Reconciling Love and Justice
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Please open your Bible and read 1 John 4:7-10.
Skeptics ask, “How can God be loving and full of wrath at the same time?” Many believers avoid replying because they wonder the same thing. To answer, we must understand two things: God’s love and the way His love interacts with divine justice.
Love is often considered an emotion, but for God, it’s a commitment that began before the first man ever drew breath. (Ephesians 1:4) Scripture tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8); therefore, His love cannot be restricted to certain people who practice a “perfect” faith. He loves both sinner and saint, regardless of their actions.
Unfortunately, people latch onto one characteristic of God and use it to question other aspects of His nature. Justice and unconditional love do not contradict each other as some suggest. True justice will be meted out with love, and love cannot be genuine without justice. In a similar way, human suffering exists under the umbrella of divine care – believers don’t like God’s divine discipline, but it is needed to return us to the right path. (Hebrews 12:5 – 6)
God’s justice includes righteous anger; wrath is His holy determination to punish sin. Christ’s death – the one acceptable sacrifice that can pay sin’s penalty – has been rejected by the unfaithful. As a result, unbelievers are subject to divine anger. The Lord still loves those experiencing His forceful wrath, but His holiness demands sin’s punishment.
Believers live under grace, not wrath. God’s unconditional love followed us through our wicked days until we learned to love in return.
Question: How can you help explain God’s love and justice to someone who doesn’t know God?
About this Author: Charles Stanley
God does not punish the ones he loves he disciplines them, there is a big difference.
Gods ways are not always to man understanding, everything he does is out of love. The Bible tells us that God doesn’t want anyone to perish, he wants everyone to have eternal life . That is a righteous jealous that is a blessing for man.
You are right, God calls us to love him more than any other.
That is the best advise he could ever give us. If we do what God asks from us who will benefit from it more God or us? If a young child plays in the street with cars passing by, will not his father be angry with him. A mother always tell their young child to stay close, just as God does, is that a harsh rule. God is always going to give us the best advise, and part of that is to put him first so everything else will be in its proper order. God give us a choice, just because he tells us the outcome if we choose the wrong choice doesn’t make him horrible or unloving. God does not do unjust horrible things, man does! You’re looking at this from a finite man point of view.
There are no other true Gods! Man has always made Idols that they consider Gods.
Remember God is righteous, and he himself has a free will. He communicate with us with words and concepts we can understand.
Don’t forget that the OT was under the Law and the New Testament is under Grace.
Same God, but his anger towards sin and death in the New Testament was placed on Jesus at the cross.
Thank you Jesus!
Mrsjhicks – Here is what I find conflicting in the reasoning that God does all of these horrible things to us per the OT because he loves us:
God calls us to love him more than any other correct? So if I, you or anyone else for that matter fails to adhere to this Commandment then God will be angry correct?
In all of my years I have never seen anger or making threats change the way someone felt about love. The only thing that ever seems to work is to present the opportunity to feel a greater love.
Jealous? God said, “You shall place no other God before me” The way I read this, God is admitting that there are other Gods, or at least a good case coulf be made for this.
Wether there are other Gods or not, I believe that the one and only true God would never feel jealousy, express a command that all follow him, or else…..Again, the way to peoples hearts does not come from greater and greater threats, but by reasurance of a greater and unending, unconditional love.
You can see by these two examples that there is at least some reason to wonder if the God of the OT and the Father of Jesus were one and the same or different.
God chastises those whom He loves. If He didn’t love us he would not become angry, wrathful, jealous, and demanding. He would not care what we do. But He loves us. That’s why He sent His only begotten Son. WHo cleanses us from sin. Thank God for His love.
This should read: Christ’s death- the only acceptable sacrifice that has paid sin’s penalty. We all have been unfaithful, nevertheless the debt for sins was paid. Remember the penalty for sin is death! not just anger.
I struggle to understand this often.
The idea that God is angry wrathful, jealous and demanding, lead his people on a rampage across the middle east to the Holy Land at the expense of many dead, subjugate women to a persona-non-grata status, or worse, all seem to be characteristics which to me seem entirely human and not what I imagine to be traits of a God which is all loving. Yet these are all descriptions found in the Old Testament.
Contasting this with the descriptions of God in the New Testament it almost seems like there are two different Gods.
Does anyone else see it this way? I am just wondering is all…
Scott