History Books in 90 Days: 2 Kings 12-14
Unity of the Attributes
Mark 12:29 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. (NIV)
Today we will take a pause from our study of the individual attributes of God to talk about the
consistency of His attributes. None of God’s attributes conflict with each other but all harmonize
and blend into each other. All that God does agrees with all that He is. God cannot act out of
character with Himself. For instance, the Bible teaches that God is love; some have interpreted
this in such a way as virtually to deny that He is just, which the Bible also teaches. Others press
the Biblical doctrine of God’s goodness so far that it is made to contradict His Holiness. Or they
make His compassion cancel out His truth. Still others understand the sovereignty of God in a
way that destroys or diminishes His goodness and love. We can hold a correct view of truth only
by daring to believe everything that God has said about Himself. We cannot and must not edit
out any of God’s attributes or minimize one at the expense of another. There is no conflict among
God’s attributes. Almost every human heresy has arisen from believing things about God that are
not true or from overemphasizing true things about God in a way as to obscure other things that
are equally as true. To magnify one attribute to the exclusion of another is to head into heresy, yet
we are all tempted to do that. That is why it is important that we spend time listening to the Lord,
giving Him permission to look deep into our hearts so that we can see if there are any subtle ways
that we are getting off track. In His goodness, He will show us these things, only as we let Him in.
Then we can move toward having a right view of God.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Ask the Lord to reveal to you if there are any unbalances in your heart when it comes to His
attributes. Do you favour His love over His justice? Or His goodness over His holiness?
2. Ask the Lord if there is any Christian literature that you have been reading or watching that is
leading you to a wrong view of God. Give Him permission to speak to you about these things.
3. Ask the Lord to grow you by shaping your view of Him and giving you a correct view of truth.
Ask Him to protect you from wrong thinking, especially the thinking that comes from our
culture instead of His Word.
