This is not all. God Himself is love, but when this love is applied to us, we find that "God so loved the world" (John 3:16). "God is love" speaks of His nature, and "God so loved the world" speaks of His action. God Himself is love; hence, that which issues out from Him must be love. Where there is love, there must also be the object of that love. After showing us that He is love, God immediately shows us that He loves the world. God has not only loved us, but has also sent forth His love. God could not help but send forth His love. He could not help but love the world. Hallelujah!
The greatest problem the world has is that it thinks that God always harbors evil intentions for man. Man thinks that God makes severe demands, and that He is strict and mean. Since man has doubts about the love of God, he also doubts that God loves the world. But as long as God is love, He loves the world. If love is His nature, He can conduct Himself toward man in no other way except in love. It would make Him uncomfortable if He did not love. Hallelujah! This is a fact! God is love. He cannot help but love. God is love, and what spontaneously follows is that God loves the world.
We can blame ourselves for our sins, for being susceptible to Satan's temptation, for being entangled by sin. But we cannot doubt God Himself. You can blame yourself for committing a sin, for having failed, for succumbing to temptation. But if you doubt God's heart toward you, you are not acting like a Christian, for to doubt God's heart toward you is to contradict the revelation in the gospel.
I cannot say that you will never fail again. Nor can I say that you will never sin again. Perhaps you will fail and you will sin again. But please remember that for you to fail or sin is one thing, but God's heart towards you is another. You must never doubt God's feeling toward you simply because you have failed or sinned. Although you may sin and fail, God does not change His attitude toward you, for God is love and He loves the world. This is an unchangeable fact in the Bible.
On our side, we change and turn. But on the side of the love of God, there is no change or turn. Many times your love can change or become cold. But this does not mean that God's love is affected. If God is love, no matter how you test Him, what comes forth from Him is always love. If there is a piece of wood here, no matter how you hit it, you will always get the sound of wood. If you hit it with a book, it will give you the sound of wood. If you hit it with your palm, it will still give you the sound of wood. If you hit it with another piece of wood, it will again give you the sound of wood. If God is love, no matter how you "hit" Him—if you reject Him, deny Him, or cast Him aside—He is still love. One thing is sure: God cannot deny Himself; He cannot contradict Himself. Since we are just hatred itself, it is altogether natural for us to hate. Since God is love, it is altogether natural for God to love. God cannot change His own nature. Since God's nature cannot be changed, His attitude toward you cannot be changed. So we see that God loves the world.