If God were all loving, He would not allow any part of His creation the ability to reject Him, and consequently be eternally separated from Him. But God’s gift of free will to us is indeed that – a gift. The Lord respects our freedom and so allows us to choose or reject Him. He wants us to choose Him more than the greatest saints and angels, even Holy Mary, wanted to obey Him, but He still honors our decision.
If God had not given us free will, we could not genuinely love Him, for love is an act of the will, a free choice. If we did not have free will, we would be forced to choose the Lord, which would take away any act of the will on our part. God gave His Only begotten Son for our eternal salvation, and He greatly desires our love back, but He does not force it from us. God gives us manifold graces and chances to go to Him, but we have to make the final decision to love Him – He does not coerce us into loving Him. “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside” (Problem of Pain, pg 130, C.S. Lewis).
God’s gift of free will to us does not limit His power, because He cannot do evil. By our nature as God created it, not having free will would imprison us into choosing one thing, be it pleasing or displeasing to God. Free will, as God has given it to us, is the ability to choose between multiple means to reach a certain end. As discussed earlier, if the Lord did not give us free will, our actions would have no meaning because our will would not have the ability to make any decisions, and thus we would be unable to love. What makes us different from every other living organism in creation (except the angels) is that we have an intellect and a will. The property of the intellect is knowing, and that of the will is loving. Therefore, being able to know and to love is integral to our human nature – and, when knowledge is perfected, it only serves to deepen love, meaning that love is the highest faculty. Clearly, then, removing one’s ability to love would be evil, because that would be a privation of the good. Therefore, it is contrary to God’s nature to not give intelligent beings the ability to love, which is only possible if they have free will.