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God is love, and God is just

"God is love and He knows my heart" is true, but it's only half of what God revealed about Himself.

Many people rest on two true statements: "Elohim is love" 1 John 4:8 and "God knows my heart." From there they conclude that everything will be fine, whatever they believe or do. But Scripture never presents God's love without His justice.

Both in the same breath

When God proclaimed His name to Moses, He said both: "Yahweh, Yahweh, El compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and faithfulness, keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means hold the guilty guiltless" Exodus 34:6-7.

  • "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before Your face" Psalm 89:14.
  • "See, then, the kindness and severity of Elohim" Romans 11:22.
  • Those who overcome sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb: "Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!" Revelation 15:3.

"God knows my heart"

He does, and that is exactly the warning. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can know it? I, Yahweh, search the heart, I test the kidneys, to give each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds" Jeremiah 17:9-10. He knows our hearts better than we do, and He looks at what our lives produce. "So then, by their fruits you will know them" Matthew 7:20.

Love and obedience go together

  • "For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome" 1 John 5:3.
  • "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" Matthew 7:21 My truth or God's truth?.
  • "Do not be deceived: Elohim is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" Galatians 6:7.
  • God "now commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness" Acts 17:30-31.
  • "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Elohim" Hebrews 10:31.

Good news, not fear

God's justice is why the cross was needed. He didn't overlook sin; He paid for it, "that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Yeshua" Romans 3:26. His love doesn't cancel His justice; it satisfied it. Because He is just, His promises are sure. Because He loves us, He tells us the truth while there is still time to turn. "The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance" 2 Peter 3:9.

Related studies

  • Grace and obedience: We are saved by grace through faith, not by keeping commandments. And the saved keep God's commandments because they love Him.
  • My truth or God's truth?: What we believe doesn't change what God established. Sincere isn't the same as right, so it's worth testing what we believe against His word.
  • Did God wait 2000 years?: A theologian once asked: did God let us build a distorted doctrine for 2000 years, and now His grace isn't enough? Scripture answers both parts of the question.

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