2087) Depending on how you were raised, you formed opinions as to who God is and how he operates.  

Unfortunately, we often conclude many things about who God is based on things we see and hear.  

Like gossip, it’s always better to go to the source of the matter in question, rather than forming your own conclusions. So we’ll look in the Bible.  

John 10:10 is a verse I know from childhood. It tells us Jesus came to give abundant life. But that is the end of the verse. The beginning tells us; the thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy.  

The apostle John set these things up as a contrast. First, he tells us who God is not: a thief, a murderer and a destroyer. Instead, John tells us Jesus (God) gives abundant life.  

I think it’s important to note what God is not. He isn’t a thief who enters our lives and steals from our families, circumstances and more. These are things we often see in times of trial.  

John is also telling us God is not a murderer. He doesn’t sit up in heaven and play a cosmic chess game and move people into the destruction chamber, like a murderer would do. His actions are just.  

Finally, John tells us God is not a destroyer. He’s not looking down from heaven and deciding to just destroy things, though destruction may happen. A destroyer is anyone who does these things to others and to things that don’t belong to him.  

As I write this minute, I find myself getting bogged down into the problem of evil and what God does about it, but for now; I see the contrast John is making. We have and are thieves, murderers and destroyers, but Jesus came to give us abundant life.