God’s Reigning Attribute

“God is often styled holy, righteous, wise: but not holiness, righteousness, or wisdom in the abstract: as he is said to be love: intimating that this is . . . his reigning attribute, the attribute that sheds an amiable glory on all his other perfections.” — John Wesley [1]

Both above and beneath,  both before and after everything else, God is love.


[1] John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on the New Testament (New York: Lanes and Scott, 1850), 1 John 4:8. Explanatory Notes on the New Testament was first published in 1755. It remains one of the standards for doctrine in the United Methodist Church.