Written by John Mark Comer, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “Practicing the Way.”
Love isn’t just something God does; it’s who he is. He can’t help but love; it’s his nature. Some of us are amazed that Jesus doesn’t hate us for all our flaws and failures, but that just betrays our distorted vision of God. It would be much harder for God to hate us than to love us, because love is who God is inside his deepest self. This is why God is Trinity (more on this coming soon): because God is love and love cannot exist outside relationship. Ergo, God must be a kind of relationship—one that is self-giving, others centered, humble, and joyful and full of blessing and goodwill. To quote Saint Augustine yet again, “God is (at once) Lover, Beloved, and Love itself.” He is the one who loves, the one who is loved, and the ultimate source of all love.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. [1 John 4:16]
Pathways Press.com 
Beautifully articulates the idea that love is the essential nature of God, rather than just an action He performs.