April 22, 2020
Have you ever asked or thought about the question, how can a loving God allow bad things to happen to good people? I have. Why do we always place the word good in the question? Is there an expectation that God will treat people differently because people are good or bad?
Rather than answering this question let’s talk about the premises made in the question. The first is that God is loving. Here are a few passages on this subject. First about God. 1 John 4:7-12 says,
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (ESV)
The passage tells us that God is love. Love is part of His nature or character. When something is part of God’s character it means it is unchanging. So, when it comes to love, God loves all His creation the very same. This love is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 which says,
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (ESV)
These are descriptions of love and since God is love they are all part of His character. I would like to focus on verse six. We see here that love has a strong moral code. It cares about the truth and the actions of doing wrong. Love demands perfection. So, God’s perfect love for us means He hates it when we sin, and He loves it when we follow Him. Well I don’t know about you, but I am not perfect, and for that reason I violate this attribute of love and consequently, I am not good.
So, when we look at all the other descriptions of love, God is all of them. When I look at how God deals with me, I see that He exemplifies all of them. How about you?
Let’s look at the other highlight part of 1 John 4:7-12. Is it not amazing that God loved His creation so much that He planned to redeem the lost? According to verse nine, God loved us so much that He sent His Son as a propitiation for all who believe. He had a plan from the beginning to deal with man’s fall even before it happened.
I know that this helps me to trust God more. It gives me more hope. How about you?
If you do not know Jesus the Savior of the world. It is time that you learn more. Read This.
An audio version of my book Hope Amid Hopelessness is now available on Amazon and Westbow Press.
