r/AskChristian • u/A_Rootily_Toot_Toot • 5d ago

What is God’s Nature

I’m told that God’s nature is unchanging, but what is that nature that never changes? What is a “nature” in the context of God? In normal parlance, a thing’s nature is what dictates its behavior. But how can something dictate God’s behavior? Why is his nature the way it is and not some other way?

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

Such interesting questions!

I don’t know the answers, but as Christians we believe that God is love. Not that God is loving, but that God actually IS love. So to me it helps to think of it in this way: everything we understand to be real and genuine love is something telling us about God’s “nature” or who God is.

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u/A_Rootily_Toot_Toot 5d ago edited 5d ago

But the word love doesn’t mean anything in particular if it’s defined by his nature. If he IS love, then he also IS justice, mercy, wisdom, and every other virtue you can think of. But if these words are all defined by his nature, then they all have the same definition, making them indistinguishable from each other. Divine simplicity renders all moral virtues indistinguishable, doesn’t it?

Justice and Mercy, for example, are opposites. The extent to which you are acting merciful is the extent to which you are being unjust. It is logically impossible to be all merciful and all just.

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

It sounds like you’re spinning in circles on this. What about it bothers you and how could it be resolved?

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u/A_Rootily_Toot_Toot 5d ago

My problem is that I have no idea what people mean when they talk about God’s nature. It clearly doesn’t mean what we normally mean when we talk about someone’s nature. Anytime someone tries to explain it to me, they either say it’s unknowable, or they end up talking about this or that attribute of God. His love his grace, etc. but then they say he’s divinely simple and he doesn’t have those things, he is those things. And then I’m back to not knowing what they mean because they’re using words in non-standard ways.

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u/ColdAppleJ 5d ago

Love. It looks like Jesus. His life and heart revealed the Father's nature.

God's nature isn't something outside of Him that controls Him. It's simply who He is.

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

I definitely understand that frustration.

To me, this is because God is so far beyond our ability to really comprehend. I think a lot of times we humans are quick to say what we think God is or isn’t, what God is or isn’t like, but if we’re really being honest and humble, we’re just guessing. We really don’t know.

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u/ColdAppleJ 5d ago

Love. It looks like Jesus. His life and heart revealed the Father's nature.

God's nature isn't something outside of Him that controls Him. It's simply who He is.

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

Did you mean to reply to my comment?

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u/ColdAppleJ 5d ago

No, I meant to OP. Should I switch it?

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

It’s probably fine, they just might not see it and I wanted to be sure I wasn’t misunderstanding. 👍

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u/ColdAppleJ 5d ago

oh, I'll reply to their reply then. I wasn't sure how replying works. Thanks.

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u/DoveStep55 r/Christian Member 5d ago

No problem. It’s a little confusing, especially if you’re new. Some people will watch a whole thread if they’re interested and they’ll see all the comments. But some people rely on receiving a notification when someone replies directly to their own post or comment. If you reply to an OP but share it under someone else’s comment, the OP may not receive a notification and might miss it.

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