God is JUST

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
I often hear or read from evangelists that God must assign unrepentant sinners to HELL because God is JUST.  By Hell they mean eternal conscious torment and their reasoning is that this is what a JUST God must do.  Think about that.  And it is humorous to me that many of them are against Capital Punishment.   I wonder how anyone would listen to such a person.
Following is the best commentary on the difference between the LOVE of God and the truth that God is JUST. Note that the complete Commentary of the Concordant Version of the New Testament is available on the right side of this Blog.  If you must read a commentary on the New Testament this is the one you should read.
“We are never told that God is justice, or God is power, or God is wisdom. These are His attributes, not His essence. The distinction is of vital import, in the conflicting maze of reasoning concerning God’s ways and words. Justice and power and wisdom are relative, but LOVE IS ABSOLUTE. He is never so just as when He justifies the unjust, for that is in line with His love. He is never so strong as when His weakness overpowers human strength, for that links it to love. He is never so wise as when His foolishness confounds the wisdom of men, for that glorifies love.
All His attributes appear and withdraw at the beck of love. All serve it and never go counter to its commands. We cannot reason that God will do thus and so because He is JUST, or strong or wise. Love may not give leave. But we can safely lay our heads on the bosom of His love and there learn the great lesson that He is love, and has both the power and wisdom to carry out the dictates of His affection. What clearer proof can be given that all that He has done and is doing is leading up to that grand ultimate when He will be All in all, and love will rest in being loved?”  A.E. Knoch (1874-1965) Concordant Commentary page 371
“God is love….Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…” (1 John 4:8; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

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