God _so_ loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The love is
the cause of the gift: the gift is the expression of the love. John's
Gospel says that the Son which is in the bosom of the Father has
_declared_ Him. Paul here uses a related word for _unspeakable_ which
might be rendered 'that which cannot be fully declared.' The declaration
of the Father partly consists in this, that He is declared to be
undeclarable, the proclamation of His name consists partly in this that
it is proclaimed to be a name that cannot be proclaimed. Language fails
when it is applied to the expression of human emotion; no tongue can
ever fully serve the heart. Whether there be any thoughts too great for
words or no, there are emotions too great. Language is ever 'weaker than
our grief' and not seldom weaker than our love. It is but the surface
water that can be run off through the narrow channel of speech: the
central deep remains. If it be so with human affection, how much more
must it be so with God's love? With lowly condescension He uses all
sweet images drawn from earthly relationships, to help us in
understanding His. Every dear name is pressed into the service--father,
mother, husband, wife, brother, friend, and after all are exhausted, the
love which clothed itself in them all in turn, and used them all to give
some faint hint of its own perfection, remains unspoken. We know human
love, its limitations, its changes, its extravagances, its shortcomings,
and cannot but feel how unworthy it is to mirror for us that perfection
in God which we venture to name by a name so soiled. The analogies
between what we call love in man and love in God must be supplemented by
the differences between them, if we are ever to approach a worthy
conception of the unspeakable love that underlies the unspeakable gift.