Which of Gods attributes are above all others?
Scripture actually reframes the question in a striking way. The issue is not which attribute ranks highest, but rather the distinction between God's attributes and God's nature. A writer in the Bible Treasury puts it plainly:
Bible Treasury (on 1 John):
Bible Treasury"God has many attributes, righteousness, holiness, majesty, almightiness, etc.; but the word employs only two words to tell us what God is as to His nature. He is light, He is love."
Attributes describe how God acts. But Scripture goes further and declares what God is — and it uses only two statements to do so: "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and "God is love" (1 John 4:8).
Light and Love: Essential Names of God
J.N. Darby draws out this distinction with remarkable precision:
J.N. Darby"The apostle John enters largely into this; his Gospel is the expression of it, but it comes out elsewhere in connection with the names of God, Light and Love, both of them essential names of God, yet with some difference, for Light has something of quality in it belonging to a person — Love is more absolutely personal. God is purity and manifests all things. But we are light in the Lord; as partakers of the divine nature, we partake of this quality. … But we are not love, for Love is sovereign goodness — that we cannot be; we love as partaking of the divine nature too, but we cannot be sovereign goodness."
Both light and love are "essential names of God" — not mere qualities He possesses but what He is. Yet Darby notes a distinction: light is a quality believers can share in ("we are light in the Lord"), but love as sovereign goodness — the free, uncaused, initiating love of God — we can never be. In that sense, love is "more absolutely personal."
Revealed Fully Only in Christ
Hamilton Smith shows that this revelation of God's nature awaited the incarnation:
Hamilton Smith"In the days of the Old Testament, God dwelt in thick darkness. Certain attributes of God were revealed, but His nature had not yet been declared. The full revelation of God awaited the coming of Christ. None but a divine Person could reveal a divine Person."
And again:
123_JOHN"The Apostles, as they looked upon Christ, saw the perfect revelation of all that God is. They saw the perfect purity of Christ, and they realised that God is light — absolute holiness. They saw the perfect love of Christ, and they realised that God is love. These are the great truths that the Apostle presses in the course of the Epistle — God is light and God is love. Life and light and love have been perfectly set forth in Christ."
The Cross: The Divine Proof of Both
A writer in the Bible Treasury traces how sin brought both truths into the open:
1880_155_Declared_Purpose"God is light and love. There was a display of love in the circumstances and condition of the first man in the garden, as far as creation could show it; but that God is love, and could show it in the presence of sin, was not known, nor could be. Man's sin quickly brought out the fact that God is light, and no less quickly did death, the immediate offspring of sin, bring out the fact that God is love. And the cross is the divine proof of both."
William Kelly affirms:
William Kelly"God is love, as well as light. In Him is no darkness at all; but being love He sent His Son to shine in this world darkened as it is through sin. … God is not demanding but giving, and only this, as regards eternal life and redemption. Both are His gift in Christ. Thus only, must He be known by the sinner, not as a receiver but as the Giver. It would be beneath His majesty to take any other place; it denies His nature, falsifies the truth, and leaves no room for love."
All Attributes Flow from These Two
F.B. Hole shows that every other divine attribute is, in fact, an expression of these two essential realities:
F.B. Hole"Standing, as we do, in the light of New Testament revelation, we can say that 'God is light,' and that 'God is love.' Because He is light we have to speak of righteousness and judgments. Because He is love we can celebrate His mercy and lovingkindness. And both light and love support and maintain His faithfulness."
He also makes the pointed observation:
EPHESIAN"'God is Love' has always been a far more popular text than 'God is light.'"
The answer, then, is that no single attribute stands "above" the rest — rather, Scripture distinguishes between God's many attributes (righteousness, holiness, power, faithfulness) and His nature. Only two statements in all of Scripture declare what God essentially is: "God is light" and "God is love." These are not competing truths but inseparable ones — and the cross of Christ is the place where both shine out together in their fullness. There, God's light judges sin in all its horror, and there God's love provides the remedy at infinite cost to Himself. All His other attributes — mercy, righteousness, judgment, faithfulness — flow from and are sustained by these two.