What do I mean, God is Love?

Brother, "Jason, I don't understand the love of God."
"I don't either."
Brother, "That's okay."

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

I might argue that Jesus did not love us, but rather He only had a respect for us stirred by admiration that caused Him to die on the cross. Respect in its nature is always upward. You might say you respect someone in a higher position, or you might say you respect someone because they had done a more honorable deed than was expected. Respect is always reserved for something better or best that you see in a person or thing. But how does the Greatest Good in all the universe have any respect for mankind? He is called perfect, while we are not. He is forever, the bible says our life is a vapor. He is good, we are evil. He is independent, we are entirely dependant on all things. This list would continue indefinitely, we are completely insignificant in the presence of God. So there would be nothing higher in us, nothing then inside worthy of the respect from God. This answer will not do.

I might also argue that God only has a love that is disconnected from us. When a soldier says that he fights for the people of his country, he does not mean this personally. By that I mean to say he perhaps dies for the people he loves, to protect their freedoms, such as freedom of religion or speech, but not for those he hates. His view of America is limited to his selected or neglected view of Americans. I say this because a man who lays down his life thinks of those worth laying his life down for, ex. friends and family. But such a man does not consider with his final breath that he is dying for the pedophiles, rapist, or serial killers. In such a way we might consider that God died for all of man kind but in a like manner it was impersonal and disconnected. But the bible says that while we were still enemies of God, He died for us. And all throughout scripture it makes mention that God searches the hearts of man. So the Bible is clear, we are perfectly and completely known by God. This answer will not do either.

Since God is all knowing, than that means he knows what I thought last night. He knows the evil in my heart. He knows the things in me that offend Him, the things that are disgusting to Him, the things that I think, feel and do that make me worthy of being called His enemy. I can justify my wrongs, ignore the guilt, even decieve myself, but I can't lie to Almighty God. And it is with this most personal knowledge of who I am that He climbed up a hill and was nailed to a cross. Why? Because God is love. God is the greatest good in all the universe. He is not better, he is the best. Nothing is above Him. And like you would expect from a good Father, He wants nothing but the absolute best for us, and He can give us nothing better than Himself. If he were to give us anything less it would not be perfect love, only compassion. But before He could give himself to us, He had to give himself for us. Had he not died, then I would remain His enemy. But as it stands, the one who hated God with his life is now considered His son. To call this anything but pure love is to do it injustice.

"For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans V:7-8

Jesus it causes me great depression to acknowledge my own hypocrisy, but i want to acknowledge it still. I confess that what i think about you and what i believe about you are often worlds apart, and my actions show it. Nothing is more brutally honest than my own reflection found in your word, and often where i find myself described is not where I'd like to be. I pray that you close that chasm and make me more like you and much much less than i find myself to be. Amen.