Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. Romans 11:22.

God is love and God is just. God’s justice is his love labouring to make us lovable (C S Lewis). When our sin is abhorrent to us as it is so manifestly to God, we may understand a little of

his holy anger against that which is destroying us.

He has given us ten commandments (not ten suggestions) to preserve a moral environment in which humans can survive. God’s kindness and severity are joined together in the Bible, and what God has joined together let not the pharisees or the sentimentalists separate (even if there is great mystery here).

The judge of all the earth will act justly, he can do it without our help, and that’s comforting.

May the ‘centre and soul of every sphere’ be centre of all your thinking and speaking and acting. Amen.