God so loves, yet a consuming fire
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." (NKJV) 2 Peter 3:10
It is indeed true what we all think about God as being loving and forgiving. God, from generation has shown love and mercy on mankind. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely to the extent that; today, many of us have capitalised on this nature of God and continue to blatantly sin against Him because He is all loving and forgiving. The question is what Paul asked in Romans 6:1; must we continue in sin for grace to abound?
A time ago, I had a bible study with a friend and explained to him the loving nature of God and how important it is for him to give his life to Christ. He asked me if this world will ever come to an end and that for him if this is the nature of God then the end time destruction will never happen because no character of this kind will ever destroy his people.
Beloved one, it is important to see God in two persons. In as much as he so loves, he can destroy when the need be. 2 Peter 3: 9 reads, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”. We are still alive because God wants us not to perish. In time past, God punished man because the thought of man was continually evil.
Let us look at two accounts in the bible: The first account is the account of Israel. God chose Israel as his people and walked with them for several years. At many instances where the sins of Israel became awful, God caused them to go into various captivities (see e.g. the book of Judges, Daniel). The second account is the account of Noah. In Genesis 6:6, God asked Noah to build an ark and that the he was going to destroy the earth with water because the sins of man have grieved him and thus, he has regretted creating man. The bible says it took 100 years and over for the flood to come. It would not have been wrong for God to straight away cause the flood to come because the people have sinned, for where there is law; there is obviously punishment for law breakers. Yet the Lord provided several opportunities in terms of years for man to change his mind and be saved. This is love, but for 120 years man abused the chance and left God to carry out His punishment.
From these accounts, it is evident that what the Lord says shall come to pass. Brethren, in this time and age, it is not going to be captivity either is it going to be a flood but rather fire will be used to destroy the earth. I really do not want to imagine it, considering how careful I am when working with heat, thoughtless of being in the fire.
Let us from this devotion know this one thing, that our God so loves, yet a consuming fire and whatever he says shall surely come to pass. “Therefore what manner of person ought to be you...” 2 Peter 3:11