What is the relationship between faith and love?

[arunangelo]

God is love. Therefore, faith in God is faith in love (which is God’s Spirit). Since true love was revealed in Jesus, who sacrificed His life to free us (who were unfaithful to Him and sinned against Him) from sin; true faith is to believe in this type of love. We would, therefore, be merciful, (Matthew 9:13), compassionate, forgiving (Luke 6:37), humble, gentle, self-controlled, patient, generous, faithful, kind and pure of heart (Galatians 5:24-26). In addition, we would do good acts not because the law requires them, or we are afraid of punishment, or we want to be rewarded; but because we love God.

[Zzyzx]

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God is love.

When one begins with a conjecture that cannot be shown to be true, all that follows is hypothetical.

[cnorman18]

God is love. Therefore, faith in God is faith in love (which is God’s Spirit). Since true love was revealed in Jesus, who sacrificed His life to free us (who were unfaithful to Him and sinned against Him) from sin; true faith is to believe in this type of love. We would, therefore, be merciful, (Matthew 9:13), compassionate, forgiving (Luke 6:37), humble, gentle, self-controlled, patient, generous, faithful, kind and pure of heart (Galatians 5:24-26). In addition, we would do good acts not because the law requires them, or we are afraid of punishment, or we want to be rewarded; but because we love God.

The problem I have with this is not so much the formulation "God is Love," which is very nearly without meaning beyond "God loves us" -- more on that in a moment -- but the fact that the application given here is really the inverse of that statement: "Love is God."

No, it isn't. Undifferentiated love for all is neither wise nor holy. Sometimes wrath and even violence is appropriate and necessary, "turn the other cheek" notwithstanding.

On "God is Love": In Jewish tradition, God is not necessarily regarded as "loving." It seems clear that God sometimes loves, but not always. God can be wrathful too, in the Bible. When Maimonides, the great 12th-century rabbi who is still considered one of the greatest teachers in Jewish history, formulated his (debatable and long-debated) Thirteen Principles of Faith, the usual suspects were all there -- omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, Creator, allathat, none of which have ever achieved the status of dogma in Judaism -- but "all-loving" never made the cut, even with Maimonides.

In Jewish lore, the phrase "God is Love" is rarely heard; that formulation seems to be more a Christian thing. In the Jewish faith, one is more likely to see God identified with the word emet.

"Truth." God is Truth. And that does not mean "religious dogma." It's worth noting that in the Talmud, it is said that a well-constructed logical argument, a Truth arrived at through reason, has the force and authority of a Biblical commandment.