Someone asked me, after hearing about me talk about God's love recently, “I understand God love us, but these bad things going on in our society, and even to us individually, they're a punishment for our sins, right?” Ah… let's take a breath for a second. OK, I do think punishment and discipline are involved in life, but never apart from God's love. God's love changes everything. Truthfully, I don't like questions about punishment and sin, but not because I am afraid of the question, but because I’m suspicious of the vitriolic baggage that accompanies the question. Most people (Christians) that ask these kinds of questions are the kinds of people who are overly concerned with retributive justice, and their idea of God's wrath. This has led Westernized Christianity to emphasize punishment over love; original sin over original grace; and the terror of hell over the beauty of heaven. Is there room in the discussion for punishment, sin and hell? Of course, but love wins. (Foreshadowing alert: love wins!) Some people don’t buy it, though. Especially Christians. Ironically, nothing stirs up hate like a good discussion about love! But, love is integral to this question about punishment. For authentic punishment is not about retributive, vengeful justice. Authentic punishment is about sacrificial justice, that I hasten to add is quick to forgive. 

For example, my wife and I have raised three children. This will be hard for you to believe, but all of them at one time or another were disobedient. But, even in their worst moments, they have never gone unloved. It's amazing, really, If you added up all the years they lived under our roof… let’s see 18, plus 18, plus 15(and counting)… that’s 51 years… In 51 years of parenting, there was never one time when our children were at risk of losing our love. Even in the midst of discipline. My children would have been shocked to learn, that even as they were suffering the discipline brought upon by their wrongful choices, we were already anticipating the moment when the relationship would be restored. We realized in those moments, in many instances, though we were the one wronged; though we were the recipients of their disobedience, we were more eager to forgive than they were to ask for forgiveness!

If this is all true of an earthly parent, is this not true of our heavenly parent? God loves us. God longs to forgive us. I do, of course, believe our choices have consequences. I do think punishment, at times, is involved, but I’ve come to learn we are more punished by our sins than for our sins. (Please consider the implications of the last sentence.) Furthermore, while there is a way to read the Bible that would lead one to think that the God of the Bible enjoys all this punishment, quite simply, it’s the wrong way to read the Bible! I categorically reject the idea that God enjoys punishing us, or to take the whole concept deep into the crux of the issue, that God needed to punish Jesus to figure out how to love us. Jesus didn’t have to die to get God’s attention; rather Jesus died because of his commitment to love. We must understand, or at least wrestle with understanding, that love involves risk. And God risked in Jesus, not because He was angry, but because He is love. This is what love does! So, to attempt to answer the question, “Yes, but aren’t bad things a punishment for our sins?” Yes, bad things can be about punishment, but far less often than we are inclined to think, and they're usually brought on by us and not God, and finally, when they do arrive, they always do so in a context of sacrificial love.