What does Hell have to do with Love?

The most recent outbreak of worry that a prominent teacher is denying that God’s everlasting wrath (based on a publisher’s blurb? I’ll wait and see how things shake out after the book is released.), has got me thinking. I don’t think the Bible claims Hell is an exception to the rule that God is love. It is an application of that rule to those who insist on spurning God.

The Biblical doctrine of eternal conscious punishment as “fire” is premised on God’s love. God is loving and gracious and man responds to God’s love and grace with resistance and ingratitude.

Remember the warning attached to the Second Commandment:

I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me.

God’s wrath is His jealousy. Hell is his burning jealousy. Song of Solomon 8.6:

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; [or Hell]
It’s flashes are flashes of fire,
The very flame of the LORD.

Proverbs 27.4

Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,
But who can stand before jealousy?

God is loving and gracious. God pursues sinners. God offers forgiveness. But He will not be patient forever. And the very reason Hell is hot, is because such a great love has been spurned.

3 thoughts on “What does Hell have to do with Love?

  1. Jonathan R. Lightfoot

    I’ve always favored the view that hell is a sign of God’s love because it is the best thing God can give to someone who refuses his love, better than allowing them the freedom to continue to hurt themselves and others even more, and to grow worse and worse.

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  2. Kip' Chelashaw

    Another helpful angle is provided by the Trinity. The mutual glorification within the Trinity, alerts us to the zeal with which each member of the Godhead guards each other’s honour. Thus the Apostle John tells us that the Father intends it ‘that all may honour the Son’ (John 5:23). The Son in turns honours the Father (John 13:31) and the Spirit glorifies the Son (John 16:14). Think too of the stern warning against committing the unforgiveable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which provides us with a glimpse of the high honour that Son regards the Spirit. Set against this backdrop, the everlasting punishment of the wicked becomes more an expression of intra-Trinitarian love rather than an unjust expression of God’s wrath.

    Kip’ Chelashaw

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  3. Cedric Klein

    The only view of Eternal Hell I can fully reconcile with Divine Love is the Eastern Orthodox view that the Glory of God IS the Lake of Fire. C.S. Lewis’ view of Eternal Exile is second but that also runs into problems with the Divine Love being Absolute. Whenever I look at Judging Fire in Scripture, I see it always emanating from the Spurned Presence of God/Jesus.

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