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God Is Love 15


Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. (Psalm 22:3) 

“God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 202)

          Today’s God is love parallel is likely to raise form ire from some, who will pronounce that a person whose focus is holiness are self-righteous and have a “holier than thou” attitude. In my experience, most of those pronouncements are made by someone looking down their nose and declaring themselves holy and righteous in the process. Holiness seems to be seen as a negative thing, by those who stand separate from it and glare down on it. 
         The interesting thing is that it is sin that separates. Holiness tends to be seen as moving away from sin, but does God flee from sin? Does He move away from it, or run away from it? He tells us to flee from sin and immorality, but does He? When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, did God move away from them? It seems to me that He walked in the garden and called to them. They hide from Him.
         In Job, Satan is described as showing up in heaven. God doesn’t throw him out, and doesn’t treat him badly – but He does confront him with a challenge. I think it’s pretty clear that Satan has rejected God more than God has rejected Satan. The whole of the Bible is focused on humanity’s unwillingness to separate from sin, and our insistence on separating from God – our insistence that our relationship with Him must be according to our rules, not His.  
          Another issue that people may have with the definition is the idea that God is devoted to seeking His own honor. If God is truly honorable, and worthy of honor (which is the same thing) then seeking His own honor is nothing but telling the truth about Himself. How can we find fault with that?
          However, our discussion is not so much about God as it is about love, and the fact that God is love. So, is love holy? Should love be holy, or separate from sin? Love seeks what is in the best interest of the beloved. Sin separates. Sin may involve what the beloved wants, and what he/she may see as in his/her best interest, but because sin separates, it is never actually in the beloved’s best interest. Those who sin separate themselves from the ones who love them and/or from their community and from God. Yes, love is holy.
         But is love devoted to its own honor? Love remains love even when people try to water it down to something less. If love is seeking what is in the best interest of the beloved, then love is honorable, and if it is honorable, then it is worth of that honor. I believe that love is devoted to its own honor, because anything less would mean it is not love – but, very likely, lust instead.

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