Why did God create the world, knowing it would become sinful?
This question is answered by Archpriest Vadym Hladkyi, a cleric of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC.
Indeed, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and all-sufficient. The last attribute means that God contains within Himself the fullness of being and has no need for anything or anyone outside Himself. Therefore, God had no necessity to create the world or mankind. We were not necessary to Him, but we were desired – just as a child is desired by a mother.
Thus, God, who by His very nature is Love (1 John 4:8), created the world and man out of love. And as the Apostle says, “love seeks not its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
At the same time, love is unthinkable without freedom. If there were no freedom to reject, no possibility of unbelief, evil, or sin, then there would be no love. It would become a purely mechanical relationship, and man would be reduced to a bio-robot programmed for goodness and obedience.
But since God created man truly free – capable of making choices and bearing responsibility – He will not override or cancel that freedom. Our God is not an executioner who punishes every time a person misuses that freedom. He permits evil in order that freedom remain real, that love may be mutual, that faith may be trusting, and that man might become the image and likeness of God not mechanically, but consciously and responsibly.
