I was eating a Doner Kepab & waiting for my bus on this sunny day in downtown Heidelberg, Germany. Amid the scores of German speakers, 2 men walked by talking in plain English. 1 was smiling & saying "the unconditional love of Jesus" as they walked. Unlikely as that senario was, it got me thinking. We want God to love us unconditionally, but do WE love Him unconditionally? Or only if He meets our standards? I have heard it said that most atheists are really just mad at God because they either feel they have not been treated fairly by God or that God has not met their expectations as to how He should govern things.
4 comments:
Great post. Something definitely to think about, and a hard thing to actually do...
Brian
Have actually thought about this alot. Accepting God's unconditional love has wrought unexpected changes and increases in my life. All good so far, though it was rough to actually understand that unconditional means without conditions.
Me too, man. I thought about it much, I mean. I believe God loves everyone and that Jesus died in order to offer all of us, whom He loves, payment for our sins/that which kept us from fellowship with Him. But God definitely doesn't accept anybody unconditionally. I mean, I recall Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying how he longed to gather him under his wings, so to speak, as a hen would gather her chicks, but that the chicks would not allow it. So I know then that not everyone who God loved enough to invite to His banquet will actually come. There's a gate that's narrow out there. It's God who wants relationship with us but expects it on His terms and not on ours. It's also, to me, like on the Matrix. We are out walking through life and doing our things. God, through the Holy Bible, through a word someone says, through circumstances, etc., puts out an escape for us. The phone is ringing, Neo. But Neo has to pick it up. Again, he has to respond on God's terms and not on his own. So, God's love is unconditional in its availability, but not unconditional in terms of who receives the actual benefit of it. He who loves me obeys my commands, I recall. So, we have an expectation to receive His love on His terms, to follow Him on His terms, and not ourselves or our heart or whatever we'd like to think seems just, right or fair. I would say the only party in the agreement which truely is required to love unconditionally is us. That might sound wrong and I'm trying to word it correctly. But that's basically it. It would take incredible humbleness and submission. God, you are right because You say You are. Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him. Shall I receive good from the Lord but not evil. It's unconditionally laying down ourselves and loving Him unconditionally. He makes the terms and conditions, rules, means and ways, right and wrong, etc., we don't get to do that. We just get to say "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord" and "in all of these things, Job did not sin by accusing the Lord of wrongdoing" or however it is worded. With that explanation, I can agree then that unconditional means without conditions. God sets them for us, but we don't get to set them for Him. He has set them all.
I also think this is true for person to person relationships for those that follow Jesus. We should love others and all of what we do towards others ought to be for the Lord's sake and in love towards God and towards them. But we are not to accept everyone unconditionally. To the unbelieving person, God allows us quite a bit of leniency as He works on them, partly through us. But towards others who say they follow Him, we have some pretty serious responsibilies about whether or not we are to accept them as followers together. We can love and pray for them but the Word of God :) is full of warnings about this topic. I think there's two sides to the coin. One side of the coin preaches the Lord's will and feels very righteous but then doesn't bear fruit in their own lives or in the lives of those they are supposed to help. That person is guilty of being a hypocrite. The other side of it would do many of the things which the hypocrite does not do but are missing the first part. Like Jesus told some God believers "they should have done the former without neglecting the latter." or words to that effect. It takes a complete package, in the end.
Love you and those are my thoughts about this topic for now.
Any other thoughts here from anyone?
Hi Brian, thank you for your remarks too. I think it can be hard but it doesn't have to be. I describe it as letting go. It has been a process for me. Sometimes I think I'm there and have totally learned submission of all of me to God, and then I'm faced with the next scary thing that I'd rather do my way...I'm planning to eventually make a post on all the skins I've shed over the years, even up till now. Some of what came off belonged on there, but was mounted incorrectly and so it came off, I think, in order to be set properly later.
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