If you have not had the time or inclination to read my other posts, please consider reading this one. It is possibly the most important subject I will cover.
(All scripture references are NASB and all references to “Law” are Torah (Mosaic law) unless otherwise noted. I usually capitalize “law”, only because I am using it as a proper noun, not as a special status.)
I mentioned one resource in my previous post and here is another resource I have found helpful:
Escape to Reality by Paul Ellis
This is primarily a blog style ministry, but it is extensive and has many links directly to scripture (look at the index). Paul Ellis does a great job when writing about the purity of the gospel of grace, and dispelling poor and inconsistent gospel scriptural interpretations.
His biggest flaw, IMHO, is flirting with the “health and wealth” gospel. But it is not frequent, nor does it significantly enter into his gospel discussions, so I feel comfortable mentioning his site with that main caveat.
I disagree with other things too, but that is potentially the most harmful. Yet, his clarity on the gospel still makes it a worthy resource.
I want to get to the contrasting articles on God's unconditional love now, and then I will give additional thoughts on disagreements I have with Paul Ellis and about how to handle disagreement within the body of Christ. I will specifically cover the health/wealth stuff.
But first, is God's agape love unconditional? This is one of the most important questions you will ever consider.
Given the season, I would be remiss to not bring up Romans 5:8 - “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” The cross is proof of His love, but let's investigate.
A Contrast of Articles
One of Paul Ellis' latest articles is really good, but specifically caught my attention because it has the opposite notion of another article I read awhile back from a political writer that I respect. But he is absolutely wrong in this.
I bring this up because it perfectly illustrates much of what I have written in my introductory articles. The legalistic mindset cannot fully accept the unconditional love of God. The two mindsets are antithetical. Yet, agape love is the foundation for the gospel.
The degree to which we accept God's love is without conditions is the degree that it will impact our lives. This can range from never being born into His family at all to significant stagnation in our growth.
In another article, I will further examine God's love and why it is so critical to the gospel as the gospel flows from His very nature.
Even those who claim to believe in unconditional “agape love” often teach in such a way that actively places conditions on that love, whether they realize it or not.
Conditional love is the root of the poor mindset I am fighting against, so the discussion below is near and dear to my heart.
Is God's Love Unconditional? by Paul Ellis
Please read this article by Paul Ellis and then read and compare with the following article by Dennis Prager. Given Mr. Prager's Jewish background, his conclusions are not a surprise, but it is definitely quite a contrast with Paul Ellis.
The Moral and Religious Case Against Unconditional Love by Dennis Prager
Please read both articles (they are not long) and then come back to read my thoughts.
My Thoughts On the Prager Article
It is with much sadness that I read this article. Here is a person whom I greatly admire, and respect their intellect, yet their understanding of the gospel of grace is so flawed that I have little hope in their current salvation.
All hope is never fully lost while the person is living, but there is clearly a mindset shown in the article that is a huge obstacle.
Paul quite emotionally addresses this mindset in Romans 9:3 where he is willing to be cut off from Christ personally if his Jewish brother and sisters would simply believe.
Yet, as is mentioned so often in the New Testament, Christ is a stumbling block to those who adore Torah.
Agape love is truly the main stumbling block, because it eliminates the value of Law keeping for them. Under this mindset, if they are not gaining peace with God from keeping Law, then why bother keeping it? This attitude is clear in the article.
Mr. Prager's attitude is that if you are not getting something out of it, then why love, or basically why do anything good? Clearly, he cannot see the inherent evil in this attitude, since I believe he sincerely wants to do what is “right”, yet he is blinded by a legalistic mindset.
Is the Fallen World to be our Metric?
This selfish view of love is certainly a true assertion within humanity's fallen state. There is nothing within the fallen world that would ever commend or see value in unconditional love.
This is why a fake version of love is so often promoted as love. The world will always struggle with the concept of love. And the enemy is thrilled to water down the true agape love of God, or cast doubt on it.
Even the love of a mother to a child, while possibly the closest human example, still falls short. Loving the child provides emotional fulfillment and other intrinsic benefits. It is not truly unconditional.
Yet, God gains no obvious benefit from loving humanity. We truly have nothing to offer Him that He did not already have or that He did not give us first.
Paul's words in Acts 17:24-25 in front of the “Temple to the Unknown God” are thought provoking:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”
God doesn't need us - but He wants us and loves us. Thus, this demonstrates truly unconditional love. This is not something that the fallen world represents or can really even comprehend.
The Gospel promises Power to Transcend our Fallenness
Yet, the gospel calls us to transcend our fallenness. Becoming new creations gifts us with power to do that. See the verse above, God “gives” everything. He does not call us to do something He has not already gifted us the ability to do.
We should never aspire to a calling limited by fallenness. We are called to a higher place - even here on earth.
We battle with the fallen world and the flesh - we do not use it as a metric to attain to or be limited by! Just because something is true within our fallenness, doesn't mean we must resign ourselves to that standard.
Too often I see the body of Christ capitulating to a fallen standard, rather than seeing the true standard of goodness to which we have been called and empowered to hold fast in.
There is a balance here. We recognize that, as James puts it “we all stumble in many ways.” And we recognize that this is because of the influence of fallenness. Yet, the promises of the gospel give us power to overcome.
It is these very “great and precious promises” that we must believe with everything we have. (2 Peter 1:4)
Of Course God's love is Unconditional
I obviously think that God's love is unconditional, yet, this can be one of those words that we use that is describing something scriptural that is not specifically in scripture. Paul Ellis gets at this in his write-up, so I won't really address that here.
I hesitated to even link the other article, because Mr. Prager makes some seemingly logical arguments from a worldly perspective.
I would not want anyone to be “logic-ed” into diminishing their faith. Yet, in making his points, he misses the entire point. And I think this a good point to investigate.
Again, due to time and space, I will give some of my thoughts, but as this is truly the root of everything, I will examine God's love more thoroughly in upcoming articles.
Human Love cannot be compared to Divine Love, unless it Flows from The Divine
Because love is God's nature (God is love (1 John 4:16)), He is motivated differently from humanity. You cannot use human analogies to define God. Only God can love exclusively from a consistently pure motive. Humans cannot - even believers.
Due to Mr. Prager's Judaism, he is missing out on New Testament representations of God in his assessment of God's love.
As Hebrews 1 makes clear, you will find it difficult to understand God from the Old Testament alone. Only Christ within the gospel provides a true representation of the character of God.
(Devout Jews are torn between whether they hate the epistle of Hebrews or Romans more. Just do an internet search, it is illuminating.)
Mr. Prager certainly does not have a basic understanding of the gospel and especially the new creation. As many evangelicals do not have this either, this is not surprising.
Many of the points he makes are valid within the human experience, if you discount the new creation and God giving believers a new heart. It absolutely doesn't make human sense that a spouse won't take advantage of you when you love them unconditionally.
However, the whole point is that Christ can empower them to love you back the same way!
Of course, if you don't believe Christ is the Messiah, then you can see how this idea (the living Christ as God fused with your own spirit) is not a possibility for you.
If this is not true, then all you really have left is inferior human motivation.
We Should see other Believers as New Creations
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 5:16, in his treatice about the new creation, “Therefore, from now on we recognize no one by the flesh…” What he means by this in context is that we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ as new creations, not based on whether they are walking by the flesh at any given moment.
We should see them as being indwelled by the living Christ with all that entails. This is simply not a concept on Mr. Prager's radar, and even his experience of Christian teaching in general does not clearly elucidate this concept in order for him to grasp it, much less believe it.
When my wife, who is a believer, is walking by the flesh, I consider and recognize this as not being her true self, and I hope and pray she does the same for me. In this way, forgiveness comes easy, and the ability to encourage them to be the new creations they truly are in a loving way comes naturally - from a place of agape love.
The other purpose Paul was getting at in this passage is that we don't judge by externals. It is whether one is a new creation with a new heart that matters. How much they need to grow is not specifically our concern.
We need to see the reality of God's work within people, rather than purely basing our consideration of them on externals.
We do Have God's Love in our Hearts - But it is a Treasure in an Earthen Vessel
At the same time, love does not allow someone we love to remain in a place where they will be harmed. And here is where our fallen body and brains get in the way.
While “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts” at our new birth (Rom. 5:5), we do not always access that love within us cleanly or perfectly. This should be obvious to anyone who has been around a believer for longer than 20 minutes.
Thus, only God always has absolutely pure motives when dealing with people. However, we do have His love in our hearts, so we can grow in this. We can learn how to love others as Christ has loved us, even when they don't see it as love.
This is something only a new creation in Christ can do. Without agape love in your heart by the Holy Spirit, one cannot love in this way. You must possess the 'root' of agape before you can bear the fruit.
When Christ discusses “vine and branches”, this is what He means.
Yet, great care must be taken to understand our own motives so that we are not being selfish and calling it love. Again, this is something we grow in, but we can absolutely have a selfish mindset.
But the fact that even believers (much less the world, who can never do it) cannot express the true love of God every moment doesn't change the nature of that love. Just because we put conditions on love, because we are immature, doesn't mean God does.
Again, we don't judge God's ability to love by comparing it to fallen humanity.
Does the Person Being Loved always See it as Positive or Realize it is Love?
Mr. Prager seems to limit love to treating someone well”. He is unable to grasp a facet of love where God or others would actually treat you “poorly” for your own good (this is the perspective of the person being loved, who doesn't have all the information.)
Sometimes when you love, say, a child, who is determined to head towards their own destruction, you must take harsh action.
If a child, that I love, is headed towards a cliff edge, and I run and tackle them down right before they fall off, that child may see the bruises I caused and think I don't love them. Little do they know that I risked my life to save them.
Sometimes Love must be Tough
This is a title of a book by James Dobson from years ago, and while I differ muchly from his general approach, this statement is true.
There is an example in scripture of this “tough love” that I want to briefly examine.
Destruction of “The Flesh”
There is a person in 1 Corinthians 5 who is dead set on destructive behavior that is damaging himself, his Christian community, and the name of Christ. Paul says to “turn him over to Satan” for the “destruction of the flesh”. I'm not sure Mr. Prager would consider that love, but I do!
There is a question of whether this person is a believer or not, or just a faker in the church, but I want to point out the word “the”. Paul does not say “his flesh”, he says “the flesh”.
I will cover this later as an individual topic, but there is much confusion about “the flesh”.
Paul always treats it as an “entity”, meaning a power, similar to the “law or power of sin in our members”. He treats it as something separate from us like a parasite that inflicts our fallen physical bodies. It is an influencer on us, both as to our attitudes and actions, but also to submit to it for control (Rom. 6).
This is important, because many think Paul meant to turn him over to Satan for him to hurt him or kill his flesh, meaning his body.
What Paul is getting at is to stop sheltering him in the church from the consequences of his behavior.
The wages of sin is death; this man needed to get paid the wages of his attitude and actions. As Paul writes in Galatians 6, if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption.
Apparently, the church was in some way protecting him from this corruption, and Paul wanted him to hit rock bottom and feel the corruption of his walking by the flesh.
Thus, “destruction of the flesh” meant that the mindset of the flesh would no longer control him. It was this flesh mindset that was destroyed, not the person themselves. Yet, he had to feel the full affects of Satan's grip on him before this would happen.
(Note: Death can take many forms. The death of relationships, all the way to actual death.
While sin (the noun) in the world will eventually cause everyone to physically die, sinning (the verb) will still reap wages, even for believers. In context, Romans 6:23 is primarily about believers.
Examine an addiction to alcohol or drugs. Take this to the end, and it will fully reap the death wages from the least to the greatest. It will destroy your relationships, your health, your peace, and ultimately your life.)
This is similar to Paul talking about that we are no longer the slave of sin, but we can act like slaves when we “offer our members” to sin in Romans 6. Every time we sin this is what happens. It is also called walking according to or by the flesh.
I'm sure the guy this happened to thought Paul was being cruel and unloving. Yet, we can see that clearly that is not the case.
Agape Love is Always Focused on Reconciliation
It seems that later in 2 Corinthians 2:5-8 Paul welcomes the person back into the community and advocates they “forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a person might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”
Though Paul does not specify it is the same person, who else would fit the description?
Thus, we see, while love may even reject someone for their own good - because at that moment affirming them is destructive to them - the goal is always reconciliation and ultimately health for that person both spiritually, psychologically, and physically.
(Note: I am not in any way saying God sends sickness and death, which are enemy tools, products of sin, to “help” His children. There is simply no New Testament scripture that affirms this without being twisted, and there are some clear scripture that oppose this concept.
He does work these out for our good, yet He does not “cause” them. The fallen world comes at us, yet Christ works in us to help us face it (hat tip: Andrew Farley). There is enough sin and death in the world naturally without God having to hurl more at us.
I do not have time or space to cover this now, but I will in the future. It should be obvious that God is not the author of sin, or the products of sin (sickness and death)).
(Note: Even in the above example, Paul turned the person over to Satan, not God, for the “destruction of the flesh”. As does happen, God may remove His protective hand and allow even His children to reap the wages of corruption from the flesh (see Galatians 6:6-8).
The believer and unbeliever who are addicted to tobacco have the same probability of getting lung cancer. God doesn't offer special protection unless He has a good reason that fits within His nature and plan.
But, do not confuse this with God actively giving you those things. Remember, Christ came to give us life, not sickness and death. It is the enemy that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).
The wages of sin is death, do not be surprised when you reap the wages and God doesn't bend the laws of nature He created to get you out of consequences.
Christ seeks to protect us from these consequences by giving us Spirit power to overcome and avoid them, but when we foolishly do stupid things, we still reap what we sow.)
As Christ put it, the world has condemned themselves already. He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. God's wrath is simply a fact of existence separated from Him, it is part of His nature. Wrath is un-life, and only Christ can give life.
Unlike the modern understanding of the word “wrath” or “anger”, God's wrath is not an emotionally charged response from God in a human way. That is more like a human created god such as Zeus. We must not ever ‘paganize’ the true God.
Even Hell Come from God's Love
This is possibly controversial, but because I believe God's very essence IS love based on scripture, then I believe even Hell is an expression of His love. Mr. Prager does not get this point.
This deserves a much longer treatise, but for brevity, let's assume that union with God forever is such an extremely blissful state that anything else is utter misery in comparison. (I believe this to be the case.)
(Note: This is similar to when scripture uses the word “hate”. It is not always the opposite of love as it is in modern vernacular. Often it means that the love is so pure, that any other level of love, while still being a form of love, is actually hateful in comparison.)
Yet, because of the very nature of agape love, this union cannot be forced upon anyone, it must be chosen. Love by definition must be freely given and received. I discuss that next, and Paul Ellis also mentioned this.
Thus, another assumption is that God cannot force us into this blissful union (also true IMHO.)
So, what would love do with those who refuse?
There are so many concepts of Hell, I cannot possibly address them here. Scripture is legitimately obfuscatory on this topic. But, let's just say Hell is permanent separation from God, something all of the ideas agree upon.
Since He cannot force you into union with Him, then this final state is His way of dealing with this within His unchangeable nature of agape love.
I am utterly convinced that whatever Hell may be, for those that refuse God's love, it is still the most loving thing God can do for them within their choice to reject Christ.
As 1 Peter 3:9 affirms, God “is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”
What About Preaching God's “Wrath”?
Someone made a comment at the bottom of Paul's article asking about God's wrath (which is what I was just discussing) and whether we should preach God's love for sinners or His wrath.
You probably know my opinion: preach wrath to those who are self-righteous and think they are good to go with God due to their performance. They need to know that if their spirit is still dead, they are still under “wrath”, no matter how well they behave.
Yet, it is the “kindness of God” that brings repentance. When we preach the gospel, it is “good news”. Hell and wrath, outside the context of God's love, is “bad news”. We don't run to Christ to escape the bad. We run to Christ because He is so good!
But, here is Paul Ellis' response:
“Wish I had a dollar for every time I was accused of sugarcoating the love of God.
“Is God’s unconditional love also to unrepentant sinners?” YES! Did not our Savior say, “For God so loved the world”? See any conditions there? Does that mean the loved sinner is saved? Of course not. “Love does not force itself on others.” But your actions can no more diminish God’s love than they can extinguish the sun.
Any time you seek to balance God’s love, you kill it. Putting price tags on God’s love is spiritual prostitution. And no, I am not shying away from wrath and judgment.”
Is Fear Motivated Faith Real?
Again, this goes back to motivation. If you see God as threatening you, and you go through what you perceive as the motions He is requiring to avoid His threats, is this true saving faith? Can it be?
This is actually the Law at it's core, which is why it is “not of faith”. The Law is fear based, there are legitimate threats within the Law.
You must jump through the hoops correctly to avoid the threats. But this is not the gospel.
The idea of “scaring people into the Kingdom” is fraught with the risk of them missing the gospel completely.
Yes, people need to know their condition -especially those like the Pharisees who think their condition is just fine due to their works.
We cannot overlook why Christ had to make the ultimate sacrifice - because of our condition.
Yet, it is not God who put humanity in that condition. He warned Adam and Eve - He never threatened them. There is a huge and significant difference in these ideas. Scripture specifies that He said “If you do this…you will die.” He never says “If you do this…I will kill you.”
Thus, we got ourselves into a condition we have no power to change. We must accept that we are in that condition before we will come to Christ for help. Romans 1 is all about this condition, the epistolic writers certainly did not ignore it.
The Gospel is About the Solution, not the Condition
Yet, the primary emphasis of the gospel is not focused on the condition, but the solution.
Romans has 16 chapters. Relatively few words are spent on how bad the condition is, because the solution is so overwhelmingly powerful, it makes the condition pale in comparison!
The “good news” is not even heaven primarily, it is Jesus Christ. Nearly every religion has a concept of “heaven”, but none have a concept of “Christ in you”. The “new creation”, our spirit bonding with Christ’s Spirit through faith, is the only solution to our condition.
The emphasis of the gospel is that the good news is so amazingly good, it destroys the bad news in it's wake. It eliminates it completely.
Christ utterly destroyed sin and death. There is not bad news left for believers.
Ultimately, an awareness of one's true condition should spur one on to seek a remedy, however, if that remedy is not understood to be at it's core - the unconditional love of God - then it very well may not be a remedy at all.
We run the risk that what we are giving people is the same old “remedy” as all the other worldly religions, wrapped in a gospel shell. Yet, at it's core, it may not engender true saving faith.
This is a huge concern of the apostles, especially as they fought Judaism in the early church, and it is a great concern of mine.
Accepting or Receiving a Gift is a Condition of Benefiting from It.
There is one other point that I can't pass up.
Mr. Prager intimates that by accepting God's unconditional love by faith, this implies a condition. You can see where the “gift” mentality just gets around some people's mindset.
There is but one “condition” for God's love: it is to believe by faith it has no conditions and then receive it the same way.
While he is technically correct that this is a “condition”, it is not a meaningful one in the way he is using the term, or in the definition of the love of God.
God offers the gift of His love without conditions. A true gift is never forced upon the recipient, if it was, it would no longer be a gift by definition.
Yet, the recipient must receive the gift for it to benefit them. While ostensibly the receiving of the gift is a condition, it is a condition built into the very reality of a gift!
This is like asking can God make a rock that cannot be lifted by Himself. It is a logical incongruity. We are free to reject the unconditional love of God because of the very fact it is a gift!
Thus, logically, if we are free to reject it, then the opposite is accepting it. Having to accept a gift is an unchangeable rule of the universe.
To say that this makes God's love conditional is ludicrous.
It is impossible to make a gift any less conditional. A gift by definition requires receiving. Even God Himself cannot redefine what a gift means. If it did not require receiving, it wouldn't be a gift.
A Gift with Attached Conditions is no longer a Gift
The word “gift” means gift, it cannot mean anything else. A gift with conditions is no longer a gift, it is a wage. If the gift of agape love requires anything in return, even love returned, then is not a true gift.
This is why we are no longer under even the greatest commandment in the Law: to love God with all your might. We are not required to love God perfectly to receive His love. That is Law, not the gospel of grace.
Note 1 John 4:9-10 - “By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son…”
Notice that it is not us loving God that is primary, it is Him loving us. We can try really hard to love God, but if we don't receive His love first, it will be worthless.
We need the Gift of God’s Love First in order to Love Him Properly
Do you see the arrogance of those who think they are capable of keeping the Law? Christ gave the ultimate requirement of the Law in Matthew 5:48 - “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Do you think Christ was joking around? Of course not. Yet, a legalist thinks somehow they can meet this standard, even though it is already too late. They act as if hopefully God will look at their efforts and still give them an “A+”. But we know this is not the gospel.
We must love God with perfect love. This is love that can only be gifted to us by Him. And Romans 5:5 indicates this has happened for a believer.
In Ephesians 6:24, Paul ends the letter with these words: “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” Here is what incorruptible means:
As with much in scripture, your frame of reference makes all the difference. A legalist will read these words and think, “I need to work harder to love Christ.” Yet, does any human naturally possess this kind of love?
Of course not. A love that has no “capacity to decay” is not human love. It is only love that God possesses. We cannot love Christ in this way unless we receive it from Him first.
Paul is making a statement of fact. He already believes that those he is writing love Christ in this way, because they were given His love within their hearts at their new birth.
God's Love is so Powerful it needs no Conditions
This is the beautiful inconceivable paradox of the gospel and agape love! If you get nothing else, realize this please!
By receiving the gift, it changes you in such profound ways that you begin to express agape love without it every being a requirement! Is this “good news” or what!!
Do you see how a “requirement” mentality is not of the Holy Spirit? God does not want “forced love”. He wants us to see the value in His love and in expressing it through us. He wants us to see what He has done to us when He birthed us.
I truly hope and pray I am communicating this properly. This is the key to everything we should be about. The only “condition” to receiving God's love is to “believe and receive” it without conditions. This is a “condition” that is an unchangeable aspect of the very nature of a gift.
Yet, receiving this gift makes you a new creation which changes you in such ways that other conditions are no longer needed. The very act of placing conditions on the gift hinders its action within us and through us! Do you get this?
This is an amazing truth! Accepting the gift of God’s unconditional love in your heart gives you a loving heart! Thus, He does not have to put conditions on His love. It is truly this pure and powerful!
Thus, to suggest that God's love is conditional, because of the fact that we have to believe and receive it in order to benefit from it, is simply flawed logic. It reveals the mindset of a person who truly believes they must perform to earn the love of God.
This is antithetical to the gospel, but not to the Law. This is the main reason the Law is not of faith. Only the gospel reveals the true nature of God's unconditional agape love.
Someone who truly embraces Judaism (in part or in whole) cannot fully embrace the gospel, thus they do not understand God's love. When you place conditions on the love of God, you water down the gospel.
Again, the only condition for the agape love of God to enable you to love in the same way is a mindset of “no conditions”. I realize this is difficult to grasp, it is antagonistic to the normal human way of thinking.
When we place conditions on it, we are limiting God's love in our own minds. And this limited love, which is not God's love at all, becomes our reality. And thus, we struggle to tap into the gift of agape we possess.
Divine Help is Needed to Begin to Grasp the Unconditional Nature of God's Love
There is a reason Paul so fervently prays in Ephesians 3:14-21 that we might continue to grow in our understanding of God's love. He absolutely recognizes that without Divine intervention, we have no hope of grasping it.
We certainly will never gain an understanding by looking at the world around us.
I will spend an article fully exegeting this passage, but the point is that it is beyond our brain capacity to grasp it.
In my mind, Mr. Prager’s article fully exhibits this fact. He is fully operating within a worldly logic based on his amazing observational abilities. Yet, while amazing at a human level, these abilities are limited in their scope to see spiritual things.
In Paul's great treatise to the “foolishness” of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, he writes this: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Mr. Prager's article is sad evidence of this. Yet, there is a lesson in this for my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ and myself.
Is the Gospel Foolish in our Mindset?
God's love is so unconditionally expansive, without the Holy Spirit to teach us, there is no hope to grasp it at all. Yet, we do have the Holy Spirit, and we do have the gift of agape love in our hearts because of this.
Yet, I must ask, if we are willing to be truly self aware, doesn't the gospel, the unconditional love of God, seem foolish to us too at times? Or do we parrot the agape love talking points, yet in our daily life we continue to put conditions on His love?
Any conditions we might place on God's love in our mindsets will limit it's effect in and through us. This is the clear presentation of the epistles. It is inherent within the definition of “gift” itself. It is God's spiritual reality.
My beloved family, to the degree that we accept and put faith in the unconditional love of God, it is the degree that will will be “filled to the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3).
To the degree that we do not have faith in agape, other things will “fill” us like the flesh and sin. Only the love of God can displace these things in our lives. This is a “nature vs. nurture” point.
Within our new nature, gifted by Christ, we possess His love in our hearts. Yet, this must be nurtured and used in order to impact our lives externally. Work out your salvation that God has already worked in (Phil. 2:12-13).
The gift must be opened and used every day. We must learn about this gift and understand how to use it.
Again, this is never to condemn. There is no condemnation for those “in Christ” (Rom. 8:1). The mercy and grace of God gives us room to grow. Not only that, scripture indicates that it is a necessary and essential process for a child of God. We cannot simply be zapped with full knowledge and faith.
Removing Conditions for God's Love in our Mindset is the Path for Growth
Yet, do we want mindsets that hinder God growing us? Of course not. Thus, I admonish you, consider your mindset towards God's love. What conditions are you placing on it for yourself and others?
As you remove the conditions from God’s love for yourself, you will naturally begin to remove them for others. The gift of agape love within your heart will fill you up and overflow.
Yet, the conditions that you hang onto for God's love towards yourself, will be the conditions you hang onto for others.
I will get into this in the next article, but the NEW command replacing the commands from the Law is “love others as Christ has loved you.” Thus, if you think Christ's love has conditions, then that is how you will love.
But, the higher mindset is to grow in our faith that Christ's love has no conditions. The more this happens, the fewer conditions we have for others, and the more we can truly love them like Christ loves us.
As always, I personally have a long way to go in this, an eternity in fact.
But, let's all join together in our mission to understand this amazing agape love and spread it far and wide. This begins by the hard work of removing all conditions for God's love towards us in our mindset.
When the enemy sends a flaming mind arrow your way to suggest limits on God's love, then let the truth of the gospel protect you.
There is no greater calling we can have.