The truth of God’s unconditional love

For many people, one of the hardest things to understand is the unconditional love of God.

Some say His love has conditions; however, I believe it does not. To understand this, we must first understand love, and not just any love, but the love of God.

In the ancient Greek texts of the Bible, one of the words used for love is agape, which when directly translated to English is, “compassion without condition,” also known as, “charity.” There are several different words for love in the scriptures, each with their own unique meaning. However, in 1 John 4:8 it says, “God is love,” and the exact word used there is, you guessed it — agape. 

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Agape is explained as being, “Patient and kind; not to envy or boast; not being arrogant or rude. Not insisting on its own way; not being irritable or resentful; not rejoicing at wrongdoing but rejoicing with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

God is patient! In fact, “He causes the sun to shine on both the wicked and non-wicked,” according to Matthew 5:45.

We can see that God is kind, because we are all given an opportunity to come to Jesus and receive forgiveness.

God does not envy nor boast to us about how much better He is than us, nor is He rude or arrogant toward us.

Most importantly, God does not insist on His own way. He gives us all the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. He gives us countless opportunities to follow Him, yet still allows us full freedom of choice, even if it means eternal damnation.

In John 3:16 it says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” He loves the world enough to give them a choice of everlasting life with Him, or not; and no matter what you have done, that opportunity is always there.

Now, once you choose to believe in Him you become a “child of God,” as John 1:12 points out. His unconditional love is, “That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” giving us the opportunity to come to Him and be able to live in the way that He designed us to, in freedom.

Pastor Scott Acklin ministers at New Fire Ministries.