When I come across a dichotomy, especially when it has to do with faith, I start this process of struggle.
The struggle is always the same. I know in my mind that the two branches of the dichotomy are both true. Somehow, I need to reconcile them together, or it will always be a gray area of my faith.
For example, the dichotomy of God as a loving God, and God is a Just God.
When I was growing up, and am sure for many people, our first concept of God and what God was like came from our parents.
My mom and dad spend time talking about God. In church when I heard the words "father in Heaven" I immediately pictured God as a father.
My dad had times when he was a very loving dad. I remember the times when he helped launch model rockets with my brother and I. There were times when we went on canoeing expeditions. They were times when we did acrobatics, balancing on his legs, or spun around by our arms and legs in an "airplane" ride. There were times when my brother and I would roughhouse when he was sitting on the La-Z-Boy. We would crawl over him and he would try to push us off and we had a great time. Or at least my brother and I had a great time.
My dad was also just. I mowed a neighbor's yard for 5 dollars, but it had to be done at a particular time. The only time I would get off mowing his lawn as if it was raining outside. One time I got back from summer camp and I was going through a lot of emotional turmoil, because I had a crush on one of the female counselors that was there. I remember feeling this huge vacuum, this huge hole. The last thing I wanted to do the next day was to mow this yard.. My mom was very sympathetic, and understood and didn't mind me skipping that week. My dad, on the other hand, said I had responsibilities. But no matter how I was feeling or what I was going through, I had made a pledge and a promise and had to follow through with them.
In that sense, my dad taught me that Just behavior was less about balancing the scales of justice, and more about keeping your pledges and promises and obligations. And not so much obligations for the fact that your reputation was something that was hard to get easy to lose and yet extremely important to have. Rather, keeping obligations and promises were important because of how you felt about yourself.
I ranted and raved about mowing that day. I thought my dad was being totally unreasonable. And yet, I went out in mode. And when I got back I could look in the near, and I even remember it today, that I had not let my customer down, nor myself.
Proverbs, in the Bible, states it very well. It says there is a time for love, and a time for work. In that same sense, there is a God of love, and the God of just behavior. The God of love, encourages us,... help, and holds us in God's eternal love, and reminds us always that we are part of him, part of his wonderful creation. The God of justice, or just behavior, is not a God of the scales of justice; rather a God of just actions.
So for me, the dichotomy of a God of love, and a God of justice, is not really a dichotomy. As God loves me, wants the best for me, wants to build me up, wants me to see in me the person I wish to be, God knows that it takes not only acts of love but behavior which seeks to be fair to all, to honor yourself and your obligations, to have your "yes" be yes, and you're "no" a no.
A just God, for me, is one who celebrates when I stand fast to behavior which promotes peace, promote understanding, gives the benefit of the doubt, fulfills my word, and his, and always seeks after the justice which brings people together.
One other thing about justice, is that it is not a response to those things which are unjust. It is rather a pattern of behavior, from this point onward, which seeks to honor the greatness, the truth, the love, and God in everyone around you.
God is not a vengeful God, but God is just.
God is a just God, and in that way.fulfills his role as a loving God.
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