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God is Lovingly Holy

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.1 ... As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”2

God's attribute of love does not override his attribute of holiness. This is a true statement but as such it is also true that God's attribute of holiness does not override his attribute of love. This is proven in scripture. God is love.3 God is holy.4 If God is love and God is holy then to be holy is to love. Love sums up the law and the prophets, as holiness is love. If we do not love we know not God, so knowing God is love. Following the commandments without love produces legalists, Pharisaical followers who know not God, nor his love, to them it is not about relationship. On the opposite end, people who try to love without following his commandments do not understand that His love perfects in holiness. In love we are saved, justified. In love we are perfected, sanctified. In love we will spend an eternity with Him. 

God is so holy it is his name, the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.5 And what does God require of you mere man? to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?6 Yes it is not just about following the law, holiness is also in acts of love; humility, kindness, contrite heart, this is being poor in spirit, blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.7 God produces love in us, as it is an attribute of him, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness...8 Love perfects us into being holy, loving is holiness, love is God, God is holy.

God is without sin, we are born into sin, thus God loved us and provided a way for us to be righteous. We are born again in our spirit, he saved us from sin and death, he gives us everlasting life, this is love. Knowing God is loving Him for this. And Jesus compares knowing God to loving the least of these, if you do unto these you do it unto him, this is love that he was manifested among us, so we can have confidence on the day of judgement that we loved as he loved. Mere knowledge of God without a heart that expresses love is not knowing God in the sense of eternal life and relationship. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.9 One can not separate loving others, loving God, from knowing him, this is where legalism fails. The law will never make a person righteous and following the law without love is not following God at all.

Holiness is an outward expression of an inward relationship. Goodness is what leads to God, It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.9 It was love that saved us, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.10 So how do we become holy? The greatest commandment is not to be holy but to love God with all the heart, mind, soul, and might. We are made righteous and holy in the love of Christ. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love...11 So holiness is in Christ, as is righteousness, Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,12 God sees our born again spirit, hidden in Christ, holy and without blame.

God helps us to work out our salvation through a loving and trusting relationship. Because we have this relationship, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.13 We are to conform to his principles, his image. Obedience is perfected in love, whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.14 The parable of the father with two sons expresses this, father and son relationship. Also the good shepherd, the sheep are raised to know the voice of the shepherd, and will follow him whom they trust, not the voice of a stranger.
In Ephesians 3:19 Paul prays for us to know the love of God which passes knowledge. How can we know the love of God if it passes knowledge? This sounds like a contradiction. The Greek word that is translated "know" in this verse is GINOSKO, which is a verb expressing experiential knowledge. The Greek word that is translated "knowledge" is GNOSIS, which is a noun denoting the act of knowledge. Simply, Paul is praying that we will experience the love of God which passes mere knowledge of it.14
Love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.15 We love because we know him, we love because he first loved us.16 It is a knowing relationship and through this knowing, He loves through us, In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.17 Abiding in Him is abiding in love, So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.18 A child with a loving relationship with their father will want to please him.

The love of God is forgiving, and not judging against a brother. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.21 God's love bears, it builds up, it does not tear down, it builds up his Church. Love believes in you, it would lay down its life for you. It hopes for you, even when you do not. It endures all things, for you. God's love is powerful, it is eternal. Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.23 But if we say we know God and love not his children then we are liars and cannot love God.20 For God is love.

 Love conforms us to His image and holiness. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.19 God doesn't give us a spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind. If there is no spirit of fear from God, then a spirit that produces such, condemnation, hatred, division, and confusion is not of God. We can discern, test the spirits, by how they love. If God is love then His Spirit operates in love. God is not in the thundering from a mountain; nor in the great and strong winded, nor in rumblings, nor smoke and lights, no God is in the still small voice.24

 God is in the still small voice of his word, his character, who he is, his goodness. It is the voice of a loving Abba, Father. And we know this through His spirit which lives in us, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you...25 By the Spirit he seals us,26 and assures us, By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.27 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.28 Who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil? The one who does not have the Spirit of God, holy and loving, whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.29 Understanding the love of God is to understand who he is.

 We come to him because of his great love. We are justified through this Grace. We are made righteous and holy in him in our born again spirit, but we must work out this salvation. We build a foundation with Jesus the cornerstone, we grow our roots deep in his love, we abide in him like a tree planted by living waters, who bears fruit in season. His love builds a strong foundation of trust in him, that can not be shakened. We want to be like him because of our love for our Abba Father. But we must know who we are in him, transformed by the renewing of our minds. Having the mind of Christ allows us to walk in the spirit which reflects his love.

 At the last supper Jesus, after washing the disciples feet and telling them he had given them an example, gives them a new commandment to love one another as he has loved them. By this love, Jesus said the world will know you are my disciples. Not by how good you are at following the commandments, how knowledgeable you are of scripture, not by your fasting, by how much you tithe nor how much you give to the poor, not by your denominational association, your church attendance, nor by your works, but by how you love one another. Jesus also prayed that we would be as one, by such the world will know Jesus is from God.

 Judgement starts in the house of God, not in the world. If we call ourselves followers of Jesus and do not love we make God a liar. It is his greatest commandment to love him with all things and to love others, as such this sums up the law and prophets because he is love and holy, Lovingly Holy. As such so should be his Church, it is the greatest evangelistic tool we have.

 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.29


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