Q088
If God is a Spirit, how does Holy Scripture sometimes ascribe to him bodily parts, as heart, eyes, ears, hands?
Holy Scripture speaks in this way because it speaks the common language of mankind, condescending to our capacity, for we cannot otherwise picture what is invisible.
We are to understand such expressions in a higher and spiritual sense: the heart of God signifies his goodness and love; his eyes and ears, his omniscience; his hands, his almighty power. As St John of Damascus teaches, “what is said of God corporeally is said symbolically… out of the things that are with us, of the things that are above us” (St John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, I.11; see Q011, Q090).
