In recent months, I’ve been meditating on what the Bible calls “the wrath of God” and how this picture fits with our understanding of a good Father in heaven. We do see some pretty graphic pictures in the Old Testament of God seemingly pouring out His wrath on people who violate His laws of holiness. Even the New Testament speaks of the wrath of God coming against the “sons of disobedience” in Ephesians 5:6-7 while encouraging the reader not to be partakers with them.
Does our good Father and Creator of us all really desire to pour out His wrath on those He loves, especially when we know Jesus came to take away the sin of the world? In my mind, this seems to be very confusing…or could there be another way to look at this?
First, we need to look at some of the words and context used in these verses so we can have a clearer understanding of what is really being said here.
Ephesians 4 and 5 goes through a whole litany of what appears to be “dos and don’ts” in the kingdom of God, but with a little more enlightening, one can see that this is really more a list to help the reader recognize some unwholesome fruit reflecting incorrect thinking on their part. We all know that salvation is a free gift, not something we can earn. Along with this gift comes our supernatural inheritance and destiny for our lives. Again, this cannot be earned by our self efforts, but rather occurs very naturally as our minds are renewed.
The whole issue of sin has really been an problem with our minds and how we think. Planting wrong thinking in the minds of man has been the plan of our enemy from the very beginning.
Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So if we consider our Father to be a wrathful, angry, and punitive God, then the enemy will make sure we see stealing, killing, and destruction in our lives, a naturally occurring result of partaking in the lies of our enemy. He loves to do this and then get man to blame it on God.
Let’s look at verse 6 of Ephesians 5 again. It says, “Let no one deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
The key to all this is the deception of vain or worthless words which some have chosen to believe. The word “disobedience” is really defined as disbelief. So again, what or who we believe affects how we live in this world…and the next world as well!
Part of the definition of “sin” itself actually means to be without a share in or to miss out on a part assigned to one…our destiny!
From the beginning of time, each of us have been created with unique and amazing gifts, an impartation from our Father. These gifts were designed for us to use and enjoy within our Father’s kingdom for all eternity. As we grow and mature on earth, the beauty of these gifts was intended to bless and encourage others in their own maturity process.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life we were all intended to participate in. The choice always has been ours. My prayer for you today is that you join me in choosing to believe all that we have been promised in the Kingdom of God while basking in the love and favor of our Father!
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