Why did God give men free will?

In another post, I raised the question, if God is good, then why is there evil, chaos and suffering in the world? I answered that these things result from being separated from Him. This begged the question, why would He separate Himself from us? The answer is a combination of two things: 1) Because He is holy and cannot tolerate sin, and 2) Because He gave human beings the free will to choose between Him and sin. And we chose sin. This led to the last question and the topic of this post, why would God give us free will if it led to so much suffering? And my short answer was His love demands it.

I think one of the most surprising characteristics of God is His humility. Yes, humility. God is humble in His very nature. The One who created all things, who is all powerful, all knowing, all present is also humble. This idea came to me while on a quest to understand His love. I was shocked by the thought of it and searched the Bible to see if this could be true. In the process, the idea that His love (and humility) demands He give us free will became more evident to me.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, NIV).

The word for “love” found in this verse in the original Greek language was agape. This love differs greatly from what we are used to thinking of as love. It is a divine love, a perfect love. It is the love that God is and has. It is described here in a series of 16 words/phrases. At least 4 of those could be used to describe humility: does not boast, is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking. Other translations say “does not seek the things of its own” instead of self-seeking. In other words, if you love someone, you do not force them to accept or love you.

1 John 4:8 tells us, “God is love” (the same Greek word is used – agape). And repeatedly the Bible tells us God loves us. Read again the description of love in the above verses in 1 Corinthians 13. Is not the idea of giving free will to us found there?

There’s another way of phrasing this. I think inherent in the idea of love is freedom. There is a famous quotation that starts out, “If you love something, set it free…” I think we all would rather be loved by someone freely of their choice, as opposed to demanding it. And this idea of freedom as something God wants to give us is presented in the Bible (James 1:25; John 8:32; Galatians 2:4; 1 Peter 2:16 et al.).

To conclude I want to finish off an earlier tangent. 🙂 Did I find evidence outside of ! Corinthians 13 that God is humble? Yes, I did. Jesus described Himself in Matthew 11:29 as “gentle and lowly in heart” (NKJV) or “humble in heart” (NIV). Jesus also humbled Himself like a servant in the act of washing the feet of His disciples at the last supper (Luke 13). In Philippians 2:6-8 (NKJV) it says,

“[Christ Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

But it was not just Jesus Christ who is described this way in the Bible. God the Father is also described similarly. In Psalm 113:5-6 (NKJV) it says,

“Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?”

And finally a beautiful verse from Isaiah 57:15 (NKJV):

“For thus says the High and Lofty One, Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

What an incredible and amazing truth. Oh that human beings would follow God’s example in this.