But God is a GOOD King

Alright so I'm touching back on a short conversation we had at the beginning of class today about how we are allowed to see God as a fun and loving Father but also how we can't forget that He is our King and that He rules over us. The problem I had with this was that the vibe that was going on in class sounded like the thing that was motivating us to acknowledge God as King was fear of His punishment if we didn't. Fear is always of the enemy. We can't be afraid of disobeying God because then our message to others would be, "You'd better make sure you respect the King, or He'll bring some bad stuff upon you and your family." That's not the Gospel! God is a King, but He is a GOOD King. I understand that we shouldn't just think that we can do whatever we want and expect everything to be fine, that's abusing grace. But there is a difference between a motive of defiance versus a motive of love. God's kingdom is also different from others because we aren't like ordinary citizens under rule that we should constantly be cautious of. But rather we are his children, which means all of us are princes and princesses! Cool stuff huh? As Christians we should be free to view God as a fun and loving Father, as well as a King, and not be afraid of punishment. Because if our hearts are ultimately wanting to glorify the King, than God's gonna honor that even if we totally screw up!