Loving Our Enemies

Responding to my article, “Solution to a Christian dilemma”(April 29), the hosts of the program News Now aired on CHRY 105.5 FM, a campus community-based radio station operated from York University, Toronto, invited me on the program last Wednesday (May 18) to respond to some questions.

One of the questions had to do with God’s seeming inability to forgive the devil while He asks us, His children to forgive our enemies.  Is there a limit to God’s forgiveness?  Is God asking of us something that He is unwilling to do Himself?

My answer to both questions is, no.  The basis for this answer is Jesus Christ.  Jesus perfectly reveals the character of God.  Even when He was hanging on the cross, being brutally and mercilessly murdered, He prayed for His enemies, saying: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

But what is the situation with the devil?  Can the devil be forgiven?  Perhaps, it first begs the question, is there a devil?

It is not beyond reason to accept the existence of a devil.  If humans can choose to be evil, and we accept that spirits exist, then spirits can likewise choose to be either good or evil.  The devil is simply a spirit being who chooses to be evil.

But how could the devil choose evil if evil did not previously exist?  Does this mean that God created evil?  God did not create evil.  Evil is not something that has an independent existence as a reality in itself.  Evil is simply the distortion of that which is good.

This does not mean that the existence of good necessitates the existence of evil.  Good can exist independently with evil being absent as long as the good is not distorted.

The maintenance of a good design requires power.  Gravity, for example keeps us from floating off the earth into space.  However the existence of gravity does not necessitate people falling out of trees and breaking their necks.

Divine law which includes natural law provides for the unadulterated benefit and blessing of that which God originally created and declared, “Very good” (Gen. 1:31).  For this reason, submission and obedience to God is in the best interest of all created beings including the one who made himself a devil by his disobedience and rebellion.

Therefore, disobedience to God should not be seen as something that makes God angry as to evoke from Him a desire to punish.  The disobedient ones hurt their own selves.  God can protect and save, even from the evil ones, those who put their trust in Him.  God loves everyone, including those who hate Him.  He only pities their folly.

Thus, there is no limit to God’s desire and willingness to forgive.  His mercy endures forever (Ps. 107:1).  The problem with the devil is that he has made himself incapable of responding to love and forgiveness.  God will therefore restrain him and his host from creating complete chaos until they are eventually destroyed by the very distortions that they have helped to create.