Ask a Pastor Column

Q: How does God’s judgment balance with His love?

A: It can be difficult to understand how God can exercise perfect love while also carrying out seemingly harsh judgments. But we can reconcile love and judgment simply by recognizing the ‘overlap’ between them. In other words, I will seek to lay out different ways in which God’s love is exercised in judgment, and also to see that His judgment is itself an expression of His love.

First, Scripture teaches us that the love of God causes Him to limit the extent of his judgment. When we read the passages that set out God’s judgment, it is easy to fo...