If someone says “John is nice” or “Susan is good” they are communicating something more than the fact that John does nice things, or Susan performs good acts. To possess “niceness” and “goodness” is to be defined by those characteristics. They are part of who we are.

When thinking of the attributes of God, theologians compile lists such as God is holy, loving, good, wise, all knowing, etc. Each of these represents something about God’s character.  It is not enough to say “God is holy” or “God is loving”, for He does not just possess holiness or love. Holiness and love are essential aspects of His being. Take away any of His characteristics and God ceases to be God.

It’s dangerous to think of God in terms of His attributes, for to do so is to risk creating an idol. A.W. Tozer wrote “when we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that which is not God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God” (Knowledge of the Holy page 16).

How then should we think of God?  We must think of Him in terms with which we are familiar, but we must not limit Him by those terms. God is righteous, and all of us have an idea of what makes up “righteousness.” However, none of us adequately understand all the intricacies of that or any other attribute.  At best, we are men looking at a mountain range through a telescope.  We can see some of its splendor but we’re not close enough to it to really appreciate its majesty. Tozer also wrote “man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.  Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God” (page 9).

To know, and correctly appreciate the attributes of God is to better understand who and what God is like.  It is also an essential way for our worship of God to become purer.