I

To understand God's righteous disposition, one must first understand God's joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness: what He hates, what He loathes, what He loves, to whom He is tolerant and merciful, and on what type of person He bestows mercy. This is one main point. One must also understand that no matter how much God loves man, no matter how much mercy and love He bestows upon people, God's identity and status do not tolerate offense from any person, nor does His dignity. Even though God loves people, He does not pamper them. He gives people His love, His mercy, and His tolerance, but He never coddles them. God has His principles and His boundaries.

II

Regardless of how much love you feel God has given you, regardless of how deep that love feels to you, you must never treat God as if He were a human being. While it is true that God treats people as His dearest loved ones, if you view God as human, as a human being that is equivalent to a created being, or as a friend or an object of idolization, then God will hide His face from you and forsake you. This is His disposition, and no person is allowed to be careless about this issue. We often see the following words spoken by God about His disposition: It does not matter how much you have traveled, how much work you have done or how much suffering you have endured, if you offend God's disposition, He will get retribution on each of you based on what you have done.

III

When people offend God, it might not be because of one matter or one thing they said, but rather because of an attitude they hold or a state they are in. This is a very frightening thing. Some people believe that they have knowledge of God, that they have some understanding of Him, and that they also satisfy God somewhat with their actions. They begin to feel that they should be equal to God and that they can get overly familiar with God. These types of feelings are terribly wrong. So, you must not forget that, no matter how God treats people nor how He regards people, God's status, authority, and identity do not ever change! For mankind, God's identity is always that of the One who is sovereign of all things—the Creator.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique VII