If I told you that I made a bad mistake in judgment yesterday? Would you judge and/or condemn me? If I told you that long ago did some very bad things in my life? Would you think less of and forsake me ? If I told you that I struggle every day trying to do what I know I should do? Would you still respect me? If I told you that despite wanting to do things right, sometimes I fail miserably? Would you still love me?
The finger pointing and finger wagging side of Christianity never does anything good for struggling believers. The condescending and self righteous attitude manifested by those who refuse to believe they ever stumble or fall is nothing but pure hypocrisy. The attitude that places strings on love and respect is the same attitude that drives people away from our glorious faith instead of toward it.
Placing conditional strings on our love renders us incapable of manifest the greatest love of all, the love of God. God’s love is unconditional. God’s love is not dependent upon how good we are or what good we do. God is love and God loves you and me. This is perhaps one of the most fundamental things we need to know, believe and share with others.
If I only love you IF you please me, are nice to me, think highly of me or give things to me; my love is counterfeit, self-serving and hurtful. Loving only IF certain criteria are fulfilled is ugly and totally contrary to the love of God. God does not love us IF we get saved, love Him or sell all we have and give it to the church. The concept of loving IF is totally foreign to God.
Likewise, to only love BECAUSE of what someone says or does is no better than IF they do or say it. Loving BECAUSE of what has been done is conditional and God is unwilling to manifest such conditional love. God does not love us BECAUSE we got saved, devoted our life to Him or do good works.
There is only one way to define the love of God and that is that He loves us IN SPITE OF what we have done or not done. This unconditional love defines agape for it is in fact the very love of God. At the root of this unconditional love lies forgiveness, mercy and compassion. God loves us IN SPITE OF all we have done and His mercy and compassion allows Him to cover our sins with His love.
Have we not all endured times of intense condemnation because we felt we let God or His people down? Have we not all felt totally unqualified to be loved because of our inner doubts, fears and insecurities? In spite of all these things God continues to look tenderly upon us and with open arms beseeches us to come home to Him. That is beauty of the love of God.
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