Imagine a world where everything happens just as it must. No choices, nothing but the necessity of existence. Each piece playing its part no more, no less. Complete harmony of motion, nothing out of place.
John Lennon wrote the song Imagine about a world like this(though I doubt he realized what he was suggesting). And people ask all the time, “If there is a God, why didn’t He create the world without evil?.” So, let’s look at that question as we begin our discussion of love. Couldn’t God create a world where no one did anything wrong, where there was no hate, greed, division, or violence?
In our age of computer simulations, we think we know the answer to this. Of course, he could! So why didn’t he? I mean, if we can create a simulated world where everyone behaves just as they should, why would God create this one? Many would argue that since we don’t live in a world like that, then either there is no God or maybe God is not great, as the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens once wrote.
Here’s the thing: we have all wondered about evil, and we have all asked why. But if you are like me, we do not always think about it very deeply, and when we do, we do not always think about it very objectively. Do we really want to be Sims in a world where we only do what we must? Did Christopher Hitchens want that? I doubt it since he made his entire career out of being a critic of culture, politics, and religion. Those are all things that would have to go to make this Utopian dream a reality. To have a created world of perfect order seems to require a world where living beings are reduced to simple cogs in a machine, with no meaningful choices available, doing everything just as they must to maintain the perfect order.
What does all this have to do with love?
Love is a lot of things, but one thing it can’t be is coerced. Love can’t be forced, and it can’t be taken. Love can only be given. Consider these passages:
...God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 ESV)For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.... (John 10:17-18 ESV) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9 ESV)
Love is benefiting others at my expense. This is what God did by giving us His Son. And it is what Jesus did by laying down his life for us. Love is a choice we can all make. If someone else forces, coerces, or simply creates a world with no other available choices, there can be no love.
Simply put, evil is necessary if love is possible. If non-love(evil) is not possible, then neither is love. If non-love is possible, it will happen, but then so will love. The price of love is very high, but so is its value. Valuable things are always expensive. Love was so valuable to God that he was willing to give his Son. It was love that caused Jesus to value our restoration to the Father so much that he was willing to give his life for us. In fact, love was so valuable to God that he was willing to endure ages of evil for the eternal good that love would make possible. God was not creating Sims in a game for His entertainment. He was creating children. Children in His image, with the ability to choose, create, and love. That same ability to choose good and love is the very ability that gives us the ability to choose evil and hate.
Now, there are many in both the atheist and theist camps(Christians included) that would have us believe that free will essentially does not exist. That all things are either mechanically determined if you’re an atheist or divinely determined if you subscribe to certain forms of theism. Either way, though, it seems to me that the entire concept of love is destroyed by determinism. With no free choice to love(or not), there can be no love. Love can not be coerced or determined by others. Oddly enough, evil also becomes a meaningless concept without the ability to choose. Since everything is what it must be, there can be no violation and, therefore, no evil in a deterministic world. It is what it is, as the saying goes.
Without love, everything that makes life meaningful and valuable ceases to exist. This is what I meant by subtitling this article, “love is not trivial.” God is love, and this world reflects that reality. We reflect that reality by our ability to love. We live in a world where love is possible, but for such a world to exist, evil must also be possible.
God is love, but he is under no obligation to love. The thing that makes God’s love amazing is its very unnecessary nature. For God is also just and righteous. God, in His justice, could have rightly ended us long ago. It was God’s unnecessary love that motivated Him to find another way to satisfy the demands of His justice. And it was the same unnecessary love that motivated the eternal Son of God to become human and die in our place to satisfy the demands of justice.
In doing this, Jesus not only satisfied the justice of God but also showed us the true nature of love and of God. Love is giving of yourself for the benefit of others.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17 ESV)
God’s gift of His Son Jesus was not necessary for Him. It was a gift of His love to us. And our response to that gift is not necessary either. But thankfully, now, by the grace of God, we can respond by turning back to God, recognizing and confessing our true state before God. And by that same gift of grace, we can believe in the One that God has given to save us - Jesus. And now, through this faith by His grace, we have been set free to live and to love again.
This week, read John 3 again, but this time in the light of the unnecessary nature of love, and let God’s Spirit overwhelm you with a fresh revelation of the love of God. I pray that this week, we all allow that same unnecessary self-sacrificing love of God to flow through us to others as we go about our daily lives.
Have a great week!
