I reject both of these extremes:
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The Hakuna matata gospel of universalism and the controlling “love” God who is going ignore your choices and make you fit into His idea of what is right eventually. And all the talk of judgement, hell, and eternal punishment in the Bible is just to be ignored. Likewise we are to ignore the fact that life isn’t anything like this either.
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The hellfire gospel of the wrathful watchmaker God seeking vengeance against any who dare to think for themselves and do what is right as best as they understand, because the only virtue is cowardice and crawling before the hate-filled God being thankful that you are not the one getting stomped on. This is the racketeering gospel according to the mafia who want to love you and protect you from themselves.
Neither of these sound like love to me. But there is a balance between these extremes…
- God chose love and freedom over power and control to create life because the whole point is to have a real relationship with others who also make choices and thus have their own share of responsibility in what ultimately comes about. Thus He is a parent who raises His children, but lets them live their own life even when it hurts to watch them self-destruct refusing love and help. Thus the talk in the Bible of love, judgment and eternal punishment are taken seriously, because God is warning us of a danger which is real and important. The experience and hardships of life also fits since it would be teaching us the importance of making the right choices.