The Danger of the Narrow Study of God

The church has long taught only one part of God’s nature, tending to play it safe and not offend anyone. To often have pastors and Sunday school teachers taught about love, grace, and forgiveness, ignoring the God of perfect justice, anger, and full of righteous wrath; One that is not afraid to punish those who deserve it, and a God so powerful that if he were even to think it, he could demolish every being he ever created in an instant.
We seem to have forgotten the God of the Old Testament, only dwelling on the seemingly more loving and ‘cuddly’ God of the New Testament. Some people in the church have gotten things so twisted they say, “I can do anything I want, God loves me and is gracious, so he’ll forgive me every time I sin.” Basically they’re saying that grace is the allowance to keep on sinning. This is egregious theology (to put it lightly). But when you look at the way most of us approach and think about God, this Christianity- shattering belief makes sense. The absence of the teaching of God’s full character (as well as humanly possible) is handicapping the growth of Christianity.

Before I begin my argumentation, I’d like to investigate how we got to this unhealthy fixation on the loving side of God’s nature. I’ve already expounded on the point of how it is used to justify sin, but I think there are a couple more reasons we do this. The first reason being we as humans don’t like mysteries. God being perfectly just is a huge mystery to humans. How can a perfect God send people to Hades? We don’t like to think about God’s justice; it just doesn’t seem to make sense.
Another reason we focus exclusively on God’s justice is because the way we think about Jesus is only through the lens of love, advantageously skimming over the passages were Jesus displays his perfect anger and wrath. We’re too busy admiring His miracles to look at when he cleansed the temple and committed other deeds out of perfect wrath. Having adequately shown how and why we slip into this improper and unhealthy view of God, I will now show how and why we need to look at all of God’s attributes.
First, I would like to show why we need to see God in his fullness. The first reason is because it alters our lifestyle. If we don’t see God in his perfect justice, it leads to a point were we live in complacency, content with our sorry excuse for a spiritual life. If we don’t believe God will implement justice, why should we live according to his laws? If we believe that God doesn’t implement his justice, then a parent also would not need to punish their children. If a parent is to punish their children as God punishes his children, and God does not implement justice, than a parent should not punish their children either. We must see God in his perfect justice in order to live a just and holy lifestyle. We must also see God’s attributes correctly if we are to impart a healthy lifestyle to our children.
Second, it hinders our worship. How can we grow in our worship if we only praise half of God’s attributes? Another reason this hinders our worship is because it eliminates a good deal of mystery in Christianity. We need mystery in worship for it to be complete. If there is no mystery in Christianity then we know as much as God. If we know as much as God, then he is no longer God, and we cannot worship him. So for us to worship him completely we need mystery. Mystery should not scare us; rather, it should encourage us.
In summary, we need to study God in his full character because;
-It will guard our mind from vain philosophies and their subsequent ill effects
-It will influence our actions for the better
-It will improve our worship



A few passages showing God’s perfect justice, perfect wrath, and anger
Deuteronomy 27:19
Job 34:12
Job 34:17
Job 37:23
Job 40:8
Psalm 9:8
Psalm 9:16
Psalm 11:7
Psalm 33:5
Psalm 45:6
Psalm 72:1
Psalm 89:14
Psalm 97:2
Psalm 99:4
Psalm 103:6
Psalm 140:12

There are many more passages that clearly show and proclaim God’s justice.