Ask An Eastern Orthodox Christian: Does God Punish Us?
By Nick Damascus
Does God punish us and will he destroy us?
God, who is our father in heaven, created us as his children in his image (love) and likeness (holiness, righteousness). As a parent, he loves each and every one of us unconditionally, believers and non-believers. He constantly chases after us to save us from our own self-destruction, and as any good parent that loves their children, he would not intentionally harm them nor destroy them. Our Christian God is a God of love who does not destroy any created human being or heavenly hosts such as angels.
Because God loves us unconditionally, he gives us the complete freedom/free will to make choices without interfering unless we may petition him, as in prayer, to potentially intervene.
As far as punishment goes, it may seem God is punishing us, but he is not. It is the consequences of our own actions that we suffer from. If one shoots themselves in the foot, God did not do it; you did, resulting in your own misery and pain. So too, when we love one another, we reap the consequential benefits of love and being loved.
Our Choices Determine Our Destiny
To sum things up, at the Final Judgement, we determine our own destiny. The way we live our lives will determine where we will reside. Those that do not love one another and do not believe in God have already condemned themselves. In 1 John 4:8 it reads, “He who does not love does not know God for God is love.”
One could say that God, who loves his creation unconditionally, does not so much judge us. Rather, he respects our own decision as to the life we have chosen to live, thereby dividing us accordingly in the final day of reckoning.
In the New Testament, Matthew 25:31-46 reveals what will take place on that Final Judgment Day. The righteous sheep will inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God, and the cursed goats shall experience separation. Interestingly both goats and sheep were surprised as to where they would be spending eternity!
The Goats
Those that have freely chosen to live a prideful, self-centered, and unrepentant life without love “will go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).
This condition is best described in the following scripture:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
The Sheep
Those that have chosen a life that is kindled with love for others and their creator, Christ will say to them, “Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:14).
This condition is best described in the following Scripture:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away
– 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Salvation for Eastern Orthodox Christians is best understood by the two great commandments in Matthew 22:37-40. “Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
One could say that we are present on this earth not just to love one another pulling love off the shelf when needed, but more so to “become love” to one another and all of creation.
Reading Suggestions
- “Toolkit for Spiritual Growth” by Fr. Evan Armatas
- “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives” by Elder Thaddeus
- “The Orthodox Way” by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
- “Courage To Pray” by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
- “Knowledge of God” by Harry Boosalis
- “The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church” by Vladimir Lossky
Ask an Eastern Orthodox Christian
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