The Top Two Beliefs That Make Unconditional Love Conditional
/“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” Do you ladies remember that song? Maybe your kids sing it now. I remember learning sign language to that song as a kid.
It sounds so simple, “Jesus loves me this I know.” But, do we really KNOW it?
I still struggle with truly understanding how much Jesus loves me.
John 15:9 says that Jesus loves us with that same love God loves Him with.
But, how could He love us so unconditionally? I know I’m far from perfect?
If you’re anything like me, then you have two main reasons why this is hard to believe.
#1 I need to DO something to be loved.
We remind ourselves, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Cor. 13:4). That’s just one verse out of how many on what love does? Who can live up to that?
Well how about this one?
#2 I’m not worthy to be loved.
We’ve all heard it, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “There is no one righteous, no not one.” (Romans 3:10)
Our guilt over past mistakes, makes us feel like we’re not worthy to be loved.
Many of us are even punishing ourselves for our sins and short comings. Some of us experience fear, anxiety attacks, sleeplessness, or worse.
Let me ask you, “If you have to be worthy to be loved, is that really love”?
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” Luke 6:32 NIV
These two beliefs turn God’s unconditional love toward us into a conditional love that is based on us and our performance.
If these believes are wrong, then let’s investigate the truth shall we?
Wrong Belief #1: I need to do something to earn this love
Right Belief: God’s Love is unearned
We’re not loved because of what we do–We’re loved because of what He did!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” John 3:16 NKJV
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13 NKJV
Jesus laid down His life for us; He chose to lay down His life for us–His friends.
“God is Love.” 1 John 4:8b NKJV
Love here in John 15:13 and 1 John 4:8 in the Greek is Agape. Agape is a noun.
Agape is the 2 Corinthians 13 love–It’s the Divine Love, love never fails love, believes the best love. But listen, it’s not OUR Agape, it’s HIS Agape IN us!
We don’t need to DO to be loved by our Heavenly Father. He’s shown us His love through Jesus and continues to love us with this same Divine love regardless of what we do.
Remember this–God made us human beings; not human doings.
Wrong Belief # 2: I’m not worthy to be loved like this
Right Belief: Jesus made us worthy
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 1 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
We have right standing with God because of what Jesus did not because of what we did.
Earlier we talked about Agape love–God’s Divine Love. Remember, it’s a noun.
Well, there’s another form of God’s Divine Love and it’s Agapeo. Now that’s a verb, an action. It’s doing part of love.
Agapeo refers to God preferring us. It’s the love that Jesus said in John 15:9 that the Father loved Jesus with and Jesus, Himself, loves us with.
Agapeo means, “To take pleasure in, long for, esteem.”
Jesus doesn’t just “love” us. He LOVES us!
He takes pleasure in us, longing for relationship with us and esteems us. We are what He prefers.
I’d say that makes us pretty worthy. Don’t you?
How do we turn this “Conditional” love back to Unconditional Love?
Believe
We need to believe what God says in His word is THE TRUTH.
We will “know the truth and the truth will set us free.” John 8:32 NKJV
When those thoughts come that we’re not worthy or we haven’t done enough today to be loved, go back to His Word.
Let His truth grow in your heart until you believe it.
Receive
Next you just need to receive His love. It’s a gift.
Do you pay for a gift? No. You just receive it and say thank you.
You need to do the same to receive God’s love for you.
Receive His gift of love and say, “Thank you.”
As we experience God’s love for us through believing and receiving, we begin to shed the guilt and condemnation that we’ve been living with for so long and we’ll begin to walk in this Divine love, both for ourselves and for those around us.
Discussion
If you’re willing, share which believe you’ve held that made God’s love for you conditional and what you’re planning to do to change it back to unconditional love. It can be either be one of my top two or something God’s been showing you in your life.