God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 Jn 4:16b-18, emphasis added) This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. (1 Jn 5:2-4a) Punishment If Christians are to be moral because of their love of God and not out of fear, then why are curses for disobedience and prophecies of punishment found so frequently in the OT, and why does Jesus mention hell so often in the NT? There are several reasons: 1. God is just: he is morally obligated to punish those who do wrong and dont repent, regardless of whether fear of punishment motivates people or not. 2. God uses punishment to teach moral lessons. God doesnt want to punish anyone, and would much rather that we willingly did what is right,3 but if necessary he will use adversity to discipline people.4 Ideally, the chastisement causes the person to examine themselves, realize their wrongs and willingly change their ways. That is, for those who have an underlying motivation to do the right thing, Gods punishment/discipline can help them improve morally without causing fear to be their primary motivation. To understand how this can be the case, consider the following situation: Joe habitually cuts off other people in conversation without realizing hes offending them. One day someone tells Joe that hes being rude. Joe is upset about it, but then makes an effort to not cut other people off. One can imagine that if Joe has an underlying desire to be good, his changing his ways is motivated by that desire more than the desire to avoid the punishment of someone telling him off. 3. Although fear of punishment isnt the ideal motivation for not doing wrong, it does serve as a last-resort motivator for those who arent motivated by other things. If someone doesnt love God and doesnt care about good for goodness sake, is it not better for them to at least do the right thing to avoid punishment rather than to do wrong?
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:21:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015