The Integrated Attributes of God
The Integrated Attributes of God
• In previous times we were talking about the “attributes of God,” and about the effectiveness of these attributes in our lives…
And tonight we want to continue our talk and speak about the “integrated attributes of God.”
What does it mean: the integrated attributes of God?
It is dangerous to walk according to one virtue or one attribute only; rather, we must know God from all aspects and through all attributes, so that we may arrive at sound teaching for our lives.
This was brought to my mind by a question sent by one of the listeners, who says: Should a person defend himself, or leave this matter to God?
This person looks at the Lord Christ during the trial and finds Him not defending Himself… many accusations were directed against Him, which He met with silence and did not defend Himself… and as the Scripture says, “As a sheep led to the slaughter, and as a lamb silent before its shearers… so He opened not His mouth…” Does this mean, then, that we should not defend ourselves?
• It is a mistake to take one part of the Holy Bible and leave other parts… For at many times the Lord Christ was accused with accusations, and He would defend Himself and speak the truth. They accused Him of breaking the Sabbath, and He defended Himself and proved that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbaths. And when He was performing miracles and they rebuked Him, He would say: If your donkey falls on the Sabbath, would you not lift it up? … Thus He proved that His action was not wrong.
There were also many discussions that took place between the Jews and the Lord Christ, and He convinced them that His behavior was not wrong.
When His disciples did not wash their hands before eating, He defended them and said: What enters the mouth does not defile a person, but what comes out of the mouth, such as lying and blasphemy, defiles a person; therefore, they are not at fault.
There are situations that require defense, and situations in which defense is not appropriate… and the matter needs discernment:
When is defense appropriate, and when is it not?
• Paul defended himself at times and said: I appeal to Caesar, and ordered that the matter be raised to Caesar. And once he said to them: Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman man who is not condemned? I have Roman citizenship. And when the Roman governor apologized, he did not accept his apology.
So there are situations in which a person may defend himself, and others in which he may not… and the matter needs wisdom and discernment… There are situations that call for a person to speak, and situations that require him not to speak.
It is not correct to see the Lord Christ silent at the time of the crucifixion and say that this is a general rule…
The Lord Christ sometimes rebuked and reproached… Do not take one virtue and leave the rest of the virtues.
The Lord Christ accepted the adulterous woman and did not condemn her for her behavior… “Neither do I condemn you… go in peace.” He also accepted the Samaritan woman, and the sinful woman who wet His feet with her tears, and He ate with tax collectors and sinners… Shall we take from this a general rule?
• The Lord Christ did not rebuke in some situations, and in other situations He did rebuke… He rebuked the Pharisees saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” He said: “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” He also rebuked the priests.
The fault of a person is to take one part and leave the rest of the parts, or to take part of the truth and leave the rest of the truths… We must not walk by one verse, one virtue, or one behavior… What is required is that we take the whole religion… we take the whole Gospel, not one verse.
We must study the whole person of the Lord Christ, not one side of Him or one behavior of His…
We must know when to speak and when to be silent… when to defend ourselves and when not to defend…
We must know when to rebuke and when not to rebuke… when to accept sinners and when to condemn them.
It is a great mistake to look at the truth from one angle only; for this reason many Christians do not understand Christianity as they should.
A person reads about meekness and says that he will live by meekness in his life… and he continues in this way which may cause him to lose firmness, tact, and wisdom in behavior… To be calm and meek is part of the truth… The Lord Christ said: “Be meek and be wise.” And He said: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart.” Yet it happened that He braided a whip and overturned the tables of the money changers, and rebuked the disciples.
• There are behaviors that require firmness, and it is possible for a person to be meek, firm, and humble, and to combine an integrated personality in which all virtues are interconnected.
There are situations in which, if a person is not firm and strict, he loses his Christian life. Take for example Moses the prophet, about whom the Scripture says: He was very meek, more than all the people who were on the face of the earth. This meek and calm Moses, who did not get angry, when he came down from the mountain and found the children of Israel worshiping the golden calf, he took the two tablets and broke them, and he took the calf and crushed it and threw its fragments into the valley, and he rebuked Aaron and rebuked the people… He did not let the matter pass calmly, but acted with firmness and anger… It was holy anger.
Do we say in this behavior that Moses lost his meekness and gentleness at that moment? Not at all… Meekness does not mean that the personality is dead… Meekness is the calm that predominates over the personality… At the time of strength a person is strong, in calmness he is calm, and in situations that require severity a person is severe.
Does meekness mean that a father should not discipline his children? … This is not meekness… it is weakness of character. There is a difference between meekness and weakness of character.
A meek person must be strong in character… The Lord Christ was very meek, and at the same time strong in character… He combined both together.
• It is not right to take one virtue and leave the rest of the virtues… This is not an integrated personality.
Let us come to forgiveness… A person says that the Lord Christ is forgiving… that God is forgiving, pardoning, merciful, tender, and slow to anger… He does not deal with us according to our sins nor reward us according to our iniquities.
Forgiveness is an attribute of God… But does this mean that He does not punish sin? … This is a wrong understanding of our Lord.
If we understand forgiveness in this way, and exaggerate this understanding and say that whoever does not forgive is considered wrong, and that forgiveness must be in everything… If we say this, then perhaps the rights of God and the rights of people will be lost as a result of this understanding of forgiveness.
There are times of punishment… God punished the world with the flood, and punished the people of Sodom with fire, and punished David when he fell into sin… “You shall not build the temple, for your hands are full of blood.” He allowed Elijah to kill the prophets, and He punished the children of Israel with exile, captivity, and dispersion.
God imposed many punishments.
In the New Testament He punished Ananias and Sapphira.
Many verses about punishment are found in the Holy Bible… And we find that Peter, when he hesitated because the Lord Christ was washing his feet, the Lord Christ said to him: “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me,” and in this there is punishment.
Therefore, if we take an idea about the forgiving God, we must also take an idea about the punishing God, and put the two attributes together and come out with a conclusion. A father punishes his son, and the mother says that God is forgiving and merciful… With such an understanding the son becomes corrupt… Such forgiveness is not correct.
• God who forgives… is also the One who punishes… He is the One who established for us in the hereafter reward and punishment, and on earth also reward and punishment… He is the One who punished Adam and Eve, and He still punishes Adam… “In toil you shall eat your bread”… and Eve with childbirth, and the punishment continues until now.
We must understand religion in a sound way… Do not take part and leave the rest… We must not take one virtue and leave the rest of the virtues… and we must not take one attribute of God and leave the rest of the attributes.
A person says that God is love… This is true… God loves people, this is true, and the good Christ takes John to His bosom… But the loving God is also the firm, strong, disciplining God, who loves the person and tests him and disciplines him and allows tribulations and trials.
It does not mean that because God is love there is no firmness and no punishment… This is not a correct understanding of God.
• I want, when we study the attributes of God, to take them all… When we take the life of the Lord Christ in the flesh as a model for us, we must take His whole life, not one situation or one behavior from it.
And when we imitate the saints, we must not take one story or one situation, but take all situations, so that we do not fall into error and misunderstanding of religion.
And when we judge people as well, it is not right to judge them by one verse; rather, we judge by the whole Bible.
For this reason the Scripture says: “Do not judge”… We must judge the whole person, and when we find a person who disciplines and strikes, do not say that this is wrong.
The strong spiritual person is found at one time forgiving and loving, and at another time striking… and at the same time he is loving and merciful and not contradictory in his attributes.
If God remained in complete forgiveness and forgave the strong who oppress the weak, and forgave the unjust who usurp the rights of others, the weak and the oppressed would be lost.
The attributes of God are integrated with one another… and we must not take one attribute from them… If you say that God is merciful, you must also say that He is just… God’s mercy is not separated from His justice, and His justice is not separated from His mercy.
We must take all the attributes… Many people understand forgiveness in a wrong way, and this wrong forgiveness may lead to many errors, so people reach indifference and permissiveness, society is lost, and the Church is lost… And the Scripture says: “Those who sin, rebuke before all, that the rest also may fear.” Shall we delete this verse?
Religion is an integrated life in attributes; a person should not become extreme in one attribute and leave the rest of the attributes, otherwise he is lost.
If a person walked by one verse such as: “Pray always and do not lose heart”… If a person walked by this verse alone, does it mean that he should leave his job? … A person must not take one verse and leave the rest, for whoever takes half the truth loses himself.
For example, there are those who let their hair grow long, saying that the Lord Christ used to have long hair…
The Lord Christ was not adorning Himself, and all people at that time used to have long hair, and also the Lord Christ was a Nazirite to the Lord. It is not right to take part of the truth and leave the rest… In every behavior we must take the whole truth together, to give us a sound understanding, because half-truths are not a single truth.
You must take religion as a whole. A person who becomes extreme in one virtue is lost.
In fasting, for example… A person becomes extreme in fasting and says: In this I imitate the saints… The saints did not say this. Fasting does not mean that you become weak and unable to perform your duty.
Fasting is one virtue… and you must take all virtues together… We hope in our study of all virtues to take them all together, so that we do not take one virtue and leave the rest of the virtues.
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