holiness v. love

It's popular to latch onto God's true nature of being love - and I love that. But as with so many other truths, this is often perverted, misunderstood, miscommunicated, and misapplied.

R.C. Sproul wrote in The Holiness of God:

Only once in sacred Scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic of God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love; or mercy, mercy, mercy; or wrath, wrath, wrath; or justice, justice, justice. It does say that he is holy, holy, holy that the whole earth is full of His glory.

Melinda at Stand To Reason Blog has this to say:

R.C. Sproul made an interesting observation on a recent podcast about Isaiah 6:3.

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,

"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory."

Emphasis is sometimes indicated in language by repetition. For instance, when Jesus emphasized something He began with "Truly, truly I say to you."

In this passage in which Isaiah has a vision of the angels worshiping God in Heaven, it is the only time one of God's attributes is repeated - not just twice, but three times. God's holiness is the only aspect of God's nature to be emphasized in this way in the Bible.

Now, it would be improper to stretch this too much to raise one attribute of God over others, but it is should highlight to us how awesomely holy God is and worthy of respect and honor. Far, far, far above anything or anyone else.

It's also an interesting observation against the common tendency of some people to emphasize God's love above all of God's other attributes. "God is love" seems to be a favorite verse some like to isolate from the Bible as if it's the only attribute of God's. It's sometimes used alone as a refutation against arguments for punishment for sin. But it's not God's attribute of love that is repeated three times, but God's holiness.

"Holy, holy, holy" is the anthem the angels sing to worship God before His throne. We can join them now because He is worthy to be worshiped and respected.