"Whom the lord loveth he chasteneth." Heb. 12:6. This well-known Bible passage troubled me for years. It seemed contradictory to other things I was learning about God and His relation to His children. I was growing to understand that God is infinite, unchangeable, perfect Love, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil." Hab. 1:13. This did not fit with the concept of a God who is alternately pleased and angry with His creation.
I was also learning the distinction between our real identity—made in God's image, spiritual and sinless—and the counterfeit sense of ourselves as sinning mortals. God cognizes us as we really are—spiritual and sinless. Still, that made me wonder how God, who knows nothing of a false, material sense of identity, could correct sinful, erring human behavior. I had to admit that "rebuke" is not necessarily coincident with "anger." Even a human father can correct a child from the standpoint of love, without losing his temper or even becoming irritated. But if our heavenly Father cannot behold evil or an evil mortal—neither of which has a place in His creation—what basis does He have for chastening us?
I found answers to my questions while studying this Bible passage: "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." Isa. 30:21.
