It’s unloving to not tell the person on the train tracks about the oncoming train. Likewise, it is unloving not to warn the sinner about the wrath of God that is to come. Beyond our duty to warn unbelievers to flee from the wrath to come in the refuge of Christ, when we deny or minimize God’s wrath we also deprive our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ of a greater understanding of God’s love and mercy toward them in Christ. 

Devotion: There are many today who do not believe in the wrath of God, which Scripture defines as God’s righteous hatred against sin. Of course, those who are non-religious or who belong to another religion don’t readily admit that Yahweh’s anger burns toward sin and that he will one day bring judgment on the earth for its iniquity. Sadly, however, in that group of wrath deniers are whole swaths of professing Christians. Universalists, for example, hold that everyone will be saved. They openly deny that God is wrathful and that he will judge the wicked.

But there are also those who deny God’s wrath in practice. These would be the professing Christians and professing Christian churches who don’t necessarily teach against the reality of God’s wrath, but who ignore its reality in what they do teach and in how they live. Foolishly taking the “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” approach these churches avoid the topics of sin, God’s wrath, judgment, and the need for change and repentance. If those topics are broached at all they are quickly minimized, usually done so through an overemphasis of God’s love, mercy, and patience. That may come as a shock, but yes, it is possible to overemphasize those wonderful attributes of God. But when someone holds up God’s love or mercy as a cover for one’s sin, that’s a telltale sign that they do not have a balanced understanding of who God is.

This denial of God’s wrath, whether willfully or ignorantly, shouldn’t surprise us, however. This has been the prevailing worldview of mankind since the fall. It was true in the days of Noah, who was a herald of righteousness and yet was not believed by his contemporaries (2 Pet. 2:5). We can imagine as he was building the ark and his neighbors came by to ask him what he was doing. Perhaps he told them about the coming flood, God’s righteous judgment toward sin, and plead with them to repent. A likely response: “You are crazy Noah.

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