An attribute of God can be defined as a distinguishing mark of the divine essence. Or simply said, an attribute is a quality or characteristic that is true about God. When the Bible says that "God is love" and "God is merciful," then love and mercy are divine attributes.
Whenever we speak about the character of God, the more common distinction of the attributes of God is divided into two broad categories--"communicable" and "incommunicable" ones. The incommunicable attributes of God, are attributes that have no appearance or shadow of them in His creatures; these are attributes that belong to God alone, such as eternality, immutability, and omnipresence. On the other hand, the communicable attributes are attributes of God that have some semblance in men, such as holiness, goodness, and wisdom. Though some may argue that these communicable attributes are in reality incommunicable, as they are in God, in whom they are infinite, and cannot therefore be communicated to finite creatures, for none but God is essentially, perfectly, and infinitely holy, good and wise.
Importance of Studying God's Attributes
In today's world religions, there are numerous so-called gods and just as numerous opinions about what God or god is like. But the Bible, on the other hand, asserts to be the revelation of the one true and living God.
Studying the attributes of God permits us to have a limited understanding of person of God. Some tend to emphasize some attributes of God, such as the His love, grace and mercy, at the expense of some of His other attributes, which in their view are considered as not so desirable, as if they are blots or stains upon His character, such as His wrath and justice. The result is an unbalanced view of who God is, a god that is not the God revealed in the Bible, and thus unscriptural. Although some concepts surpass the limits of our understanding, our ideas concerning God need to be as true and as biblically sound as possible.
And though God is incomprehensible, that is, He, being infinite, cannot be completely understood by finite beings like us; but He is certainly knowable. We can truly know God from what He has revealed to us about Himself in the Bible. (See my article "Can we know God?")
A saving spiritual knowledge of God is the greatest need of humankind. And the foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a accurate apprehension of His glorious perfections revealed in His Word. An unknown god can neither be served, trusted, nor venerated. If one is to truly profit from the study of the Word, he needs to humbly and sincerely ask God to enlighten him with understanding, to apply His Truth to his conscience and heart, that his life may be transformed accordingly.
We need something more than a theoretical or head knowledge of God, who can only truly be known in our soul only if we yield ourselves to Him, submit to His authority, and regulate all the details of our lives by His holy teachings and commandments. So "Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).
