A friend asked me, “How can God be Love when the world He created is so full of hate?” I am open about my faith, but it has never been my focal point here because we don’t have to agree on a worldview to share a fight for healthy relationships. Nonetheless, it is important to know what people believe about Love. Many of us root our definition of Love in our belief system. In light of that, I am open to following concerns where they lead.

When my entire foundation for Love is questioned, it’s important to be able to give a reason for my hope. Let me make it clear-It’s ok if you ground your Love elsewhere. All beliefs are welcome here! We will now work through this complex question as simply as possible. Why , looking at reality, would anyone think God is Love?

First, the fundamental basis for Love as a Judeo-Christian is not what God does but WHO GOD IS. We, as Christians, believe that God is the foundation of all good. He is the source of all good. That it’s not because he does things that make us happy or even that all that happens in this world is good, but that God himself is the source of good. Specifically, He is also the source of Love. Before you think we are jumping neck deep into philosophy, I will make it simple: God is LOVE; God is all that is good. When we see either of these things, we see God.

God Creates Suffering?

So there it is. The confusion begins the second we leave the rosy surroundings of our Sunday School room filled with watercolor pictures of Jesus holding baby sheep. We are surrounded by pain, death, disease, abuse, and more- often, relief never comes. So how can someone who believes in God believe He is the source of Love, the embodiment of good? It’s not always easy to see. The problem of evil or suffering is one of the most common reasons people leave the church or reject Christianity. The famous atheists of our era: Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennet & Harris (the Four Horsemen), and thousands of social media accounts preaching the problem of evil. They assert that it proves God is not good or at best, not worthy of worship.

The deconstruction movement is hitting the younger generations hard. They use emotional arguments to make you doubt that God could be real in the face of pain and suffering. The argument goes like this: How can babies get cancer and God be considered Loving? Let’s face it, the suffering of innocents is a hard swallow. But there are two issues, the emotional issue. There is no way not to question suffering, especially when it lands on your doorstep.

I won’t spend much time on the philosophical grounding of this argument, mainly because it’s not even a credible objection. Today, if you visit any philosophy graduate program anywhere and pose this as an honest question, they would tell you it isn’t even a debate anymore. Why? Because to make that argument, you’d have to prove God doesn’t have morally sufficient reasons to allow evil to exist. William Lane Craig has a lifetime of work on this subject, so start here if you want to dig deeper.

Choice And Love

When we step back and consider what Love is, it has to include one attribute: choice. If we don’t choose to return Love, it’s not Love. Look at it this way, if you are invited to dinner but are compelled to go against your will, that is hardly an invitation! It immediately becomes a command. If we cannot choose to Love, it cannot be Love. Love has to allow space for rejection. The distance between Love and rejection is where suffering grows. When we experience rejection, we experience pain.

That is not the only kind of pain we find in Love. Imagine you have a cure for a terminally ill person. They say they won’t accept it. There is a pain for the giver and the one who won’t receive the gift. The pain spreads from there. What if the sick person has children who need them? The children, spouses and all who love them will suffer when they die. You see, Love requires choice, but choice invites suffering.

What If Suffering Is Loving?

Suffering and pain do not negate Love but go hand in hand. The only way to avoid suffering is to remove choice. If we don’t include choice, we lose what it means to be human with volition. Many Christians believe that suffering is part of this life because allowing free will is the only way to choose God or not God. Suffering, whether it’s natural suffering or is caused by the hand of humans, is part of this world and doesn’t disprove God but instead points us to something greater and more significant.

The curious part of this question is, why does suffering point some to God while it repulses others? Could suffering be the catalyst that forces us to one side or the other? Have you ever wondered why persecution often results in huge numbers coming to faith? Why do India and China have Christian churches bursting at the seams while the West is retooling churches to become bars and dance clubs? It’s not popular, but suffering and pain are the doors that open to show people God in huge numbers. If the goal is bringing souls to God, would we accept that it may be the purpose after all? Would we be willing to trade in a lifetime for eternity?

What If God Is Not Love

I find it interesting that non-believers are so angry and pour out hatred for the ideas of God, the people of God, based on injustice. Yet, they wave away any standard for justice beyond human opinion. At the same time, they express outrage at religious evil and yet hold no belief in it. One of the Four Horseman even wrote a book trying to ground good and evil in something other than God, failing even among atheists. Here is a review that expresses the sadness many skeptics felt when his book failed to make its point. Without external alternate grounding, it’s all sound and fury, but they have no basis because there is nothing but an arbitrary chance to blame if there is no God.

The emotional arguments offered by unbelievers and deconstructors may sound good on paper. They aren’t saying that God and suffering aren’t compatible. Instead, they reject any God who would allow suffering. Sadly that argument sounds pretty good until you consider what they are advocating. They laugh at the idea that God is Love but, in the same breath, offer a world without more than personal opinion to define what good is. They want to use the very standard God represents to reject Him. If we rely on opinions to define what is good, it will be left to the one with the most money and guns.

The Hope In Suffering

In the end, all we have is the world we experience. There is beauty and pain all intertwined. What kind of hope can emerge? The Love of God offers us something the atheist does not, a reason for suffering. Scripture explains how misery turns our hearts to God and lowers our knees to the ground. It is also the only path that points to hope. If God allows suffering, being that He is both Love and goodness, there is not only a moral reason; logically, it must be the method that will bring the most hearts to choose Him. We must also remember that only in the Christian Faith do we have a God who understands suffering firsthand. He chooses it to bridge the gap between mortals and a holy God. He also desires us to be saved and wishes NONE would perish. This is not a God who is removed from emotion and empathy.

If God is all that is good, his nature will always bring the greatest good. To this end, we believe He would allow anything that necessitates that it will save the most souls from the worst outcome. Ultimately the worst of all outcomes is the absence of God. The absence of God is what the atheist freely chooses. They prefer a world without a God-centered good, divine logic, beauty, and hope. That is a choice and a valid one. A friend once told me they wouldn’t choose God even if they knew He existed.

Free will necessitates the ability to reject. Rejection leaves room for suffering. Free will opens the door for each human soul to answer the eternal question: Will you follow God or choose the absence of God? As scripture says, the life between birth and death is fast, like withering grass. The suffering is deep, and the carnage is undeniable. The choice we make is, however, eternal.

Endurance And Perspective

As Paul says:

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

2 Corinthians 4:17

I don’t believe he is saying it is easy. With the trials of Paul’s life, stonings, beatings, and imprisonment, we can guess Paul is seeing the big picture of life. He does not deny the depth of pain and suffering but compares it to what is coming. We journey through grief and pain, and after the journey, we enter into something that makes it all worth it. I believe this life is the Ante-room, and we will all see the doors open. That does not make this life less important but rather raises the stakes and peace in the valleys.

Yes, God Is Love & God Is Loving

So we come full circle. When pressed, I offer that God is loving and the source of Love. He is the only one who ties the loose ends together. Without God, suffering, death, disease, and pain are arbitrary. They are nothing more than the way things are, and we are simple animals with a unique capacity to physically, mentally & emotionally hurt. That is the end of the story for the atheist/naturalist. We have something no other worldview can claim. The Christian God is the only God who personally endured and experienced suffering. A God who truly gets it.

Not only does He give us a reason for suffering, but He also promises to make good of every teardrop. He makes beauty out of ashes and has also walked the hard path. God was wounded mortally, beaten nearly to death, lost people he loved, and saw those he loved suffering. He allows suffering, but he also gives us comfort in our suffering. No view of life without such a God has anything similar to offer. He offers us a bigger picture of reason and hope. That is both Loving and good.

Yes, I do believe we can ground Love in this God. We can give Him our hearts, let Him do his work, and endure the comparatively short season of life that leaves room for each human soul to choose God or the absence of God. Yes, yes, and yes, there is hope in every step.

To Those Who Don’t Believe God Is Love

To the dear atheist who inspired this article, I must ask: “Is it that you don’t think God could have a valid reason for allowing suffering or that you cannot accept a God who has reasons to allow suffering? What if saving human souls from forever without God/good is the reason? Would there be a reason to allow suffering? When we have children, we know they will experience pain and suffering, but we also know they will experience great joy and beauty. Many of us have them anyway. Just a thought.

Thanks for the question and the time it took to get through this! Let’s Love Well or Not at All!

Please follow and engage as we spare hearts by ReThinking Love! Loving Well or Not at All! Updated 4/8/23