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Last updated: July 29, 2025 at 5:05 am
Peoples and cultures around the world have varying ideas and beliefs of God, His qualities and personality.
Theology is the study of God, His nature and attributes and His relationship with man and the universe.
Theology is not necessarily restricted to one particular religion or religious book. However, in highlighting the following qualities of God, this article holds the bible as a source of divine truth.
Who is God? Does He have a personality? And if so, what is His personality? We can look to the bible for answers. Here are some clues to God’s personality according to the bible.
God gets angry. (The wrath of God)
God can be reasoned with – various biblical personalities reasoned with God to change His mind about certain judgments.
God gets sorry or repentant for doing certain things – as in the case of the flood of Noah where the bible says that God “repented” for having created man.
God changes His mind – as in the case of what happened after God flooded the earth – He promised never to destroy the earth again.
God can break promises if He sees it fit – as in the case of Moses and the promised land.
God has a sense of humor – He laughs – as in the book of Psalms, “The Lord shall have them in derision…. He who sits on the throne of heaven shall laugh….” (Paraphrased). Caution: The author is not sure if this scripture should be taken literally or just figuratively.
God gets sad and cries sometimes – Jesus wept.
God can be pleaded with.
God gets jealous, as is mentioned in the Ten Commandments.
God’s anger lasts only a little while, but His mercies endure forever.
The bible also illustrates that God is a generous giver of all good things – especially to those who ask, that He is slow to anger and abundant in mercies.
God can Overlook Serious Sins
God not only forgives sins, He sometimes excuses them if He sees fit. For example, Paul said that, before the advent of Christ, God had “blinked” at idol worshipping because He knew people didn’t know better. But now that the gospel and “light” has come into the world, idol worshipping will now carry harsher penalties.
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17: 29-31)
In the Book of Psalms, David writes that God looks on those who love Him as a Father looks at a son.
God is Intelligent and Compassionate
God is not a mindless universal force which grants all our wishes blindly, as some philosophers, especially those of the New Thought Movement, suggest. Rather, He is a caring father, intelligent being human comprehension, and, through His mercy, can refuse to answer our prayers for our own good. This is illustrated in the story prophet Elijah. Fleeing Jezebel, Elijah felt exhausted of life’s trials and prayed for God take his life. God refuses to answer Elijah’s prayer, even though the Bible says that “the prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Instead, God sent His angels to bring food and water for Elijah, and He gave Elijah a new reason to live.
As you can see, God has pretty much a personality like any human being. He embodies most, if not all, human emotions. I guess that is what is partly meant when the bible says “God made man in His own image and likeness.”
Peoples and cultures around the world have varying ideas and beliefs of God, His qualities and personality.
