Does God punish People?
In many places in the Bible, God demonstrates how kind and merciful He is. There's no doubt that God also punishes. But when God punishes, it's neither arbitrarily nor because He takes pleasure in punishing us. On the contrary: Rather, God wants to bless us humans and do good to us. For God is love. But because God simultaneously detests all evil and cares for the well-being of all people, He cannot simply tolerate injustice and sin. For this reason, God intervenes when people do evil, especially when they refuse to change their ways.
On the other hand, God patiently calls us humans to turn away from our stubborn and self-destructive ways so that He can forgive our sins and bless us. In this, we can recognize God's love and goodness. If God allows suffering, it is primarily so that we humans understand that a life without God and his commandments inevitably leads to misfortune and chaos, from which both we and others must suffer. The assumption that everything bad we encounter in this world is a punishment from God is false.
God punishes us to educate us, so that we learn to live according to his plan for our lives and in a way that is good for all people. We must understand that a life without God ultimately leads to eternal death. If God simply left us to our own devices, he would demonstrate that he is indifferent to us humans and our well-being. But because God loves us, God shows us the path that is best for us. However, most people don't want to listen to God or obey His commandments. Instead, they allow themselves to be guided by their own beliefs and selfish desires, with all the consequences we see in the world.
For this reason, God has announced judgment on all people, to banish evil from the world once and for all. This, too, demonstrates God's love for those who live righteously and suffer from the wickedness of this world. In this way, God offers all who love Him and sincerely strive for good a way out of this world of misery and a future in His everlasting Kingdom, where peace and justice will reign forever.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Blessed is the one whom God corrects;so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For He wounds, but He also binds up; He injures, but His hands also heal.
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.
I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I'll put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.