All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Let's Talk About the Attributes of God
Let's discuss God's attributes. Can you name some of them (limiting to one per post) and describe them individually in relation to God?
Lord Bless,
LT
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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Grace,
holiness is one of His attributes. The beauty of God is that all of His attributes are present and active all the time. People often get into trouble when they try to segregate His attributes (not saying you are). For example we find some who focus in on God is love, and that is one of His attributes, but He is also just, another attribute. His love never operates apart from Him being Just and He never acts just without also being love.
Another thing that is often misunderstood, especially when applying any of these attributes to man/woman is that many see the action aspect, i.e. expressing love. These attributes as they relate to God and to man are first and foremost a state of being. In God's case it is Who He is and from that state of being He acts. Thus, God is love and therefore acts lovingly. God is just and therefore operates in justice.
I know that was more than you were asking for, but I hope the comments jump start this discussion as I really think a study of the attributes is important.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Grace,
Here is a list of 16 attributes that are identified in Scripture. Like most lists we could potentially add a couple more or condense some of these to make a smaller list. The point is not the list, but the depth of God we find when we look at each of these relating to Him. We also know, as stated above, that all of these work in harmony all the time ... it describes who God is. He never turns off a few and operates one way and the later flips a few more switches and turns those back on while turning a couple more off.
The list of God's attributes:
- Holiness - Rev. 4:8
- Justice – Dt. 32:4
- Love - 1 Jn. 4:8, 10
- Benevolence - Ps. 145:9
- Mercy - Eph. 2:4
- Grace - Eph. 2:7
- Truth - Jn. 3:33
- Faithfulness - Heb. 10:23
- Omnipresence - Psalm 139:7
- Omnipotent - Mat. 19:26
- Omniscience - Job 34:21
- Immutability - Ps. 102:26-27
- Unity - Dt. 6:4; Jn. 10:30
- Spirituality - Jn. 4:24
- Eternal - Jn. 8:58
- Sovereignty - Rev. 4:11
Lord Bless,
LT
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Grace,
Yes, it is quite awe inspiring, because we are talking about an immense and awesome God :-)
We can try to define the attributes individually, but will never really understand them, as best we can anyway, unless they are viewed in harmony together making up the whole. Otherwise we end up developing a fragmented god who is no God at all ... IMO :-)
BTW, an excellent quote by Ben Mitchell.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Grace,
I would like to add that IMO we tend to get overly focused on the things God does, which are great and magnificent, but we must remember that it is God Himself that we are to be in awe of and in love with :-)
Lord Bless,
LT
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Grace,
This one is a telling one (pun intended). If we really accept this to be true (which it is) and internalize it as children of God (which we should), I wonder how different we would live? If we really lived life knowing that God knows all and sees all, even the things we think are hidden, what things would we erase from our daily life?
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amen, amen, amen.
To love Him more, to know Him more, to experience Him more. Lord let us not just test the water with a toe or knee deep, but that we would come to the point of being fully immersed in you (Eze. 47:1-12 and the river of God that flows from the temple in the vision given to Ezekiel).
Lord Bless,
LT
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I praise the Lord that He is using this in a special way for you and do trust that others will join in. There is something special about looking at the attributes of our God ....
PTL for the "good hunger" and may He continue to draw us to Himself, revealing Himself to us daily as we seek Him.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by Mary O on
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“Can you bind the chains[b] of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt? (Job 38:31 NIV)
God's been around longer than we can fathom and He's a lot smarter than we are. Perhaps it falls under one of the omnis that you mentioned. (9, 10 or 11)
I was thinking we could look at the fruit of the spirit and see God's attributes in there too.
Love,
Mary
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I'm learning how important it is to rightly think of God. I read the Bible, and it has descriptions of God, including actions God takes. I want to make sure that I understand God as God has revealed Himself and not just as I imagine Him to be from the biblical accounts and from the sermons I've heard and from my own life experiences, too. It has been said that if we have wrong ideas about God, we have made a false god and it is idolatry. That's scary for me.
This discussion is important.
I am confused regarding God's attributes. Some have said that hate and wrath are attributes of God, just as well as love and mercy. AW Pink lists 45 attributes of God, including wrath.
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/attributes_online.html
In my past, I have been under the teaching that love and grace don't mean anything without God being a God of hate, judgment, vengeance, and a consuming fire. I have believed these things are who God is.
God is faithful. God will never be untrue to Himself. I'd like to know the descriptions of God that are true of Himself. I don't want to get this wrong.
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It is excellent to think on these things. There are different lists out there. In fact I like A.W. Pink, but have not looked at his list. A key point is to determine what we mean by attribute. For some it relates to the identifiable actions, but I do not think that is really the case. An attribute has more to do with Who God is and not what He does. His actions will flow from Who He is, IMO.
An example, for me hate and wrath are actions that flow from one of His attribute, but is not the attribute itself. We sin and because God is Just, Righteous and Holy His response can be seen as and act of justice that is carried out in wrath.
I will wrap this segment with the following. Look for who He is and not just what He does. When we understand who He is we will better understand what He does. Yet, we must always remember that though we can learn a lot about God we will never know everything regarding Him. Much regarding God will always remain a mystery to us, and that is the way it should be.
In the list I presented above if I were to repost it I would make some adjustments for clarity. Here is the list again:
The list of God's attributes:
- Holiness - Rev. 4:8 - He is Holy
- Justice – Dt. 32:4 - He is Just
- Love - 1 Jn. 4:8, 10 - He is Love
- Benevolence - Ps. 145:9 - He is Benevolence
- Mercy - Eph. 2:4 - He is Mercy
- Grace - Eph. 2:7 - He is Grace
- Truth - Jn. 3:33 - He is Truth
- Faithfulness - Heb. 10:23 - He is Faithful
- Omnipresence - Psalm 139:7
- Omnipotent - Mat. 19:26
- Omniscience - Job 34:21
- Immutability - Ps. 102:26-27
- Unity - Dt. 6:4; Jn. 10:30
- Spirituality - Jn. 4:24
- Eternal - Jn. 8:58
- Sovereignty - Rev. 4:11
Lord Bless,
LT
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If God is always all of His attributes, then, when He shows justice, it isn't His prominent attribute toward that person, but He is also showing love and mercy, etc... all equally? That doesn't make sense. It looks like God moves in and out of emotions, or actions, or something. When God pours out judgment in the OT, all I can see is His indignation. I don't know.
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It does not make sense because I confused the issue by stating it "flows from one attribute (which is technically incorrect)and thus I have led you to an incorrect conclusion where you are trying to segregate the attributes. These are not conditions or segments, but all part of a whole. The actions can be identified as flowing from what we understand, but all His actions are directed by all that He is. Emotion, like action, come from the totality of who He is and is not determined by only one portion or a fraction of who He is. That is the best I can explain it before leaving this morning.
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