What is God's highest virtue?

[Greektim]

This is in response to another thread that started to get derailed.

I asserted that God is for God before he is for anyone or anything else. He loves his glory more than you or me.

Thus his greatest virtue is his self-glorification.

I'm sure we'll get into the ethics behind that ("love seeks not its own"), but there is a great logic to it as well. If God glorified something higher than himself, and that thing is less worthy than God, then God would be an idolater.

Ps 23 is a good demonstration of this. God does all that awesome stuff "for his name's sake." God blesses us for the sake of his name. That is throughout the OT.

Why does God create us? For his glory (Isa. 43:7)

Why does God save us? God performs salvation for His own sake. He justifies the people called by His name in order that He may be glorified. (Exo. 36:22—23, 32)

Why did God rescue the Israelites from Egypt the way he did? So that his name would be proclaimed. (Exo. 9:16)

Why did God not destroy Israel time after time when they disobeyed him? For his name sake and his fame amongst the nations. (Ezek. 20:14)

 

[SolaSaint]

Never thought about it that way. Good observation.

 

[Aaron]

There is no highest virtue with God. He is virtue.

 

[convicted1]

When God saves us, He gets the glory.

When we do what He commands us to do, through the Spirit, He gets the glory.

When He receives us into heaven, He gets the glory.

When we shout praises unto Him throughout eternity, He gets the glory.

It's all about Him, and not about us.

 

[Greektim]

There is no highest virtue with God. He is virtue.

That sounds like a tautology. If God is righteous, then he exhibits virtues. What is his highest?

 

[Aaron]

To judge God or to evaluate His virtues requires a standard outside of God Himself. And there is nothing that exists outside of God. In Him we live and move and have our being.

He is. It's as He said, "I am."

 

[Greektim]

To judge God or to evaluate His virtues requires a standard outside of God Himself. And there is nothing that exists outside of God. In Him we live and move and have our being.

He is. It's as He said, "I am."

Then what is the point of revelation??? If we see a common pattern, a common theme, then we don't have to throw around ontological concepts as if that holds up to a moral/ethical issue.

I find it interesting that you can evaluate God ontologically, but somehow you can't evaluate him morally. However, your "I am" evaluation was based on God's revelation. Why not also morally or his virtue???

Don't be afraid to think about the deeper things of God. That's the point of revelation.

 

[preachinjesus]

If by virtue we mean any good characteristic, I'd say God being a necessary being is his highest virtue. Qualifies all the rest.

 

[JonC]

This is in response to another thread that started to get derailed.

I asserted that God is for God before he is for anyone or anything else. He loves his glory more than you or me.

Thus his greatest virtue is his self-glorification.

Initially I was going to respond that God is God, the measure and standard of all virtue…but then I realized that this concludes in glorification as well.

It appears that all of God’s relational virtues (love, mercy, justice, wrath, etc) are outpourings of His own glorification. God reveals Himself to man, but He acts in and for His own glory.

 

[Greektim]

Initially I was going to respond that God is God, the measure and standard of all virtue…but then I realized that this concludes in glorification as well.

It appears that all of God’s relational virtues (love, mercy, justice, wrath, etc) are outpourings of His own glorification. God reveals Himself to man, but He acts in and for His own glory.

Well said... and not just b/c we are in agreement

 

[Greektim]

If by virtue we mean any good characteristic, I'd say God being a necessary being is his highest virtue. Qualifies all the rest.

I think I can discredit that w/ this concept...

to what end is God a necessary being? Only a creation makes him necessary. So to what end is he a necessary being, and to what end does he create?

Apply that question "to what end" and ultimately you will get to the root: God's glorification.

 

[Jerome]

Thomas Goodwin (Westminster Divine):

"All the attributes in God are subjected to his love, and that is the great prevailing attribute that sways all."

http://books.google.com/books?id=JaEGqIX9JBUC&pg=PA152

 

[go2church]

I would say love

 

[Revmitchell]

I would say that to answer the question int he op is way above our paygrade. And any answer given is nothing more than personal preference. Scripture does not speak to this.

 

[Aaron]

Then what is the point of revelation???

To know God and to know ourselves.

I find it interesting that you can evaluate God ontologically, but somehow you can't evaluate him morally.

By what standard to you judge God? Himself. You seem to have a concept of the moral law as if it is a self-existing, measurement independent of God. It isn't. And if God were other than He is, the moral law we know could not exist and we could not know it. There is no "higher" or "lower" this or that in God. The moral judgment is the judgment He pronounced. The LORD is good.

And because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself.

If God, in whom all things—ALL things—exist, could lie, then any lie He told would be just and good and true.

However, your "I am" evaluation was based on God's revelation.

If I say a man has blonde hair, that is not an evaluation. If I say, God is, that is not an evaluation.

Why not also morally or his virtue???

I did. I said God is love. God is true. But you're asking us to compare His virtues, as if there are ranks in them, or if one virtue is possessed more than another as they are in men.

That cannot be done. Who is the greater Person in the Trinity?

Don't be afraid to think about the deeper things of God. That's the point of revelation.

PUh-leeze.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I would say that to answer the question int he op is way above our paygrade. And any answer given is nothing more than personal preference. Scripture does not speak to this.

Here's another one I need a "Like" button for ...

We can safely and very nearly unequivocally say that our greatest virtue is Love. We don't know enough about God to be able to say what His greatest virtue is, given we only know Him in relationship to our most desperate need.

 

[Deacon]

God gives his highest virtue when he calls himself "I am".
His greatest virtue is that he is himself and there is no other like him.
He is separate from all others - we call this holiness.

Glory flows freely from the virtue of holiness.

Rob

PS GreekTim.:
Have you been reading "Desiring God" recently?
I thought I saw a change in your signature line recently.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

God gives his highest virtue when he calls himself "I am".
His greatest virtue is that he is himself and there is no other like him.
He is separate from all others - we call this holiness.

Without offering offense, I have to say that is not His virtue. That's who He is. Those are, by definition, necessarily different. He is God, and there is no other, without doubt. But there are multiple virtues, characteristics, and nuances in His nature. The OP asks which of those is His greatest.

 

[quantumfaith]

I would say love

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:

 

[quantumfaith]

God gives his highest virtue when he calls himself "I am".
His greatest virtue is that he is himself and there is no other like him.
He is separate from all others - we call this holiness.

Glory flows freely from the virtue of holiness.

:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs: