God's love for Himself and for Sinners

Here is an excerpt from chapter one of John Piper's book Pierced by the Word: Thirty-One Meditations for Your Soul.

     For many years I have sought to understand how the God-centeredness of God relates to His love for sinners like us. Most people do not immediately see God’s passion for the glory of God as an act of love. One reason for this is that we have absorbed the world’s definition of love. It says: You are loved when you are made much of.
     The main problem with this definition of love is that when you try to apply it to God’s love for us, it distorts reality. God’s love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but His giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever. In other words, God’s love for us keeps God at the center. God’s love for us exalts His value and our satisfaction in it. If God’s love made us central and focused on our value, it would distract us from what is most precious; namely, Himself. Love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God. Therefore God’s love labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.

A couple months ago, I got into an intense discussion with someone. I said that God is supremely concerned with glorifying His own name; he said that God was more concerned with loving us. In the above paragraphs, Piper argues—and I think he's right—that God's supreme act of love toward us is "giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever." God and His glory are the most valuable things in all existence, and what a privilege to be allowed to worship and praise it for all eternity!

Read more from this and other John Piper books here.