Why does God allow evil in the world?
This is a question many people grapple with.
For if God is love, why is there so much suffering in the world,
and why does it seem like God does nothing about it?
The answer to this question lies precisely in love.
Love is not an abstract concept, or a measure with which we can indicate how much you like someone.
Love is a person, and that person is God Himself.
1 John 4:16 (ESV)
God is love.
Love is not just an attribute of God; it is the essence of His being.
This means that only from love can life emerge, as it is in this love that we find the true source of life. Jesus himself reveals the depth of this life in His prayer recorded in John 17.
He says:
John 17:3 (ESV)
This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Eternal life is not simply an infinite continuation of time; it is a life, an existence, a being, imbued with the knowledge of God and the love He has revealed through Jesus Christ.
Eternal life is to be love.
As God says, “I AM!”
For love is the source of life, of joy, of wisdom.
Do you see the picture?
God created everything. Everything originated from Him.
Thus, God is the source of life, and God is love.
Therefore, love is the source of all that is good.
And if a person does not know love, then the things that this person does cannot come from love. The things this person does then do not stem from love, but from the flesh.
And…
Romans 8:7 (BSB)
The mind of the flesh is hostile to God.
The mind of the flesh is hostile to Love, for God is love.
The mind of the flesh is enmity against Love
Though actions that cause pain and sorrow have a significant negative impact on the natural life of people, actions that cause pain have the same value as the beautiful things people do when they come from someone who does not know God and, therefore, love.
That sounds bizarre, doesn’t it?
Yet, Paul said exactly the same.
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NIV)
If I give all I possess to the poor
and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
When good things are not done out of love, they are done for a reason.
This reason is therefor not rooted in love, and consciously or unconsciously, the reason why these good things are done is always self-righteousness.
And if God only allowed good things to happen, we would not come to know love.
Because imagine a pickpocket walking around trying to steal your wallet.
Just as he walks past you and attempts to grab the wallet, God prevents him from moving his arms.
That wouldn’t be love, would it?
And God IS love.
If He did that, we would be marionettes or robots.
God did not create robots!
He said:
Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness!
Therefore, eternal life lies in knowing God and Jesus Christ.
For Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God.
Colossians 1:15 (ESV)
He is the image of the invisible God.
When you get to know Him, you get to know yourself because you too are made in the image and likeness of God.
And as you get to know Him, you get to know love because He IS love.
Man is made in the image and likeness of God, and when you get to know God, you learn that you are made in that same image of love.
This love is the Christ in you.
And Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27 (ESV)
Christ in you; the hope of glory.
Christ in every person is the hope of the promise that God Himself has declared:
Numbers 14:21 (NKJ)
Truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD!
Christ in you,
that is, the image and likeness of love after whom you were made,
is our hope that the misery in this world will come to an end.
When you begin to discover and then live according to who you really are, which is the image and likeness of God, heaven comes on earth.
Jesus demonstrates this through his entire life’s journey.
And He also explains it; you probably know the following parable:
Matthew 13:44 (NAS)
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field,
which a man found and hid again.
And from joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field.
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.
This field is you.
In you, a great treasure is hidden, namely Christ.
Many people never find this treasure.
The person in the parable, however, found Christ in him.
And what does he do?
He sells everything he has.
He sells all the earthly things he has accumulated in his life; all earthly wisdom, all sacred cows, and lies he had taken for truth.
For now, he has found the Truth within him: Christ.
He sells all that is carnal and then buys the field with that with which it has already been paid for.
He buys the field with the blood of Jesus Christ.
The twenty-four elders in Revelation 5 sing a song about it.
Revelation 5:9 (NAS)
They sang a new song, saying,
You were slaughtered, and You purchased us for God with Your blood.
Heaven on earth and an end to all misery begin with knowing God.
Then you learn what true love is.
When you get to know God, you see yourself in a mirror.
Not on the outside, but within.
You then transform into that same image, from glory to greater and greater glory, to the fullness of the glory of the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NAS)
We all, with unveiled faces,
looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Romans 8:18-19 (BSB)
For I consider that our present sufferings
are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.
For all creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of you as the son of God.
