Is God’s Love Unconditional?*
How does the fact that God loves us affect whether we need to change?
How does the fact that God loves us affect whether we need to change?
*Reposted for new subscribers.
A while back I posted about How This World Is a Perfectly Safe Place to Be (link). I spent most of that post talking about how God’s agape love is the basis for our being safe in the invisible landscape even if the visible landscape is filled with perils.
I try not to constantly talk about Greek words, but I believe agape is a word with such exceptional meaning that one has to make an exception. If you want to review the 3 words for love in the New Testament check out my post linked above.
God’s Love Is Non-Contingent
“Unconditional love” is misused by our culture to mean love that doesn’t seek the best for the recipient, but in fact, reaffirms the worst in them no matter how self-destructive or abusive they may be. It says, “Stay just the way you are - never change.” Unconditional love is one of those Christian ideas that appeals to everyone. But the culture has taken the term much further than what is meant by God’s love in the scriptures.
Definition of Agape Love
In the post linked above we saw the definition of the special kind of love God has for us is: desiring the best for someone, and acting for their best. Of course, God knows that the best possible thing for people who are on a path of destroying themselves and others is not for them to be affirmed in their behavior. He would never say, “Stay just the way you are. Never change.” Love does not mean giving someone everything they want. You would never give a drug addict that you truly love a bottle full of opioids!
God’s love motivates him to seek us. We may not know that we need him, but he continues to act for our best interest even if we are not interested.
Jesus told a woman who was a social outcast because of her sex life, one who would never be accepted by the religious establishment:
John 4:23–24 (ESV): “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Notice I have emphasized the part where Jesus told this woman whom others would have never expected him to even talk to, that the Father is seeking people like her. The truth is God is pursuing us - He is pursuing you. The question is are you pursuing him?
God’s Love in Action
Peter wrote:
1 Peter 3:18 (NLT): Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
Even when we had ignored God and gone our own way, Jesus died on that exceptional Friday (link) to “bring us safely home to God.” That love not only desires the best for us, but also acts accordingly.
God’s Love is Always Working in Us to Make Us Better - to Give Us Character Like Jesus’ Character
Believers love the promise contained in Romans 8:28. It says:
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
Many of us have memorized that verse and are comforted as we go through various trials knowing not only that God loves us but also he is working everything out for our best. Please don’t overlook verse 29. The first word in verse 29 in the Greek is “because” (Check out Young’s Literal Translation to verify that).
Romans 8:29 (YLT): Because whom He did foreknow, He also did fore-appoint, conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be first-born among many brethren;
What Paul is saying is really wonderful. He is saying in one long thought, “God is not working everything out in our lives so they will be easy, or free from suffering. No. God is working everything that happens to us together for good because he decided a long time ago that he would form character in us that looks like the character of Christ!!” Amazing. His goal is not to make your life comfortable; He is working to make your life count! When he has formed Jesus’ character into us, then we can respond to challenges the way Jesus would respond to them if he were in our shoes! If we have Christ’s character we can face suffering and death the way he faced them: with forgiveness and grace for those who killed him. Because, like him, we can know that when we step out of this body we will step into his presence and will receive a new assignment, because our eternal destiny in his great universe continues on.
God’s agape love is not contingent on what we do, but is always working on us and in us to shape us into something way better than what we are currently - the image of Christ.