God is love!

Quite often I hear people (mainly nonChristians) question the fact that God is love and, if He is love, then why is there so much hurt and pain in the world.  So how do we know that God is love?  And when talking to a nonChristian saying that it says so in the Bible does not cut it so there must be another way.  Well... the other day I heard it explained this way: We know God is love because He gave up a part of Himself for us.  In sending Jesus to die in our place, a part of God Himself suffered for our sakes.  Another phrase I heard used was, "in a way He went through hell for us."

In response to the hurt and pain in the world I have a couple questions.  First, how would we have free will if God did not people make poor choices that result in hurt, pain, and loss?  Second, if you were God would you want a world full of people forced to worship you or a world partly full of people who choose to worship you?  If you prefer the latter of the two then there would have to be free will in the world.

Our actions and decisions affect more people than just ourselves.  Whether the outcome is good or bad, I am not the only one affected by my choices.  On some level, in some way, someone else (or lots of other people more accurately) are going to be affected.  If God were to only allow the good to affect us, if he were to not let any bad/hurtful/painful outcomes to affect us, then we would not have true free will.  So next time something causes hurt and pain to us lets remember that humans, angels, and demons all have free will and we live in a broken world.  Also, remember that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).