God is not all light, and not all love, but both light and love. Were He all light, there would be no hope for sinful man; were He all love, there would not be hatred in Him of sin.
The infidelity of our day, which prevails among professing Christians, attacks God’s very nature, for it practically denies that He is light. It refuses the scripture truth, “In Him is no darkness at all,” and asserts that though a man lives a bad life and dies in his sins, yet he may hope for mercy in God in the future, because of God’s love. Since God is love, says the gospel of the false hope, we may all hope to be saved, simply because God is love.
The wrong against the nature of God which prevailed in former days, among both pagans and the Roman Catholic church, practically denied that God is love. It pictured Him as an angry Being, whose severity had to be overcome by the tenderness of the heart of His Son. In Roman Catholic teachings this wrong is intensified, for God is portrayed as being moved towards men not only by the tenderness of the Son of Man, but also by that of a woman — the Virgin Mary!
The truth is, God is both light and love. He will in no way pass by sin or allow sin in His presence, but in love He has made a way consistent with His holiness for men not only to abide in His presence, but for their being there to His glory — “holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:44According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Ephesians 1:4)).
Faithful Words for Young and Old, Vol. 18 (adapted)