God's Anger: An Expression of Love

Psalm 30:4, 5

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

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God is love.

The depths of this statement are beyond measure and libraries upon libraries of books could be written and still fall short of conveying the depths of the riches of God's love. We think about the kindness of God to send his beloved Son to die a shameful death in our place. We think about the sweet gentleness of Jesus who cared for little children and who promises to be a good shepherd to his wayward sheep. We think about passages like 1 John 4, where the very nature of love is shown to be rooted in God himself:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12 ESV)

So, if God is fundamentally love, and he shapes and models the life of love that he calls us to lead, how is it that he is also angry? The Bible gives numerous examples of God's anger and wrath. In the Old Testament, we see the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the plagues against Egypt bringing a nation to its knees. We see the anger of God poured out on the Canaanite nations as Joshua leads the Hebrews into the promised land. We see God's judgment revealed against his own people as they are exiled from the promised land and subjugated to the rule of pagan kings in Babylon. Even in the New Testament, we see God strike down Ananias and Sapphira for their duplicity and greed (Acts 5), and we are reminded by Paul that God's wrath is still revealed against all manner of unrighteousness found in mankind (Romans 1:18ff). So how does this anger fit with God's love?

I believe that Psalm 30, and several other passages, provide the answer: God's nature is fundamentally defined by love, but this love can be expressed in anger. Imagine that your home has been invaded and a stranger has abducted your child. You engage the intruder as they are trying to escape with your child. Your heart is pounding, picturing what horrible fate this person has in store for the child you love. That intruder becomes the object of your anger, but only in corresponding measure to the love you hold for your child. The greater your love for the one, the greater your anger for the other. But the love is what is fundamental; the anger is derivative, contingent, a mere expression or byproduct of the love.

One clear example of this concept is found in Matthew 18:

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:2-6)

Drowning someone in the sea with a millstone around their neck does not sound very loving. But it is clear that this threat of angry judgment is completely fitting when the object of God's love is in danger. The innocent child is most loved when they are defended from injustice, even in a manner that conveys anger to the perpetrator of the injustice.

But what about God's eternal anger toward his creation promised in the threats of damnation in hell? How is hell an expression of love? This is perhaps one of the most difficult questions in all of Christian life and thinking. If I can imagine a God who does not condemn anyone to hell, am I not imagining a God more loving than the God of the Bible? One way to answer this is that our definition of love must not presume to be more right than God's definition of love, even if we can't wrap our head around it. That is one explanation, and there is truth to that. But, I also believe that God's love is reasonable and we must find a way to reasonably and wholeheartedly ascribe to God's definition of love, no matter how non-intuitive it may at first appear.

The only way hell can be an expression of love is by understanding God's love for his glory. The triune God has enjoyed the fellowship of eternal love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all eternity past and all eternity to come (John 17:20ff). The glorious existence God shares as three persons in One is the fundamental source of value in all the universe. To pervert, distort, undermine, or rebel against this glory is to go against what is most loving and glorious in all the universe - and anger, even eternal judgment, is the corresponding expression of love toward all that would be opposed to his glory. Any sense of justice we experience is actually a shadow of God's love for his glory, since our righteous anger toward crimes against the innocent is really our recognition that God's image in man is being distorted. When we are compelled to defend the dignity and glory of other men, we are truly defending the image and glory of God in man.

A final answer to our trouble with hell is realizing how God has expressed his love in giving us his Son, who takes the penalty of sin away and cancels out any anger or condemnation for those who put their hope in Him. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the offer of a restored relationship with God - this answers the problem of hell like nothing else can. So, when the psalms remind us that God's anger is for a moment, but his favor is for a lifetime, it tells me that the anger is not what is fundamental to God's nature. Rather, his love and favor and patience are truly his heartbeat. He is slow in one, and abounding in the other. Our experience of love and justice agrees, and the cross of Christ testifies to it. And for that, I will give him all the glory.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalms 103:8)

God and Money

Luke 16:10-13

"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." 

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You cannot serve God and money.

This statement seems simple enough. But world history and the story of our own hearts show there is much misunderstanding and distortion of this very topic. We are a species who regularly twist God's good gifts by either ignoring them or worshiping them - and both are sins. Money is no exception.

We see the worship and service of money on a daily basis. Workaholics, gluttons, Wall Street fat-cats, white collar criminals, blue collar criminals, street corner drug deals, endless commercialization - the greed of the human heart can be expressed in the overindulgence of luxurious mansions, in the bitter envy of the suburban "Jones's" next door, and even in the materially poor who may have become chronically dependent on substances and disability checks. Greed can be found in any human heart and we are all prone to it - prone to be consumed with what we want, rather than being grateful and generous with what we already have.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:10)

Here, Paul reminds us that money is a dangerous temptation that can lead us to all kinds of evil. Jesus makes the same point when he cautions that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He also tells the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in this chapter to drive home this point. Money can easily take the place of God, luring us away from faith in him with empty promises that claim to satisfy our deepest desires. Money is so dangerous because the fantasy of limitless buying power seems to offer so much and distracts us from the (actually) limitless promises of love and life offered in the gospel.

But there is an opposite sin related to money - ignoring and devaluing it completely. Notice that Paul condemned the love of money - not money itself. Just because something is falsely worshiped does not mean it is not really a good thing created by God to be used for his glory. Sex can be worshiped too, but we know it is a good gift if enjoyed in the way He designed it to be enjoyed. Money, at its core, can be seen as not just morally neutral but actually good - a tool that was invented to make human creativity more efficient and productive. The cultural mandate of Genesis 1-2 conveys that having dominion and wise stewardship over the earth's resources is integral to what it means to bear God's image. We image him when we build, when we create, and even when we use money in wise and generous ways.

The parable of the dishonest manager in this chapter speaks to both the sin of greed and the sin of ignoring money completely. Jesus clearly calls the manager dishonest, thus highlighting his greed and sinful behavior. But his shrewdness and cleverness is commended and given as an example of wise dealing with money. He's saying "If the greedy liars of the world can manage to turn a bad situation for a profit, how much more should the sons of God be able to make wise decisions with the resources and opportunities they are given?" He says we should be faithful with money in this life so that we can be entrusted with true riches. In other words, when we keep a budget, save for retirement, invest in a business, and give generously, we are using scarce resources creatively to image God and prove our wise faithfulness before God.

We must model his wisdom in dealing with the good gift of money, while simultaneously running from the temptation to put all our hope in riches which will never satisfy the longings that only God himself can fulfill. To fail in either extreme is to sin against our Maker. Mark Driscoll sums it up this way: "Wealth is a wonderful tool and a horrible god."

Fortunately, the gospel provides the solution to our problems with riches. At the cross, Jesus gave up the riches of heaven to make us rich in eternal blessings:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

We have been given limitless wealth in being given God's own Son! Paul says we now have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm (Eph. 1:3) and if he gave us his Son, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things! (Rom. 8:32). Likewise, we are now called to use our time and money wisely and generously, fleshing out this gospel of grace in our own lives day by day. By doing so, we show that our treasure is in heaven and others may turn from the false idol of money and find riches in Christ as well.