God is Love, and God is Holy. The love of God and the holiness of God are not in competition. There is never any tension between them that must somehow be resolved. They do not need to be balanced out, one against the other. There is no “God is Love, but God is also holy.” If at any time we feel the need to add a “but” after the love of God, then we have not yet come to an adequate understanding of the love of God.
To say that God is Love is to speak of the nature of God. Love is not merely incidental to God, not merely a quality God possesses or an action God occasionally employs. God is not merely loving (adjective); God is love (noun). Love is what God is.
The Love and Holiness of God are not two different things but two different ways of speaking about the same thing, for God is simple, not a being of parts. The Holiness of God is nothing more nor less nor other than the Love of God. The Love of God is holy, and the holiness of God is God’s Love. Apart from Love, there is no such thing as Holiness, for God is Love.
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