We live in a culture where love is based on feelings, it is conditional, based on your current performance. I love you when….you look good, make good money, take care of my needs. The problem is when you don’t look your best, we have financial problems or we feel like our needs aren’t being met our relationship comes into question.
If we are not careful we will think that God’s love is just like ours and he loves us when we are good and doesn’t when we fail. The great thing about God is that he doesn’t respond to us based on his feelings, he responds based on his unchanging nature.
God has many attributes. He is all knowing, all powerful, always present, he is just and good, but the essence of his nature is love.
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
All of God’s plans flow from his nature. God created mankind because his nature is love. He didn’t create us because he was in great need of love. He created us because he needed a way to express his unconditional love, so he created us as the objects of his affection.
God’s nature of love can be described as “The unselfish giving of oneself for the highest good of another”.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God unselfishly gave the very best he had to offer (His son), so that the relationship that was severed through the fall could be reconciled.
Most of us have a theology that God’s love is unconditional, but I think we have all heard the voice of the accuser telling us that this time you went too far and now there is something you have to DO to restore your relationship with him. This can cause us to live on an emotional roller coaster of trying to please God, yet feeling like we failed him again, repent, only to start the crazy cycle over again.
Because God’s nature is love, the only way that he could ever stop loving you is to change his nature.
Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change.
So, his love truly is unconditional.
There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Hallelujah!
Maybe you are asking yourself why it’s so important to receive God’s unconditional love. For one thing it brings emotional stability into your life, secondly you cannot give something you have not received. The more you experience God’s unconditional love the more you are able to love others unconditionally and all of your relationships begin to become more fruitful.
Important disclaimer.
Some people think that because of this amazing truth they are free to do whatever they want. There is a difference between God loving you and being pleased with you.
Think about your own family. When my kids were young and I asked them to clean their room before I got home from work, if I went in to check to see if their room was clean and it had not been touched, I did not love them any less, but I was not pleased with their actions.
We should always do our best to follow God’s leading, not to prove our love for him but because when you love someone you always want your actions to please them.