Unconditional Love of God 2016-51

I made a recent posting on my blog and mentioned “Unconditional love of God”. I usually thank God for his unconditional love when I pray and then thought about this love.  WHAT is “unconditional love”? Well, using the thoughts of Mr. Webster, uncondiltio0nal means (1) not limited by conditions, absolute, such as an unconditional promise.

So, if God gives us a promise, a promise that states He loves us absolutely, unqualified, categorically and completely, and does not have conditions attached, is that unconditional and is it so?

Wow, that is somewhat hard to understand such a love. No strings attached, regardless of the facts. No hidden clauses. No maybe’s………. Any questions?

I have plenty of questions regarding this type of love by God to and for us.

First off, it sounds like He loves us irrespective of what we do! Now, I have done some pretty stupid things in my life. I will just stick with those that might have upset God. When I think of them, I will keep those ancient Ten Commandments in mind for now. Oh, they are old, but still in effect.

Thou Shalt NOT do this and that and in between. I get that. They are somewhat straightforward in what they say, even though I have struggled with some of them in the past in really understanding the content as written. Like, “Honor your mother and father”. What if the father was a nasty SOB and was NOT a good guy to his children; should they honor him; really? Yeh, I guess so, but I would think it would be hard to do in some cases. My parents were great and I think I did honor them in life and now.

There are MANY examples of what unconditional love means and various scenarios of the subject can be imagined.

BUT, does God have unconditional love for us? The Bible, which is the Holy Scriptures, is usually used as a reference for guidance toward many subjects. Does it SAY or USE the word unconditional in relation to love?  NO, it does not!  Therefore is the word, unconditional, to be used describing the love of God for His children?

I admit I am not that experienced in the realm of theology, but I DO have MY opinions. What do I think?

Well, in reality, the word UNCONDITIONAL means exactly that, and it cannot be used just because it sounds great or in our mind “right”. Maybe, another word would be better or a couple of thoughts overall. What are YOUR thoughts?

One source (1 John 4:8) states “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love”. Sounds neat, but does that love move Him toward benevolent action? Perhaps another issue…

Another verse: (Romans 5:6-8) states, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This really brings us to considering Jesus as God and as God, He died for us……………… Now that is love, and really means something…. Is it unconditional though; maybe.

One more (of many). (1 John 4:9-10) “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I would like to think that God so loved us that he DID show His love by doing what He did, “Having Jesus Christ come into our lives, and with the ultimate sacrifice, show His love for us, which is fairly unconditional.”

To the diehard, naysayer, you are correct, it does not say so in the Bible, but I believe He does love us pretty dang much and I will STILL use the word UNCONDITIONAL in MY prayers; period………………………

I would think that the love of God is one that initiates and does not come from a response of ours. That is what would make it unconditional. If it were conditional, we would have to do something to earn the love of God or to merit the love, but that is NOT the case. We would be expected to appease His Holy wrath or become clean of our sins before God would love us and that is also not the case. God motivated by love, moved unconditionally to save His people from their sin, through Jesus Christ that becomes, once again, unconditional love being shown by God…… So Be It!

This being 6-24-2016 we as citizens of the world and the U.S. have experienced a horrible act recently, by a person who killed over 4 dozen people in a nightclub in Orlando. I ask, does God also LOVE the person that did this terrible act. OR, did He despise the gay’s that were at that club, having fun? Makes one think, but I believe He loves and loved every one of them, good and bad.  Then, I ask, why did God NOT do something if he loved the gays too? This world is full of terrible people that do terrible things. Then, this brings up the thought of “free will”, but that is another blog in the future…  Comments?

I would also think that I would NOT be surprised or upset if God decided to eradicate the people of Earth and experiment somewhere else on another planet to see if His plan would work there. We, as a whole, do not follow Him the way He wants and it may be time for a change on His part……………….. Maybe a KILLER comet is what we need………………. That is scary!!!

Den Betts