that mean they believe in God? Of course we are not talking about the sham of personal affection which fluctuates depending upon circumstance - but about the universal love which loves no matter who is there, no matter what.

When Jesus said that the first commandment was to love God above all, he then made the astounding declaration that the second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, was like unto the first - in other words loving your neighbor as yourself equates to loving God!! To make it abundantly clear, Jesus followed with the parable of the Good Samaritan: a Levite and a priest, both professers of loving God, avoided a beaten up and robbed man alongside the road, while the Samaritan, of a despised class of “non-believers”, stopped to help the victim, took him to an inn, paid for his stay as long as he needed it. The Samaritan did not know the victim from Adam, yet risked his own well-being to help him.

The takeaway is that the Good Samaritan demonstrated his love of God, while the Levite and priest, though esteemed religionists, demonstrated that they did not love God at all. Profession counts for nothing before the Judgement Seat of Love.