Among other things, “God is love” reveals the TriUnity of the Being of God which is a “Theontological” Necessity…a Necessity of His own Being, in other words since love presupposes Relationship (If love did not characterize the intertrinitarian Fellowship, He would self destruct; that is to say that He would not and could not BE at all). This necessity is not externally imposed…there isn’t, and couldn’t be, any necessity external to Himself: It is HIS OWN necessity…He alone exists NECESSARILY, in other words. To put it differently, He CANNOT NOT BE because He is ABSOLUTE BEING. (Obviously I’m not here speaking about the nature of God’s Self-Love…that’s another rich subject! I’m just saying, here, that it’s the Essence of His Tripersonal Existence).
The implications of this for His Church are truly astounding! Though its existence is derived from Him Who IS Love (derived both from and inspired and shaped by His personal, intertrinitarian love and expressive of it), its existence as a body IN love (with Him and with itself) is a necessity as well, albeit a totally derived and dependent one (the church, like its Creator, also would self- destruct were it anything but the analog of God). It is important to underscore this: that the church is what it is solely because it is a reflection of the Tripersonal God: it is necessarily what it is precisely because it mirrors Him Who is Necessary; and it is derived from Him and completely dependent on Him in Christ. (More on this later). This communion of love marks the Church. Though this “perfect love” is not (and cannot be) realized in the present order (which is pervasively, but not fully, penetrated at every level by the kingdom of hate, within and without), yet it must be really present and really working itself out in the people of God as the Principle of the Life of God in them; otherwise they show themselves NOT to Be (that’s what John is saying in in his first letter). Imagine how this will work out in heaven: the consummated marriage between God and His people!
The implications for the devil and his bride are also pretty astounding. They also owe their being to God (derived and dependent) but they are a “fellowship” of hatred…they in fact DO self destruct… that’s what Hell is. And as such it’s what God’s wrath is! (We see it, like the principle of love in Christ’s Church, working itself out in a measure in the present order): the damned in hell will be a picture forever of the NONBeing of God, in other words…of what He would be, analogically in His creatures, if He were NOT LOVE (and consequently, they are an everlasting “living” picture to the people of God, who have access to this dimension of eternity forever, of the LOVE of God in Christ, for each of them and for all of them, Who ACTUALLY and REALLY entered TOTALLY into the experience of this destruction…while yet remaining the Holy God Who IS LOVE…in behalf of His people and in real union with His Father and them). They cannot really self destruct (that is to say Not Be) because, being made in His Likeness, they are eternal beings, though their Being is not ULTIMATE but only Proximate). Jesus experience of hell on the cross was different than that of the lost, in that He (the Holy God Who is also The Holy Man from Heaven), ipso facto, does not (and cannot) self-destruct: He remains perfectly the Holy GodMan from heaven though He is treated as the Man of Perdition in the place of His saints.
So, for the redeemed, Hell is a necessity because, were it not counterpoised against the God Who IS LOVE, His people could never really comprehend the nature of that LOVE…of GOD HIMSELF, in other words. (In a similar way the fall is necessary because without it we could never know the FULL character of God (evil, which is the opposite of God morally speaking, and His Mercy and Justice, for example, would be forever hidden from us apart from the fall). Each of us will forever see ourselves in each and in all of those who are lost. Consequently, we will be faced every moment of the endless eternities with the True depth and extent of the Love of God in Christ for each of us Who himself bore our sins in His body on the tree. The effect of hell, then, on the life of the consummated union of the Bride of Christ with Himself will only be to increase their Joy, peace, wonder and love (and hatred of evil!). We don’t tend to see it this way now at times (we grieve deeply over those we love who are lost, for example) because we do not yet see things as they really are (we do not see the true nature of the sin within ourselves or those around us). In the end, we will see all things as they are, including the fact that the Justice of God is beautiful! It will all be about Christ, then; He will be center stage.