God is Loving, God is Just

How do these two terms that describe God compare, contrast, and resolve themselves?

Let’s first define love. The closest definition that we as humans can accept as Godly and not tainted by human understanding is found in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Love: “a feeling of strong or constant regard for and dedication to someone”

I believe God’s love is more than a feeling, but we as humans don’t possess a word to describe God’s love deeper and more passionate than a “feeling.” Remember, God’s love for us cost the sacrifice of His one and only Son. That demonstration of love is more than a fleeting feeling, it was simultaneously a show of justice.

The definition for just and justice are intertwined:

Justice: “the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity”

Just: “conforming to a standard of correctness”

Comparison

• Love and Justice both are rooted in ethical and moral foundations over concerns for others.
• Each guides how we treat people and shape society.
• Love and Justice are universal ideals upheld across cultures and religions.
• Each can inspire meaningful action and social change.

Contrast

• Love can motivate justice to be compassionate.
• Justice can help love be wise and not enabling.
• Pure love may seem to overlook fairness, while pure justice may seem harsh without love.

Ideally, true justice should be loving, and true love should seek what is just.

God’s character of being absolutely loving and absolutely just is unlike any of us humans. We can’t fathom an absolute character that does not waiver, cannot be bribed, and cannot act outside of His nature.

God’s love draws, pursues, protects without ulterior motives of receiving something in return. Of course God wants us to love him, but John 3:16 states, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) will have eternal life.”

God loved humanity because we are created in His image. He doesn’t love us because we did any right behavior. God loved us because we are His children created in His image.

His love for us is eternal, but our choice to acknowledge our need for a personal relationship changes our lives from just existing to a life with greater purpose than we can imagine.

God’s justice does not tolerate evil within His presence. Therefore, while God ultimately loves every human on earth, we do not have full benefit of His fatherly love until we say yes, “We’re all in.”

If we have reservations about being all in, we live outside God’s perfect plan that He created for us and knew about us before the creation of the world.

For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)

“For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,” says the LORD, “plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP)

God is fully LOVE and fully JUST. This is a concept that we as humans cannot conceive. God’s character, His nature is fully EVERY aspect that is attached to His name. Because of this fullness of His being, we can trust that He will not wield love or justice in a manner that would harm us, belittle us, or cause us to lose the special identity that He has placed inside of us that is uniquely us.

Run to Father God and allow His love to embrace and rescue you from the just separation and punishment sentence of a life lived outside of His Mercy and Grace. He is lovingly waiting to embrace you in His presence.