November 2024 From the Desk of Dave McLean

How Can God Be Loving If He Allows Evil, Suffering, Sickness And Death?

In last month’s newsletter we looked at the question of, How can God be loving if He allows evil, suffering, sickness and death? We will continue with that subject.

It is so easy to look negatively upon God, for His patience and longsuffering toward man. We can see throughout history and His Word that man, when given the freedom to make choices, chooses poorly. Some really choose wrong: Proverbs 27:20 “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” Some continually choose wrong: Genesis 6:5, 11 “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

I think a better question to ask is, How can God continue to reach out to man in light of the evil, suffering, sickness and death that he brings into the world? The answer is that our Heavenly Father has a heart that is patient and kind beyond what we can even fathom.

He created us without sin and everything He created was good. He placed His truth in our hearts. He set perfect boundaries and laws. He gave us the power, authority and wisdom to choose right. When we sin, His judgments are just and righteous altogether and, on top of that, He pursues us continually and will do so unto the end of the age. It’s one thing to forgive your transgressor, it’s a totally different thing when you lay down your life for the penalty of their sin. John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” On top of all we have done to hurt Him, He then blesses us with the greatest love that one can give, in laying down His life for us. His love is the greatest love; His love is what we should all be striving for.

Sadly, our thinking is upside down as it pertains to the ways of God. We want the freedom to think and choose, we just don’t want our neighbor to have the same freedom. We want the freedom to sin, but we judge our neighbor if he does so. We want God to condemn and judge others, but we want Him to give us forgiveness, grace and mercy. God’s judgment for our sin is death and we deserve that. Yet His Son has taken our sins and judgment upon Himself as an atonement for our sin. Will we receive Him? Our sin and double standards will not show us what true love is, this can only be found in humbly turning to the Author and Finisher of our faith, the One who embodies love and lives love ever so gently and faithfully before us. Mat thew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” It takes purity to see purity, and in our sin and bitterness we will not see the purity and beauty of God. This is our problem.

The more clearly we see who we are, the more beautifully we see who He is. Second Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” He didn’t just take our sin away, he became what He was not so we could become what we are not! How beautiful, and that sacrifice comes with a great cost. There are so many witnesses who have gone before us who did not get to live the life they desired, but they sure lived the life their Heavenly Father de sired. Can we not do the same?

He’s not snatching us out of the mess we’ve made, He’s loving us out. Romans 12:21, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” The ONLY thing that will help us overcome the evil, suf fering, sickness and death in this world is the Savior of the world. We will not escape but through Him, and in Him and His love. And in the process, as we truly come to love Him, we can learn to love our enemies and show them the way to overcome through Christ also. This is where we know that we see and have received Him, when we can love as He loves. We can be overcome by this evil world, or we can overcome it by love. Of all the choices we may make, choosing His love and choosing to love as He loves, is a challenging deci sion, but it’s the only decision that will bring hope to this fallen world! This is our teaching and hope for our guests, and for you also.

Amen? Amen! Dave.