Love is ... (continuing)

In the Scriptures, most are quick to point to I Corinthians 13 as the acme of discourse on love. I believe, however, that another passage should be held in very high regard on the subject of love, namely I John 4.

One of the things that I John 4 does is provide the succint identification of God: God is love.

It should be acceptable then, since God equals love, to equate God to the 16 items that describe love in I Corinthians 13. God is the utmost example of those qualities. But does the analysis end there?

If God is love and love is exemplified or acted out by 16 qualities, then why do bad things happen? Why does God not always appear to be good?

I think that we are too closely focused on I Corinthians 13 to fully appreciate other aspects of love.

Let's start this way: Is license a characteristic of love? Tolerance? Freedom? Or can we better say that love is demanding? Expecting? Disciplining?

C S Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, gets right to this. We mean and desire kindness only when we think of love from God. We want benevolence with regard to our fulfilling of desires and our happiness. But love is more than that.