False Choices
“God is a righteous judge … who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.” Psalm 71:11-13 (ESV)
Have you ever heard someone ask questions that sound something like this: “If God is so loving, why does He allow suffering?” Or perhaps, “Why would a truly loving God punish someone for being born the way He created them?”
These are examples of what are known as “false dichotomies” or “false choices.” False choices are statements or questions where someone argues there can only be two possible choices in a situation, and if you choose one, the other can’t be true.
While it might seem reasonable to ask such questions, these types of false choices are usually based on the self-centered nature of our times, a belief rejecting the concept that a perfect and holy and loving God would ever punish, inconvenience, or demand any sort of accountability from humans for their actions.
In these situations, we’re led to believe there are only two extreme options to choose from when, in reality, life – and faith – is far more colorful and varied.
Love or Law
For instance, some say we must choose between following God’s law and experiencing His love, as if they’re at odds with each other. In this false choice, law, or rules, or boundaries of any sort are completely in conflict with “love.”
People who believe this consider Christian beliefs proposing any sort of limits on behavior or teaching that certain acts or attitudes are sins, and so forth, to be wrong. Their answer often takes the form of “God is Love, He doesn’t really care that I am doing what you, with all your rules, say is wrong.”
Yet Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” God’s commandments are expressions of His love, designed to protect and guide us toward a fulfilling life. All God’s commandments can be understood to flow beautifully from His love for us.
Both situations are true – God can love us and still ask us to follow His divine will, even when that means changing who we think we are.
Freedom or Rules
Others argue about rules versus freedom, suggesting that God’s rules and laws restrict our freedom. Yet, just as traffic laws are meant to keep us safe on the road, God’s laws are meant to steer us clear of danger.
The Apostle Paul taught in Galatians 5:13 that “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
God’s laws are not prison walls, they are defending walls. The truth sets us free – free from the bondage of sin. And true freedom is found within the boundaries of God’s loving guidance.
Love or Punishment
Then there’s the debate between love and punishment. Some believe that a loving God
would never discipline us. But just as loving parents discipline their children for their good, God disciplines us for our betterment.
Hebrews 12:6 assures us, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” His corrections are a sign of His deep love, helping us grow and avoid worse consequences.
God’s punishment exists to help an offender experience in a lesser way the consequences of sin so that they do not experience something worse, the full penalty of sin. In fact, only an unloving God would refuse to apply proper punishment when necessary.
Nowhere in Scripture is this more clearly explained than in the Book of Job. Job, a man of great wealth who was also upright and blameless in God’s eyes, is allowed to suffer, something he considers punishment.
Yet, as God ultimately reveals to Job, suffering is a means which He uses to perfect us to change us. Suffering allows Him to manifest Himself in our lives in greater degrees, suffering softens our heart. Suffering, even if it takes the form of punishment, humbles us and pushes us to cry out to Him, to ask Him for help for Him to come closer to us in a ever more closer relationship.
Love or Hell
Finally, there’s the troubling question of love versus Hell. How could a truly loving God allow Hell to exist? Understand this: Love is not true love without the freedom to choose it.
In fact, God’s love requires Hell since love first requires freedom to choose. Without freedom there can be no genuine love.
Yes, Hell is described as painful. But when humans refuse to choose the glorious end God intended for us, the results are painful. Yet that pain seems self-inflicted, rather than merely a punitive measure of God who lovingly and respectfully permits (perhaps reluctantly – for He does wish to save us) those who reject him to live apart from Him.
Hell isn’t God’s way of pushing us away; it’s the tragic result of a person choosing to live apart from Him. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus speaks of the final judgment, illustrating that eternal separation is not God’s desire, but a choice made by some who refuse His salvation through repentance.
If God could force a solution and require our presence in His heavenly kingdom no matter how we react to his kingship and sovereignty, then God would not be a God of love, He would be a slave owner.
Again, both sides are equally true – God’s love allows humans the freedom to choose Hell over Heaven. Hell is ultimately God’s way to respect of our freedom and of His loving refusal to force His will or law upon us.
The Truth of God’s Grand Design
Regardless of what is taught today from certain pulpits or sung in modern worship songs, God doesn’t fit into our neat, human-made categories. His love, His laws, His freedom, and even His discipline are all part of a grand design, woven together to draw us closer to Him.
When faced with these “false choices,” let’s ask for wisdom to see beyond the extremes and embrace the fullness of God’s truth. Let’s walk in the richness of God’s complex love, keeping our eyes on Jesus, who perfectly embodies truth, grace, and the path to true freedom.
May God always guide your path.