“How could a good God allow evil?”
This is a question I’ve been asked more than once over the past two weeks. I have the privilege of working in a ministry setting full time, and helping others wrestle with tough questions inevitably comes with the territory. With the horror happening in Israel and Palestine, this question weighs especially heavy of late.
Before we get to answering it, the first thing we need to understand is that God is not disinterested or unaffected by these events despite allowing them to happen. Psalm 34:18 tells us “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” My last blog talked at length about how God shares in our grief and suffering. He physically experiences it with us. If you missed it, you can read that blog here.
And while it looked specifically at a moment when Jesus wept with a family grieving the singular loss of a loved one, I am certain his compassion also applies to suffering on a mass scale. Because at the heart of it, all suffering is personal. The Israelis and Palestinians affected by current events are real people, specific individuals, who are hurting and grieving, while continuing to collectively endure the horrors and uncertainties of war. You can be sure the measure our hearts are breaking for people we don’t even know is nothing compared to the grief of a God who knows the with intricate and exact precision the totality of the devastation. He knows every hair on the heads of those lives lost (Luke 12:7), and every tear that’s been shed (Psalm 56:8). He is deeply affected.
So why would God allow events that would break his heart and ours? The oversimplified answer is this: there is no love without choice. God created us to love and worship him, and to live in harmony with both him and one another. However, because love must contain within it the ability to choose, it must follow that there is always the opportunity to choose differently. You can’t have one without the other. We can choose not to love. And when people choose evil, there are always casualties. This is true of war, and this is true of personal sin. Infidelity in a marriage, drug addiction of a loved one, the moral failing of pastor or priest — whenever anyone chooses to step outside the boundaries God has put in place, whenever anyone chooses to love something more than God, people get hurt.
God’s word is very clear what following him looks like. In Romans 12:9-12, the apostle Paul tells us exactly how people following Christ should act: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
Later on in this passage Paul continues to say, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone,” (Romans 12:17-18).
From these verses, the calling on our lives directed by God is in direct contrast to what we see happening all over the world today. As we consider recent events it seems to me to be a particularly relevant time to consider the results that following Jesus could yield. We see the distance between what Paul is asking of us, and what is being acted out in our world with striking clarity. We feel its disparity morally, spiritually, and for some, literally. Perhaps the better question to ask is how can we create a world that chooses to live like Paul describes? Again, it all depends on what or who you choose to love.
For the record, I am aware that not all Christians live like Paul describes. Progressive sanctification means that God will continue to work in the life of believer, spurring them on in increasing measure to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This means we’re going to get it wrong, and I’m deeply sorry for the times the church has gotten it wrong. I promise you, God was not okay with it either. Again, love is a choice. We’re back where we began. I’m so thankful God is teaching me day to day how to choose better.
It remains to be said that the discussion thus far does not include all types of suffering. We’ve been looking at suffering as the consequence of human choices. There are other causes — the terminal illness of a child or the mass casualties of a natural disaster to name a few. I wholeheartedly agree that these are also challenging and make us ask God, “Why?”
We won’t have time today to unpack these in the thorough detail they deserve. And sometimes the answer for why God allows a specific heartbreak is going to be, “I don’t know.” But thankfully the story doesn’t ever end here. There is a bigger picture at play.
Tragedy has this way of eclipsing our field of view. If you’ve ever witnessed a solar eclipse you can understand this idea. As the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, it casts a shadow on Earth that blocks the Sun's light from where we’re able to see it. It doesn’t matter that the moon is approximately 400 times smaller than the sun. From what we can observe, it consumes it. Likewise, suffering can make us think this life and its heartbreak are all there is in God’s plan. But it’s not true.
Following Jesus isn’t just about how we should live today. It isn’t just about a moral life on earth. It’s about life today in context of the promises of tomorrow. The next life is infinitely bigger and longer than the one we’re able to see here and now. Just because the heartache of today is clouding the promise of tomorrow, doesn’t mean it no longer exists. “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we cannot see,” Hebrews 11:1. Just as I am confident in an eclipse that the sun will return in full splendor, I am confident in suffering that God’s promises remain. Sometimes prayers are answered in processes rather than light-switch moments. We may just be mid-process.
John 16:33 tells us that we can expect trials in this life. It’s a given. Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This is the bigger picture. The longer Jesus waits to return and set all things right, the more time the world has to wake up to who he truly is. The truth is, God’s patience even amidst the horrific events perpetrated humankind choosing not to follow him doesn’t speak to his disinterest, but to his mercy. He’s willing to undergo more heartache while he waits for more of us to follow his one and only son to eternal life. This is the very son he loved and sent to die on a cross for you and I.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17).
We are living in the space between Jesus coming to the world and Jesus returning to save the world, and there is heartache here, but there is also so much hope in Him who is faithful. Evil doesn’t win this war, even if it feels otherwise as of late. This means we’ve got a job to do while we wait for Jesus to make all things right: Love God. Love People. And let’s make heaven crowded.
