Is God Always Loving?

A reader recently left this comment on my hub called The Gettysburg Address and The Fear of God,

" We should not Fear God, we should wish to join Him as He has a peaceful mind (no judgment, anger, hatred, etc.) He is always forgives.”

Else where I read:

"Everything God does is loving”

Hmmm?

Is it really true? Is it wrong to fear God and is he always loving? What about the old testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah or the Great Flood during Noah's day? How about Ananias and Sapphira in the new testament? Are these acts of love and forgiveness?

Here is how I understand it. These are pictures of God's judgment. Places where men, women and children were judges and then condemned to death, based on God’s righteousness and sense of Justice. In each event, we can see God's love demonstrated toward his people. However, to those perishing, this was not an act of love but of justice.

I am finding that people have lost the fear of God. They have in their minds a 1960's love god who passes out flowers and dances in the the daisy fields. His motto is "Make Love and Forget About Holiness". They see a god who ignores sin and injustice, who is only loving and keeps no records of wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. Only those who have Jesus Christ as their sin offering and redeemer, will be saved on the day of Judgement. Everyone else will parish.

The Biblical picture of God does indeed describe Him as loving and forgiving. Never the less, that is only one part of his nature. The Bible also describes Him as righteous and just. In his love, God disciplines his people, but those who reject Him and His Word? They will, one day, be condemned to Hell. Not because God hates them, but because God is just.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

God's love is extended to all sinners, He would that none parish, He is slow to anger, giving all the opportunity to repent. God's love is seen in his willingness to forgive, in the death of Christ Jesus on the cross, and the patients he extends toward those who refuse to believe.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2nd Peter 3:9 KJV

My mom once told me that this life is the only heaven some people will ever see. It is her answer to why the wicked prosper. It is a picture of God's mercy and love for all. It also speaks to the reality that a day of reckoning will come for those who reject Christ. If not in this life, the next. For the people who are so used to a 1960 love god, this message is hard to swallow. But it must be taught however unpopular

You can't have justice without fear. Justice strikes fear into the hearts of those condemned. In the same way,without love, you will not have the temperance needed to have true justice. The "Fear of God", and the "Love of God" are tied together. So it is true that God loves everyone even those he condemns, yet, for those who will parish, it will be His holiness and righteous judgment they receive, not his loving embrace.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

In Christ

ABR