Is God Love or a Control-Freak?

The Bible says, “God is love,” so that means that nothing he asks of us is out of ill-will, harshness, or meanness (1 John 4:8, 16).  God never asks us to do anything that will result in our spiritual harm.  He has done and is doing all that he can divinely do to help us and still respect our freedom to choose.  Everything that God wants us to do is for our good.   

God is not a mean-spirited, selfish, power-hungry dictator, but a loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving heavenly Father (Psalm 103:8-14).   Even though we have rejected him and have resisted his will, he still loves us and sent Jesus to die on behalf of our sins so that we can be forgiven and be in a right relationship with him (Romans 5:6-11; 3:23-27; 1 Timothy 1:15).  Even when God judges us because of our disobediences to him, he acts in love and “disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness” (Hebrews 12:7-11).   When God says that he will punish us for our disobediences, he always relents if we repent (Jeremiah 18:7-8; Jonah 4:2).  

Because God’s commands are based on his divine nature and attributes, they are always reasonable to him.  He never acts “out of character,” i.e., he never does anything contradictory to his divine, loving and righteous nature.  He has a purpose and reason for everything he does and asks us to do.  As humans we may not always know or understand his motives and reasons.  Our ways and thoughts are not like God’s ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).  He is God and we are not.  He never asks us to do anything that is opposed to his righteous and loving nature.  Everything he asks us to do is because he loves us and desires that we become more and more like him.