299. 'God Is Love' Hymn

Despite the number, this is really my 300th original hymn text, counting the one that I numbered "zero" because of some screw-ups in the way I blogged them. So, kind of a milestone! It's also, like some of the more recent numbers, one that I've been brainstorming over for a long time. All I needed, I guess, was a little push to carry my plan into execution; and a push I've been feeling, lately, since the idea of issuing a "sneak preview" of Edifying Hymns began to thrill me. Without further ado, and with no idea what tune I'm going to pair it with, here it is:

God is Love, in His three-personed nature
Giving of Himself ere time began:
God begetting God, not part or creature;
God-breathed God, none less or greater than;
Person sharing all with perfect Person,
Taking counsel on creation's plan;
Knowing sin would come, lest evil worsen,
Offering Himself to ransom man.

He who has no love, knows not the Father,
Who for love of us laid down His Son.
He who has no love, knows not Christ, either,
Dying as He lived, for all as one.
He who has no love, knows not the Spirit,
Sending feet with lovely news to run:
Drawing sinners under Jesus' merit,
Covering our deeds in what He's done.

So, beloved, let us love each other,
Loving God but as He first loved us:
Giving, sharing all with every brother,
Sisters, mothers, spouses, even thus.
As we imitate our Lord in heaven,
He'll work through us, making us a sign
Of the love that works our age as leaven
Till, in Him perfected, we will shine.

UPDATE: I wrote a tune for it this afternoon at the wheel of my car. With my phone hanging by its Popsocket from a dashboard air vent, I sang the tune into its Voice Recorder app. That's a first for me! Here it is, titled GOD IS LOVE: