God protects human free will

By Msgr. John Wynand Katende

Posted on: Saturday, 18th July 2026.

I believe we get bewildered when God allows evildoers to coexist with good people. More so, we get scandalized when He lets the evil doers prosper! This is known as the "problem of evil."

Theologically speaking, God’s ways are not our ways. He judges differently from us. That is why He forbids us to judge others according to human standards. God allows bad people to live alongside good people out of patience, to allow time for repentance, and to protect their free will.

The Book of Genesis emphasizes that every individual is created by God and in God’s own image. From this viewpoint, no one is beyond the reach of divine love or redemption, and both the "good" and the "bad" are part of a larger, divine nature. Christianity suggests that all people fall short of perfect goodness, and that God's grace is equally necessary for everyone (Romans 3:23). While people may be categorized by their actions in a temporal or worldly sense, the ultimate question of whether a person belongs to God usually centers on faith, redemption, and an individual's personal choices.

Christianity teaches that God is patient and delays judgment to give everyone a chance to change their ways and seek redemption. As Psalm 130 says, if God were to strictly punish humanity for every sin, no one would survive. We would all eternally be separated from Him. He values genuine love and faith, which require our exercise of freedom to choose. Eradicating bad people immediately would require overriding human free will completely. Here lies the significance of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30. It is explained that removing the wicked too early could unintentionally harm the innocent who are still growing alongside them.  

Jesus is, essentially, talking about our relationship of adoption by God, through baptism (Romans 8:15). Once we receive Jesus as the Seed sown in us, we become united with Him. He, in turn, begins to sow us together with Him in the field of the world, as children of the kingdom. Similarly, the devil tempts us to use our freedom to live according to the world and the flesh. We end up relating to this reality as wheat and weeds; children of the kingdom versus those of the evil one. So we should examine ourselves accordingly.

By this parable, Jesus also invites us to exercise the same patience and prudence as we proclaim the kingdom of God. We can’t judge people by their present appearances. We need to wait until the end, when Jesus Himself will judge. Without minimizing the evil being done, Jesus wants us to prioritize the growth of the wheat more than seeking to eliminate the weeds.

 By the same parable, Jesus is saying that we shouldn’t be surprised or overly discouraged when we find “bad seed” in the Church, even among those who lead and teach, like the clergy and religious, who are supposed to be living by the highest standards of all. We should focus on inspiring others by the example of our own merciful fidelity, until the end, while asking Him to help us bring about much more good seed.

God is just, and for that reason won’t declare the guilty guiltless, but He’s also trying to bring the guilty to repentance. That’s one of the reasons why He waits until harvest time. Here, we need to think about the great saintly converts, like St Paul. Once an ardent persecutor of Christians, he became one of the most prolific missionaries, apostles, and theologians in early Christianity.

God invites us to be patient and prudent, like Him. The first step is by worshipping Him, in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). During Mass, we should focus on how Jesus plants Himself anew in us, through the Word of God and the sacrifice. Once we receive Jesus, He transforms us to be kind and merciful, slow to anger, and full of grace. Then we shall not so much be worried about separating wheat from weeds, but making as much wheat as possible grow and yield a rich harvest for God (Matthew 13:23).