In Christianity God is both a God of love and of justice. Many people struggle with this. They believe that a loving God can’t be a judging God. Like most other Christian ministers in our society, I have been asked literally thousands of times, ‘How can a God of love be also a God filled with wrath and anger? If he is loving and perfect, he should forgive and accept everyone. He shouldn’t get angry.’
I always start my response by pointing out that all loving people are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite but because of their love. If you love a person and you see someone ruining them — even they themselves — you get angry. As Becky Pippert puts it in her book Hope Has Its Reasons: ‘Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it. … Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference. … God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer … which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.’
Wrath flows from love
The Bible says that God’s wrath flows from his love and delight in his creation. He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity. ‘The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made… The Lord watches over those who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy’ (Psalms 145.17-20).
