Sinful housework

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Luke

Please show the chapter and verse where the Bible says God is love itself?

I would present the following texts:

1 John 4:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Why is it that the multitude of places where God refers to Himself as as Holy and where Angels refer to God as Holy and where prophets refer to God as Holy and where the apostles refer to God as Holy and where demons refer to God as Holy that in those places only an attribute is spoken of but in the one place that God is said to be love this must be His nature?

Is the wording different?

What makes something "holy"? Holiness itself. Therefore, while God is holy... we don't read that God is "holiness" itself. However, the Bible tells us that God is love. That's a very absolute statement. Now, if God IS love itself... that's the very essence of His nature. Love.

Does one place specificly say that love is His nature?

God is love. The God who is love is also holy. But He isn't holiness itself. In fact, anything set aside and separated for God's purposes is also holy.

Are you saying that God is not love? If you don't want to believe that God is love... that's entirely up to you.

[Luke]

Originally Posted by Aquila

I would present the following texts:

1 John 4:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

What makes something "holy"? Holiness itself. Therefore, while God is holy... we don't read that God is "holiness" itself. However, the Bible tells us that God is love. That's a very absolute statement. Now, if God IS love itself... that's the very essence of His nature. Love.

God is love. The God who is love is also holy. But He isn't holiness itself. In fact, anything set aside and separated for God's purposes is also holy.

Are you saying that God is not love? If you don't want to believe that God is love... that's entirely up to you.

Lets compare scripture with scripture on this topic.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Gen. 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

Notice in both of these passages God is said to have swore by Himself. This begs the question when God is said to sware by Himself because there He could sware by no great then what exactly did He sware by?

Psalms 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

Amos 4:2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

Notice when God speaks of swaring by Himself; He is refering to swaring by His holiness. Therefore by compareing these scriptures to each other it becomes clear that God equates holiness as defining Himself.

Why did he not sware by love if that is His nature?

Also nowhere in th Bible does it say that God is "love itself" that wording does not exist.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Luke

Lets compare scripture with scripture on this topic.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Gen. 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

Notice in both of these passages God is said to have swore by Himself. This begs the question when God is said to sware by Himself because there He could sware by no great then what exactly did He sware by?

Psalms 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

Amos 4:2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

Notice when God speaks of swaring by Himself; He is refering to swaring by His holiness. Therefore by compareing these scriptures to each other it becomes clear that God equates holiness as defining Himself.

Why did he not sware by love if that is His nature?

Also nowhere in th Bible does it say that God is "love itself" that wording does not exist.

God swore by His holiness, as one would a virtue or attribute that they possess.

Are you saying that God is not love?

[Luke]

Originally Posted by Aquila

God swore by His holiness, as one would a virtue or attribute that they possess.

Are you saying that God is not love?

Love is not God's nature that is what i am saying. One of His divine attributes is love just as one of His attributes is grace or mercy or justice. His nature is Holy.

Look at these passages again.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Gen. 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

Notice in both of these passages God is said to have swore by Himself. This begs the question when God is said to sware by Himself because there He could sware by no great then what exactly did He sware by?

Psalms 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

Amos 4:2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

Notice when God speaks of swaring by Himself; He is refering to swaring by His holiness. Therefore by compareing these scriptures to each other it becomes clear that God equates holiness as defining Himself.

Why did he not sware by love if that is His nature?

Notice in the first two passages God is said to have sworn by Himself. In the next two we are told what He swore by "His HOLINESS". Therefore when God said what He was He did not say love but rather holy and holiness.

IT is also interesting that in the hebrews 6 passage it states that "He could sware by no greater" He swore by Himself and as we are shown it was by His holiness that He swore therefore there is no denying the fact as it relates to God holiness is greater than love otherwise He would have either swore by His love or He would not have said that He could not have swore by any greater.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Luke

Love is not God's nature that is what i am saying. One of His divine attributes is love just as one of His attributes is grace or mercy or justice. His nature is Holy.

Look at these passages again.

Hebrews 6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,

Gen. 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

Notice in both of these passages God is said to have swore by Himself. This begs the question when God is said to sware by Himself because there He could sware by no great then what exactly did He sware by?

Psalms 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.

Amos 4:2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.

Notice when God speaks of swaring by Himself; He is refering to swaring by His holiness. Therefore by compareing these scriptures to each other it becomes clear that God equates holiness as defining Himself.

Why did he not sware by love if that is His nature?

Notice in the first two passages God is said to have sworn by Himself. In the next two we are told what He swore by "His HOLINESS". Therefore when God said what He was He did not say love but rather holy and holiness.

IT is also interesting that in the hebrews 6 passage it states that "He could sware by no greater" He swore by Himself and as we are shown it was by His holiness that He swore therefore there is no denying the fact as it relates to God holiness is greater than love otherwise He would have either swore by His love or He would not have said that He could not have swore by any greater.

God, being love, desired to swear by His holiness. If God weren't love... He'd not even care to do so. Who is man that God would even concern Himself with us? It is because... God is love. The God who is love, swore by His holiness.

I believe that God is holy because love is holy... and God is love.

God desires that we be holy as He is holy. Thus we are to love. Love Him. And show our love for Him by loving others as ourselves. When the very love of God is flowing in our lives... we enter a realm of spirituality that supersedes all religiosity.

And from this vantage point we begin to realize what it means that God is jealous... what it means that God hates sin... and what it means that God hates the wicked. We begin to realize that what some believe to be God's darker attributes emanate from the reality that He is love itself.

Luke... are you saying that God is not love?