What was your picture of God growing up? I know what mine was. It was of an older man in a white beard and white robe, sitting on a throne. God loved me but was more concerned with what I did wrong. God was looking down from heaven and looking to punish me for my sins. God would love me more if I did what was right but love me less and punish me when I did what was wrong. I learned much about the God of wrath, judgment, and punishment. Let me explain.

A Punishing God

I still remember when I decided to become a Christian. I wanted to be baptized because I was taught that if I didn’t get baptized, I would fall under the wrath of God and would go to hell. This image was burned into my mind as a young boy of 10, almost 11 years. I heard sermon after sermon about my sin and the punishment that would follow. I got a picture that God could not even look at me until I had been baptized and “made my life right.” Yeah, I often heard that in sermons: “Make your life right!” To make my life “right,” I needed to repent and be baptized, and I would not have to live in torment in the fires of hell but would receive God’s grace and get to live with God forever in heaven. I believed that was the only way God could love me.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This is a part of my faith journey. I honestly am thankful that I had people who loved me and were concerned about my soul and relationship with God. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without these faith experiences in my spiritual journey. However, I don’t believe I received the whole story about God. Perhaps I could have had a very different picture of God growing up. Unfortunately, I received a “Punishing God” picture because it had been handed down to others, who in turn handed it down to me.

Is there a hell? Yes. Is there punishment and wrath? According to Scripture, there is. But what is interesting is that God’s Word speaks more about grace and love than about punishment and wrath. In fact, that is the whole thrust of God’s story. Our Father is doing everything possible to bring us back to Him, not turn us away. Fear of punishment is not how God wants us to come to Him (although we might start there). Love is why God wants us to come to Him. As 1 John 4:18-19 tells us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” 

God wants us to live in love, not in fear. So, if this is true, then what is punishment for? I’m glad you asked!

A Pruning God

I’m so glad God has patiently walked with me through my faith journey. As I have walked with the Father, I have come to know Him in a different light. When I was a child, I also knew my dad loved me, but I feared his punishment. Later in life, I knew why he punished me. It wasn’t because my dad wanted to bring me pain, but more so to help me avert it. He wanted the best for me, not to bring me into submission.

Our heavenly Father is the same. In our early years of walking with the Father, we may fear Him for His punishment. But as we grow in faith, we know that it is not about punishment but rather discipline and pruning. Discipline in Scripture is not about handing out pain as a consequence of sin. Discipline is about training in righteousness and holiness. In Deuteronomy 8:5-6 we are taught, “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.” 

The Israelites would wander and be tested in the wilderness for forty years, not because God wanted to bring them harm but instead to help them develop into His people. This walking “in fear” with the Father is about knowing who God is and who you are not. It is about living in love and reverence for the one who brought you into existence. Discipline is God’s way of leading us into a life of holiness in which we get to walk with Him. As the Hebrew author says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:5-11)

God is wanting to yield in us a fruit of righteousness and holiness. To do that, God must prune us. Jesus talks about this pruning that God does through Him. In John 15:1-2 Jesus tells us, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” This is a powerfully affirming passage. Why? God does not prune the unfruitful but the fruitful. So, when you are being pruned, it is because God sees your fruit and wants to make you even more fruitful. He is not pruning you to punish you but to make you grow and flourish. 

And so, we move from a Punishing God to a Pruning God. As we grow spiritually as disciples, we see God’s hand in pruning our lives to help us become what He has always intended—to make us perfect and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:4). I’m thankful that I no longer see God in the harsh and punishing way I once did. Instead, I see Him lovingly pruning that which makes me unfruitful. He is growing me so that I can bear fruit, which indicates that I am His and He is mine. I am being pruned, not because of what I have done wrong, but because of the good that God sees in me that He wants to grow in even more abundance. Praise the Father!