Christian Living

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We hear much about God being a God of love—in fact the scripture says it: (1 John 4:8). It’s a nice, ear-tickling topic on which to preach. What we don’t often hear is that God is also a God of justice.

There are several Bible passages that illustrate this. Remember how in Noah’s day God flooded planet earth? In Genesis 6:11 we read the earth was “corrupt and full of violence.” So God lost patience with people, they were so wayward and godless. Pretty much like today, wouldn’t you say? Then in Genesis 6:17 the Lord said: “And behold, I myself am bringing flood waters upon the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” Everyone, and everything died, except for Noah and his entourage who of course were safe in the ark.

It’s also biblical that God won’t flood the earth again (Genesis 9:13-15); however in 2 Peter 3:10 we read: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” It’s biblical and our God of justice will allow it.

That scenario is looking likely, as more and more countries develop nuclear weapons, and one day we may all be nuked into oblivion. Believers don’t need to worry about that, but it does bring home to us the urgency of witnessing. For those who don’t know the Lord it will be “out of the frying pan into the fire”—literally!

Acts 5 gives us another instance of God’s justice. It was agreed (Acts 4) all the believers would put their income from sale of land or houses into a common pool. Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of land. They only put some of the sale money into the money pool, then pocketed the rest.

Retribution came swiftly. Ananias fell down dead, and three hours later so did Sapphira when she returned. The Bible doesn’t say God struck them down (though very probable) but it does say: “So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.” (5:11).

Look what happened to Lot’s wife. Genesis 19:26 says: “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

So it’s clear that God is a God of justice, and if we are to fear anything, we must fear God.

To get a balanced view of God and the Bible, preachers must take all of it into account, not just concentrating on what is palatable, wholesome and nice. To the detriment of believers everywhere, it has become trendy not to preach on the Bible’s unpleasant verses.

We have “trendy” Christianity because too many churches are following the worldly passion of wanting the latest and the in-thing. Isn’t it amazing that one church does or says something unbiblical, or promotes some unscriptural idea: then others copy it, not bothering to see what the scriptures say. That’s how so many of today’s mistaken ideas originated, and why so much correct biblical doctrine has been replaced with the incorrect.

It is also why “church” today bears little resemblance to what we read in Acts. Check everything said and heard against what the Bible says.

[I'm not in "Private Messenger" so can't reply to your emails. I live outside the US. You can reach me at saul2_au at yahoo dot com

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