This was originally posted on http://truthdialogue.blogspot.com on June 20th, 2005. The author is professor [u][i]Ron Adkins[/i][/u] (Ohio Christian University). As I prepared for yesterday's "Father Day" sermon, I grappled with the idea of whether God's nature is primarily holy or love? My text for the sermon was I Peter 1:14-19. The central theme of this text seems to be verses 15 and 16, "but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it it written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'". In the sermon I didn't deal with the issue of whether God's nature is primarily holy or love but I said that God's holiness is manifested through His love (His love being the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, and His sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of all mankind.) But in my studies I was intrigued by the question at hand, "Is God's nature primarily holy or love?" In this passage we find a title given to God "the Holy One" (v.15) which is only found in one other place in the New Testament, I John 2:20. This title is more than just an attribute of God, it signifies His very essence. God the Father is Holy, which means there is no sin in Him, He is set apart from His creation, He is pure, and absolute in all perfection. In this passage (I Peter 14-19) we see that believers are called "obedient children". These children are called to be holy, because their (our) Father is holy! This is a characteristic of the Father! But, in I John we find that John also calls the believers children and also refers to God as Father. The difference in this book and specifically chapter 4 is that the Father is called love, "...God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" . In I Peter we are basically told, as obedient children, to obey the commands of the Father which leads to holiness. Likewise, in I John we are told that the demonstration of our love is to keep the commands of the Father. So, is God primarily holy, or is He primarily love? Does God's love flow from His holiness or does His holiness flow out of love?

personally i think that it is both. God is both primarily love and primarily holy. God has no limits, so, this is technically not impossible. I would consider love to be holy and also for holiness to be love.... they would be the same thing Llywen.... i didnt even notice your post until i was in the middle of this post lol.... we're pretty much saying the same thing

God needs all of his attributes to really be God. To ask whether holiness or love is God's "primary" attribute is like asking which of your cars tires is the primary tire. If any one of them is missing the car ceases to function as a car ought. Why stop with love and holiness? These are probably chosen because we find verses that state these attributes very clearly (i.e., God is love; be ye holy for I am holy). However there are pleanty of other verses that put forward other characteristics of God. Two weeks ago, I asked some of our youth group to give me some verses that tell us to be like God in some way. Holiness and love were two of the first that came up, but here are a couple more: Ephesians 4:32 - forgive like God forgave you (also Matt. 6:12, 14-15) Matthew 5:48 - perfect as God is perfect (this means mature in actions and choices) *Feel free to add others.* If Matt forced me to choose one or the other, I would have to pick holiness as the greatest of the attributes. Biblically because of the angles' three-fold declaration in Isaiah 6. Theologically because all the other attributes seem to be held together by God's holy (blameless, perfect, predictably righteous) practice of all His other attributes. BTW-I think Llywn is on the right track, but defining holiness as the "divinity of God" makes it hard for us to be holy like he is holy. Not a debate, just a helpful thought.