God IS love (1 John 4:8). And God IS a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). “God is great and God is good”—both/and, not either/or. We need to see the Lord in the fullness of his glorious character. Half-truths about God lead to false teaching and untold spiritual damage!
A prime example of this is when people say God is a God of love, but they ignore his other attributes (like holiness and justice) and imagine love in very human-centric terms. So if a person suffers pain or loss and then concludes, “I lack comfort, so God must not love me,” they’ve made an unbiblical and harmful assumption. And that’s because God’s way of loving his people often involves comfort amidst trial, not insulation from trial. Let’s look at the Bible:
1 Peter 5:7 says to cast your anxieties on God because he cares for you. And yet in 5:9-10 we’re called to stand strong against our adversary the devil, and to expect to face suffering as we walk this road (and see also 4:12: don’t be surprised to face trials). So if we insist that “care” must mean escape from adversity, we’re at odds with Scripture.
Or take Philippians 1:29: God has “granted” us to suffer for the sake of Christ (so trials aren’t just some inevitable misfortune). Yet Paul also commands believers, “Rejoice in the Lord always” and “Do not be anxious about anything” (4:4-7). Again, then, facing trials doesn’t mean God’s love has failed (and remember, Paul was in prison, 1:13).
Or take Romans 8:31-39: Nothing can separate us from Jesus’ love, not even death; even if we go through intense suffering, his love for us is absolutely true. So the reflex that says, “I’m hurting, so God must not be loving…” is badly mistaken. Such an attitude assumes our pain must be alleviated here and now, but that’s just not what the Bible teaches (remember 8:28 and “all things”).
Or take Revelation 6:11: God’s wise and good plan for the culmination of history means waiting “a little longer” until the number of Christian martyrs is “complete.” The fact is, God accomplishes profoundly good things in us and through us when we suffer in such a way that shows we treasure Christ and the hope of heaven far more than we cherish earthly comfort. Will you trust his love, come what may?
