Love begins with patience. Fundamental to every act of love is respect for the agency of the one loved. This is the main reason why God does not intervene in ways we think he should to prevent war, pestilence, famine, and other causes of large-scale suffering. His intervention takes the form of individual acts of compassion and kindness performed by millions of his followers. Together, we have the power to alleviate suffering in the world.

We think of power as the ability to compel compliance. This is certainly how politicians understand power. We have laws to constrain human behavior, but they are enforced by police and military forces. It is therefore natural to assume that God’s power works the same way. It does not. God displays his power in acts of kindness, mercy, and grace. He is humble and gentle. He is patient with us, knowing that we are dust. He does not compel; he woos like a tender lover. His love compels him to suffer and sacrifice rather than compelling the objects of his love to suffer and sacrifice.

We imagine that God’s omnipotence allows him to do whatever he wants, but in fact his omnipotence is constrained by his patient love.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

1 Peter 3:9 NIV

Yet who can withstand his will? If God is not willing that anyone should perish, surely all will be saved. Everyone will come to repentance.

If God were less loving, he could certainly use his power to force everyone to repent. But then how could their repentance be genuine? If “every knee will bow” by force, then of what value is the homage that the bent knee represents? God’s power is not in superior strength. He does not command an army of angels to bring destruction upon this rebel earth. Their war, like ours, is also “not against flesh and blood.” His power is in kindness, compassion, and gentle forbearance. He seeks a people who long for a better country, who spend their lives in hope, even when what they hope for seems impossible and forever out of reach¹. Like him, when they encounter suffering, they are filled with compassion. They join in suffering with those who suffer and shoulder burdens that are not their own. Like the Good Samaritan, they care.

Satan has but one lie, and it is a lie we all believe from time to time. The lie is that God is not good. “If God were good,” we hear, “my brother would not have died².” Believing this lie is the foundation of every sin. If God is not for me, if I can’t count on his goodness, then I have to take matters into my own hands³. I have to eat the forbidden fruit⁴, so I can decide for myself what good and evil mean. I have to do what is right in my own eyes⁵. God, rather than opposing our moral consciousness, appears to accept it and instead tries to persuade us again and again that, contrary to all appearances⁶, he is good. He actually wants what is actually best for us. If we would but submit our own wills to his perfect will, we would know eternal happiness and joy.

The cost, however, is very great. Jesus does not try to fool us about the cost of following him. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must disown themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me⁷.” Everyone who heard this knew that the cross was an instrument of torturous execution. Those who take it up have just one destination: death. But Jesus says that this destination is a daily practice. Those who follow Jesus submit to their own suffering and death every day in hope of attaining to the promise⁸ of eternal life.

God sets before each of us a choice. We can enjoy the temporary pleasures of doing our own thing, seeking to maximize our own comfort with little care for how it affects others. The end result of this choice is suffering, pain, and destruction. Or we can endure temporary suffering, seeking to care for others and serve God. The end result of this choice is eternal life and joy. With the first choice we live never quite satisfied and face the consequences of having loved no one but ourselves. With the second we live in contentment regardless of our situation and earn a reward for the love we have shown toward others.

Only one of these choices is reasonable, and I hope that eventually everyone will see it and choose repentance and reconciliation rather than continued rebellion and enmity.

1. See especially Hebrews 11:13-16. ↩︎
2. You can fill in whatever painful event you like here. Neither Martha nor Mary actually accuse Jesus of evil, but I think it is evident in what they do say that this thought is not far from their minds. See John 11:17-37. ↩︎
3. It can seem quite noble and liberating to oppose God’s goodness with our own. The Fall can be read not as the way sin, suffering, and death entered the world, but as the way humans freed themselves from God’s oppressive tyranny. However, reading it in this way makes it very hard to make sense of the Incarnation. Why would God become flesh and live among us? ↩︎
4. See the account of the Fall in Genesis 3. The serpent tells Eve that God has an ulterior motive for prohibiting the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He tells her she can be godlike and that God knows this and wants to prevent it. ↩︎
5. Throughout the book of Judges runs this refrain, “Every man did what was right in his own eyes because there was no king.” The author no doubt intended it as a justification for the monarchy, but it also serves to show how thoroughly endemic to human consciousness is the idea that we ourselves must decide what is right. ↩︎
6. Since the Fall, Satan has seized the structures of the world’s governments. That is why he was able to offer them to tempt Jesus. He has caused much evil in the world and taught us to blame God for it. ↩︎
7. See Luke 9:23. The word “disown” is the same word used of Peter’s denial of Christ when he said, “I don’t know the man.” So also we must acknowledge that we do not know ourselves, that we cannot decide what is best for us. That decision lies with God alone who knows us much more thoroughly than we know ourselves. ↩︎
8. See Philippians 3:10-11. Paul’s hope is to live forever in God’s presence where there are pleasures forever. In this he is following the example of Jesus who “for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame.” ↩︎