Unconditional Love?

We hear a lot of talk about "unconditional love," and it sounds good, actually quite God-like. "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) At our most unlovely, God still loved us and gave Himself for us.

But I must ask: Why did Jesus have to die? Why did God give Himself? He loved us, of course, because He is love; love is His very nature. His love pours out on us not just because there has to be an object to receive His love—He probably loved all the other things He had created too: lions and lambs, caterpillars, robins and porpoises.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
(Cecil Frances Alexander 1818-1895)

The difference is that He wanted someone to love Him in return; He wanted relationship. No matter how strong the attachment between an affectionate animal and his owner, it cannot fulfill the intention God had in His heart to fellowship with a being more like Himself—in His own image. Since He desires something in return, He gave Himself so that we would be able to love Him back. If we don't respond, He doesn't stop loving, but He is disappointed that there is not a mutual friendship. Unconditional love? Yes, because it never quits, even when it is rejected. But that is not the same as a kinship, a close personal connection.

In the context of our human relations, we hear that we are expected to love one another unconditionally. We try so hard to do that, and sometimes we are shocked and hurt because we are not able to make a friend of some person. While we do aspire to love like God loves, with a love that never quits, the same condition exists to build relationship: the response of love. We might express it like this, "I will love you no matter what you do to me, but if you want fellowship with me, you will also love."

Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate [Comforter, Encourager, Counselor, Friend] who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. . . You know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. . . Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them. . . All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them." (John 14:15-17, 21, 23)

So I did not just make up these rules about unconditional love in contrast to conditional relationship. Actually, Jesus did.

MaryMartha

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.