What is Unconditional Love?

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another … “(1 John 1:5-7).

God’s light gives us help in darkness, for when light is present, darkness must yield. God’s light is His love for us. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “It is not simply that God ‘loves,’ but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature” (The Attributes of God, A.W. Pink).

Love is that unseen presence that swells your heart with joy; that fills your body, and makes you feel strong and confident. It’s that virtue that makes you want to help someone, gives you that sigh when you see a breathtaking landscape; that gives you that twinkle in your eye when you see someone you love. In the presence of God we are overwhelmed with love, it can be sensed, felt deep within our very being, and with it, the perfect knowledge that it is God within you that gives you that sense of being.

The evidence of our love is in the mercy we offer to those around us, it illustrates that even our enemies can be loved because of mercy. Our goal should be to love as God loves, loving others for the sake of who they are, not what they believe. When somebody is convinced that their life is right and their feelings genuine, then they are tied to their convictions, it is something that can only be changed if they are willing to change themselves, by telling them their life is wrong is a direct attack on their character, and will do more harm than good.

To teach someone that there is a better way can only be taught by our own actions. Christians themselves have hurt their own reputation because of their convictions. It took them their entire lives to get into the place they are at, yet they are determined that another can adjust quickly to something they took a life time to achieve. Each of us will have people in our lives who do not believe as we do–but don’t fret about it, Jesus Christ had His Judas, Paul had his thorn, and God has our accuser, Satan, constantly nagging Him about the shortcomings of the human race.

Patience and perseverance go hand in hand with love. If God had no patience, the human race would have been annihilated millennia ago. Satan would have been destroyed long before his influence infected mankind. God’s very presence in the hearts of men illustrates His unlimited love.

Many men in the world despise God, yet His mercy is divine–for even Satan is allowed to walk to and fro through the earth, (Job 2:1-6). There is no hope for Satan, yet God has prolonged his existence. From the very beginning Satan has been there pleading his case before God, trying to convince God that even the strongest will succumb to the draw of power. Satan felt he could do a better job managing life than God, and throughout time it has been a desperate struggle for him to prove the legitimacy of his defiance.

Men who are convinced that God is wrong in the way He has dealt with the human race are following the same path as Satan. They are convinced that there is a better way than how God runs things, but how does one consider themselves better than their own creator? “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder,‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” Romans 9:20-21.

Is your love unconditional? Or is it limited only to those who believe as you do? How do you demonstrate the love that God has placed in your heart?

Here is an article that gives a good explanation of God’s love written by Arthur W. Pink (http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Attributes/attrib_15.htm)