Why Judgment?

 

Why does God judge?

How could a God who is love possibly judge? Can these be reconciled? There are many in the Christian landscape who do not think so, and thus deny a key characteristic of God, His justice.

So what is judgment, what is it's purpose, and how can these two seemingly opposed sides of justice and love be reconciled?

Part of what the issue is in my mind is a misunderstanding of what the word love is defined as. Our modern world often looks at the concept of love and reduces it down to a feeling. You know, the fluttering in our stomachs when someone flirts with us. The word love is thrown around without any grounding definition, which has led to absurdities like signs saying "love is love". You cannot define a word by itself, and without an actual meaning then in reality nothing is being said.

Fundamentally the word we say as love can be rightly defined as "willing or intending the best for the other." This means that even hard or difficult things that seem not nice, if it is in the best interest of the other can fall under the roof of love. Not many people like going to the dentist, especially kids. But it is for their best that they need to go and get checked out. They may not like it, but it is what is best for them, and because their parents love them, they make them go, even if they protest. 

Is it any different for God?

God loves each and every single person. He died on the cross for you to have restored relationship with Him, and freedom from sin. That is how much He loves you!

This also means that there are times where hard and difficult things must happen. But those things are not because He does not love us. Rather they are because He loves us they need to happen.

All of the sin, evil and bad things that happen ultimately can be seen as things that are to lead us to repentance. Be that saving faith in Christ, or as things that refine us to become more like Him. Everything we can think of can be encompassed in this reality. Be it the personal evil of an individual, or natural disasters. All of these things are the result of a broken creation in need of redemption, and ultimately God uses them to point us to Him. To show us our need to utterly rely on Him.

So when it comes to judgment, God's purpose is always love. He's not an angry God sitting up in the sky with a giant hammer playing a game of cosmic wack-a-mole. Instead, He is a God who loves us dearly, and while the suffering of the judgments and trials we face in this life suck, they are for our repentance. To know Him, and know Him more. 

There is no conflict with a God of perfect love, who also judges. It's just an issue of our perspective.