CHAPTER 2
God Is Love
You take the road that veers off to the left, toward distant mountains. To your right, open plains show the wide, bright sky. Farther right, almost behind you, you can see the road rise up a hill, and at the top you see a bridge across a hidden canyon.
âGod is love,â writes John in his letter (1 John 4:8). Christians look primarily to the Bible to understand what God is like, and the Bible describes God as full of unfailing love. In one way, that tells you all you need to know about God. Love captures all that is truly good, worthy, and right in the world. In another way, that might tell you very little. After all, love can mean all sorts of things. You can love a friend, but you can also love a hamburger. Your âloveâ for your hamburger will lead to you eating it, but hopefully that is not true of your friend!
Generally, when we say God is loveâthat God loves usâwe mean that God wants the best for us. God wants things to go well with us. We could even add that God wants to be in a relationship with us, since knowing God is part of what is best for us.
So far so good.
But when we look around at the world, it doesnât seem like what is best for us actually happens. We certainly donât see a world where all people are in a loving relationship with God or with each other. Quite the contrary. So what has gone wrong?
There are four possible choices about God at this point.
First, you can say that God is indeed all-powerful and all-knowing, but there is confusion somewhere else in the picture. Maybe God has a plan to use evil for good. Maybe the reason God allows evil is simply too hard for us to understand, and our job is merely to hold on in faith. Whatever the case, the existence of evil does not indicate that something has gone wrong in Godâs plan. All power and all knowledge sit with God eternally.
Second, you can say that, because God loves us, God gives us the freedom to choose actions that donât lead to the best outcome for ourselves or others. We can even refuse relationship with God if we so choose. Love gives freedom, even when it hurts. Our freedom can disrupt Godâs good plans for us.
Third, you can believe that Godâs power is limited for some other reason. Maybe God isnât all-powerful in the first place. God wants good to happen but doesnât have the ability to bring about the best outcomes. Maybe God has an opponent (like Satan) who gets in the way and messes things up. Or perhaps it is not in Godâs nature to coerce or control at all. Godâs power is not the kind that controls stuff and causes things to happen; rather it empowers and allows others to cause things to happen.
Finally, there is the possibility that God doesnât know the future. While traditional Christianity has usually said something like âGod sees everything, past, present, and future,â what if, in order to have real relationship with people, God has given up that eternal vantage point? Just as Jesus became a human with all a humanâs limitations, so God chose to experience time with us and therefore creates the future with us. When bad things happen, they are not part of Godâs plan, but God will turn them into part of the plan by the end of time. Like Rumpelstiltskin, God can spin gold out of straw, so not knowing or planning the future is of little importance. It is more important to God that there is real give-and-take, real response in relationship with us.
The paths lie before you. Which way will you choose?
God is all-powerful and all-knowing, so either there is a plan or suffering is a mystery. (Turn to p. 7 [ch. 3].)
We have the freedom to disrupt Godâs plan. (Turn to p. 17 [ch. 7].)
Godâs power is limited. (Turn to p. 20 [ch. 8].)
God does not know the future. (Turn to p. 24 [ch. 9].)