God's Love is NOT Unconditional

[Bishka]

This is something my Christian History teacher brough up in class today. I'll post an article that he referred us to. I wonder on your thoughts on the subject.

[size=+1]Un-Conditional Love?[/size]

[size=+1]A Critical Review of a Pop Religious Truism[/size][size=+1] [/size]

Scripture clearly teaches that God's love (phileo, agape, aheb, ahabah, etc.) is unfailing, undeserved, and unilateral (completely one-sided in initiation). But is God's love without condition--I.E.: UN-conditional?

On this we should consider three things. 1) Where did this idea come from? 2) Is it consistent with Scripture? and 3) Is it false prophecy?

On 1), you will not have to look back very far, as this is uniquely an American, "modern" doctrine. It is never once mentioned in Scripture, nor do any of the church fathers use the phrase.
In fact, my best efforts point to the 1960's drug culture as the first time the words unconditional and love were put together in any language. (Please correct me if you can produce an example before the hippies coined the term, but so far nobody has; and my own research points to the LSD culture of the 1960s as the first use.) After the drugs wore off, psychology flirted with the pop-phrase in the 1970's in the "transactional analysis" fad, but this was ephemeral and quickly dropped from view. Just about then a few susceptible christian teachers stepped in and took the baton, and the rest is history.

With this apparent dubious pedigree we must ask the obvious question: is this an idea from above, or from below?

On 2), is the implicit idea that the phrase asserts consistent with Scripture? If we take the phrase in its plain-sense meaning, certainly not. If unconditional can cohabit the same phrase as love without canceling it (when not on LSD, that is), then why did Jesus bother declaring the conditions? "You must be born again." etc.

Think about it. In a typical teaching of Jesus, much of what he said were the life-giving conditions of moving into a loving relationship with the Father. The catch-phrase unconditional love strips these words right out of our Savior's mouth. "Hey Jesus, you can't say that! Don't you know that God's agape love is unconditional!"

John 8:31-32 (NIV) ...Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Get it? IF/THEN is a condition. So is UNLESS. And this is the kind of thing Jesus often said. Uh Oh!

On 3), we should consider the possibility that this new phrase might be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Could unconditional love be Satan's latest repackaging of the "peace, peace" message that has always been the essence of false prophecy? Of course, Satan would never be that clever, to deny the very words of God with a subtle twist of phrase? Would he?

Due to a Bible Study on our site which calls for repentance from witchcraft, we get a lot of "flames" from wiccans and pagans. A typical complaint is to lecture us that "God's love is unconditional", thus justifying witchcraft--or whatever--since God loves everyone eternally no matter what they believe. By this way of thinking, it makes no difference which "god" you worship since God's unconditional love would never allow Him to send anyone to hell. Condemning people to hell is not exactly a loving thing to do for those so sent, is it? So, it does not matter what people think or believe or do. God's unconditional love means that we will all go to heaven.

 

[Bishka]

Hearing this doctrine put forth with such piercing clarity from pagans should give Christians pause in their enthusiasm to embrace it.

Often, when Christians say unconditional love we know they do not mean it in the exact, literal sense. So, we do not want to go overboard and say that anyone who uses the phrase is a universalist or heretic. We must look to the context and meaning for those who have not thought it through, giving them the benefit of the doubt. But, at the very least, we should be more circumspect about adoption of extra-biblical spurious terminology within the Church, and of teachers that unreflectingly jump on every bandwagon of pop phraseology that blows through.
God's love is truly amazing... God's love is unilateral: He loves the unlovable and gives His glory to them. God's love is completely undeserved. God's love is unfailing for those in whom He delights: who respond to Him and receive His Son. But, God's love is clearly not "unconditional"; for wrath and eternal damnation will come to those who reject His Messiah and His Gospel. Let us be sure to be found in the position of receiving God's love, and not His judgment. Let us heed the conditions clearly set forth by our Lord so that we can be at peace with Him. And let us shout the message of these conditions from the rooftops so that others might be saved, rather than retreat into thinly veiled license, universalism, or anything else that "sets itself up against the knowledge of God" (2Cor 10:5).

Here are a few verses to salt your appetite for researching and considering this further.
Jer. 5:12-13 (NIV) "They have lied about the Lord; they said, 'He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine.' The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them..."

Jer. 8:6-9 (NIV) "I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' ...My people do not know the requirements of the Lord. How can you say, 'We are wise...' Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?"

Jer. 23:16-18 (NIV) This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The Lord says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.' But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?"

Jer. 23:21-22 (NIV) "I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds."

Lam 2:14 (NIV) "The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading."

Luke 3:7b (NIV) "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"

John 3:36 (NIV) "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

Rom 2:5,8 (NIV) But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed... But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Eph 2:3 (NIV) All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Eph 5:6 (NIV) Let no-one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

2 Tim 4:2-4 (TCN) Proclaim the Message, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, encourage, never failing to instruct with forbearance. For a time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will follow their own wishes, and, in their itching for novelty, procure themselves a crowd of teachers. They will turn a deaf ear to the Truth, and give their attention to legends instead.

Heb 13:9 (NIV) Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

Luke 13:3 (DVP) [Jesus:] "...If you do not repent, then you will all perish..."

http://www.acts17-11.com/cows_unlove.html

 

[Bishka]

[size=+1]Unconditional Love and Acceptance?*[/size]

[size=-2]Eph. 1:6 -- To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.[/size]

Among the stellar emotional needs of humanistic psychology are unconditional acceptance, unconditional self-regard, unconditional self-acceptance, and unconditional love. The usual meaning of the word unconditional is "without conditions or reservations; absolute." The practical extension of the theories of unconditional love is a permissive attitude and a morally nonrestrictive atmosphere. That means no conditions or restrictions in child rearing, counseling, and other human relationships. It must be an absolute love, unrestricted by human feelings or failings, since the very meaning of the word is "absolute."

But, if there is any absolute when it comes to love, it is that human love is limited. It is not what it was originally created to be, even in the best of people and circumstances, except when Jesus Himself is loving in and through a person.

Humanistic psychologists Alfred Adler and Abraham Maslow considered these "unconditionals" to be basic human needs, essential to a person's sense of well-being. They taught that people need to be loved and accepted unconditionally -- without any conditions of performance. Thus, their followers also teach and encourage all people to love and accept themselves unconditionally.

Men such as Adler, Maslow, and [Carl] Rogers believed that a human being would find answers to his own dilemmas and naturally blossom into his best self in an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance (by which they meant a permissive, unstructured atmosphere). Nevertheless, as much as they would like to think that they themselves loved their clients unconditionally, the truth of the matter is this: people are not able to love unconditionally.

The Myth of Unconditional Love

Unconditional love is a myth. That is because humans are naturally self-biased and the human heart is so deceitful that one can fool himself into thinking that he is loving unconditionally, when in fact he has all kinds of conditions. For instance, what kind of "unconditional" love is at work when the psychiatrist's client can no longer pay for services and therapy is discontinued?
Unconditional love cannot be based upon performance or it wouldn't be unconditional. Therefore, it must be based on the intrinsic worth of the person. Paul Brownback, in his book The Danger of Self-Love, explains it this way:

"... by unconditional love we are speaking of love on the basis of being rather than doing. One implication of this teaching is the place of grandeur that it gives to the human being. I am lovable just because I am human; therefore being human, in and of itself, regardless of what I do with my humanness, must have some sort of independent value or worth. It is by itself a sufficient claim to respect and esteem" (p. 66).

​

Thus, according to the self theories, everyone is born with the right to receive unconditional love and unconditional acceptance throughout his entire life, no matter what!

James Dobson, one of the chief proponents of unconditional love, believes that all people need it. Dobson declares: "I'm convinced the human spirit craves this kind of unconditional love and experiences something akin to 'soul hunger' when it cannot be achieved." Then as an extra bonus, Dobson brings God in as the primary person who gives this unconditional love and acceptance -- he says "God's acceptance is unconditional." Dobson is not alone in that conclusion. A host of well-respected professing Christian leaders describe God's love as unconditional.

Pastors should have been alert to the subtleties of deception that would turn a believer's eyes from God to self. But alas, rather that warning the sheep, many of the "shepherds" have joined the psychologists and embrace their teachings of unconditional love and acceptance.

 

[Bishka]

Misunderstanding of God's Love

The basis for their eager embrace is a misunderstanding of "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:19). They equate unconditional love and acceptance with the fact that God's love is vast, unfathomable, and unmerited. Then they follow that with the idea that if God loves and accepts people unconditionally, they should also love and accept themselves unconditionally. While this may sound like a logical progression, there are some serious problems with the basic assumptions.

Therefore, we must address the question: Is God's love unconditional? Or are there any conditions that must be met to become a recipient of His love?

Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus would be able to comprehend the length, width, depth, and height of God's love. He desired that they know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, so that they would be filled with the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19). The wide expanse of God's love has been the theme of the gospel throughout the ages, for to know His love is to know Him. Therefore, any consideration of His love is highly important and must be based upon His revelation of Himself rather than upon the imagination of men.

Love According to Secular Humanism

Ever since the rise of secular humanism in this country, and especially since the establishment of humanistic psychology, the popular, "relevant" term to describe God's love has been unconditional. The thrust of this word in humanistic psychology has been both to give and to expect unconditional love from one another with no strings attached. While unconditional love and acceptance supposedly promote change and growth, they make no requirements. But God, who is love, requires change and enables his children to grow in righteousness.

In humanistic psychology, parents and society are always the culprits. Since they believe that every person is born with intrinsic worth and innate goodness, psychologists contend that one main reason people experience emotional and behavioral problems is because they have not received unconditional love from their parents. Following that thesis, Christians have come to believe that the best kind of love is unconditional love. It is the highest love secular humanists know. It is touted as a love that makes no demands for performance, good behavior, or the like. It has also been associated with a kind of permissiveness, since it makes no demands and has no conditions, even though the promoters of the unconditional love jargon would say that unconditional love does not have to dispense with discipline.

God's Love Revealed through Scripture

Because the concept of unconditional love permeates society and because it is often thought of as the highest form of human love, it is natural for a Christian to mistakenly use this term to describe God. After all, His love is far greater than any human love imaginable. God's love for humanity is so great that "He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Oh, the magnitude of the cost! We cannot even fathom His love even though our very breath depends upon it! His love indeed reaches to the heights and depths. But again, is God's love truly unconditional?

God's love is available to human beings by grace alone. There is nothing that men can do to earn that love. There is no good work that is either demanded or even possible. But does that make God's love unconditional? "That whosoever will" is most certainly not a work, but it is a condition. Otherwise we would end up with universalism (all people saved) rather than salvation by grace received through faith.

God chooses upon whom He will place His love and the benefits of His love. Did Jesus ever imply that God's love is unconditional? He said to His disciples:

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21).

One might argue that the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11ff) proves unconditional love (as Charles Stanley teaches). It indeed illustrates the vastness of God's love, forgiveness, and longsuffering. However, the son repented! If he had a prosperous evil life he may never have repented. And while the father would have waited and hoped, he would not have extended his love. After all, he did not go out searching for him to support his folly.

Up to a point, this seems to indicate unconditional love, and yet, God is not waiting in ignorance, not knowing what those for whom His Son died might be doing. It is difficult enough to understand God's love without adding the term unconditional love which is loaded with secular, humanistic, psychological connotations. The story of the prodigal son teaches grace, forgiveness and mercy -- but unconditional love? No!

While God loves with a greater love than humans can comprehend, His holiness and justice also must be taken into consideration. Therefore, the term unconditional love is inadequate for defining God. It does not account for God's reaction to pompous men who devise plans against Him and His anointed. The psalmist goes so far as to say:

"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure" (Psalm 2:4-5).

And what about Lot's wife as she turned to look at the smoldering cities? Or what about Jesus' words to the cities that refused to repent? Does this sound like unconditional love?:

"Woe to thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell ... it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee" (Matthew 11:21-24).

Conclusion

But perhaps one could say that God's love for the Christian is unconditional since the Christian partakes of His love and grace through faith. Wouldn't it be better to say that the conditions have been met? Jesus met the first condition, to wash away the sin that God hates. The believer meets the second condition, but only by God's grace through faith.

Or perhaps it would be better to say that God's love extended to a person is conditioned by His plan to give eternal life to those whom He has enabled to believe on His Son. The conditions of God's love are resident within Himself. As our opening Bible verse says: He hath MADE us accepted!

There is a strong temptation to use vocabulary that is popular in society in order to make Christianity sound relevant. Christians have something far better than what the world offers, but in expressing that good news, they confuse people by using words that are already loaded with humanistic connotations and systems of thought. It would be better not to use the expression unconditional love when describing God's love. There are plenty of other good words (1 John 4:9,10,16):

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ...

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

​

The incomprehensible magnitude of God's love surpasses any concept of love devised by humanistic psychologists. The doctrine of unconditional love is a myth that glorifies man rather than God.

*Adapted from Prophets of PsychoHeresy II, pp. 91-96, (EastGate Publishers, 4137 Primavera Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93110), and from the September-October 1997 PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, by permission of Martin & Deidre Bobgan. (See also Paul Brownback's book, The Danger of Self-Love, pp. 109-116, for an excellent theological critique of the unconditional love/acceptance phenomena.)
Biblical Discernment Ministries - 12/97

 

[Bishka]

[size=+1]The Misconception of Unconditional Love[/size]

[size=-2]Dr. Vic Reasoner[/size]

The Christian counseling movement often uses the phrase "unconditional love." They say that God's love is unconditional. What exactly is meant by this phrase?

God warned in Genesis 6:3 that His Spirit will not strive with man forever. Within the second commandment is the declaration that the Lord is a jealous God showing love to thousands of those who love him and keep his commandments (Exod 20:5-6). "The Lord loves the righteous" (Psalm 146:8). "I love those who love me" (Prov 8:17). "The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But He loves him who pursues righteousness" (Prov 15:9).
John records these words of Jesus, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father .... If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him .... If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love" (John 14:21, 23; 15:10). These passages, as well as others, indicate that there are conditions attached to the love of God.

Neither Calvinists nor Wesleyan-Arminians advocate "unconditional love" in an absolute sense. Calvinism teaches unconditional election, using passages like Romans 9:13 which they interpret as an election of some individuals to salvation and others to damnation. Calvinism makes a distinction between common grace at work within the reprobate and special grace at work within the elect. For Calvinists the love of God is conditional in scope, but unconditional in duration. In Unconditional Good News, Neal Punt advocates "that all persons are elect in Christ except those who the Bible declares will be lost .... Those who will be lost are those, and those only, who wilfully and ultimately refuse to acknowledge God." Even this more liberal form of Calvinism denies absolute universalism. Punt believes the elect include all except the indifferent and disobedient. Only the heretical theory of universalism would advocate unconditional love in the absolute sense.

Arminianism emphasizes universal atonement and unlimited grace. For Arminians the love of God is unconditional in scope, but conditional in duration. Howard Snyder declared that insofar as God extends his love to all people without distinction, it is true that God's love is unconditional. Wesley preached, "The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is free in all, and free for all." The grace of God is unconditional. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). While all mankind experiences the grace and goodness of God, we cannot conclude that the entire race is born again. In fact the purpose of God's kindness is to lead sinners toward repentance (Rom 2:4).

The holiness of God cannot look with favor upon our sinfulness. God is love, but His love is a holy love. God's love for us is unmeasurable, but His love is not a careless love which is indifferent to our sinful condition. The love of God sent Christ to make us holy. Snyder wrote

God loved our sinful race so much that he sent his Son. He will not, cannot, forgive and accept us except on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice. To do otherwise would betray the integrity of God's own holy character. The condition for God's love to reach us was the Cross .... If God loved unconditionally ... he would forgive and accept every person no matter what, requiring no Cross (Is God's Love Unconditional? Christianity Today, 17 July, 1995, p. 30).





​

Those who reject Christ will ultimately come under the awesome judgment of God. If God's love is thought of as a blanket acceptance, how can we conceive of Him sending anyone to an eternal hell?



The truth is that love, by its very nature, desires an appropriate response. Love can be spurned. Love can grow cold. Love can be lost. A sentimental popular song declared, "Though it makes Him sad to see the way we live, He'll always say, 'I forgive.' " However, Scripture warns that it is possible to so presume upon, abuse, and reject God's love that we exhaust His grace and mercy. God is long suffering, but His patience does have limits.

In the best sense of the word, "unconditional love" may be a phrase used to assure us that God's love is not manipulative. Those who are scarred by the disappointment of human relationships which were abusive may find comfort in the knowledge that God does not love us for what He can get out of us. Nor does God demand absolute perfection. It is not based upon our works of self-righteousness. He loves His Church even when it has spots and blemishes.

Yet He loves us too much to allow us to remain defective. In the worst sense of the word, this phrase may convey the meaning that God will take whatever we offer Him. It may be simply another expression of the "cheap grace" which Bonhoeffer opposed. Somehow the typical American churchgoer conceives of God as the overindulgent parent who wishes we would improve, but has no intention of disciplining. All too often preachers avoid repentance. They neglect to connect faith with obedience. Sinners feel they can trust in Christ and may never obey Him as Lord.

True grace enables us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly in this present age. Pseudo grace does not stop sinning to get saved. A mistaken view of unconditional love demands no change of behavior, no commitment to Christ, and no submission to Him as Master and Lord.

The God of the Bible desires that we enter into a covenant with Him. The covenant He offers is conditional. Snyder observed that when God created humanity, conditions were there from the start. The death of Christ on the cross and our self-committing trust are the two essential conditions for experiencing God's love.

If we obey Him, we experience His love. If we rebel against Him, we fall under His wrath. The Bible offers no hope that at the final day of judgment we will all "pass" because of the "unconditional love" of God.

Evangelical Outreach
http://come.to/the.gospel
Address: P.O. Box 265, Washington, PA 15301-0265, USA

_____​

Series: Our Awesome God, © 1997 Ray Pritchard, on April 27, 1997, Calvary Memorial Church, Oak Park, Illinois

 

[Bishka]

What do you think?

 

[Buttercup]

Becky....I don't want you to get into trouble for copyright infringement. You are only allowed to copy 10% of published material.....just a friendly helpful hint.

I didn't read all the way thru the post but I would say the Christian God's love is conditional in the regard that you have to believe in him....but, he loves everyone the same.

 

[Bishka]

Oh, can I not do that? It's off of my teacher's website.

 

[fromthe heart]

Unconditional may be a word used currently in modern day but when you think of God as your Father you will know His love will be there for you in an unconditional manner as we see it because even when we sin(since that IS our nature)...He STILL loves us He loved us so much He sent us His only begotten Son to live to show us how to live a Christ like walk, died to show us the depth of God's love for us, Rose again to assure us that He loved us SO much that He showed us that even though our body will depart from us that HE NEVER WILL. This is in essence unconditional love...we do on the other hand hurt Gods feelings when we sin but like a good parent He is there for us with open arms to hear our sorrow,and our asking for forgivness and HE IS FAITHFUL to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn't mean for any to end up in the eternal lake of fire...we only will by our choices in ignoring the truths of Gods WORD the Holy Bible.

 

[Bishka]

Alright. That's what I want to hear FTH.

 

[Endless]

I think it's important to realise that God's love is completely unconditional. He will love you no matter what you do. Paul writes about this in Romans:

Romans 5:8 But God showed His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Though some people will never accept what Jesus did for them, God showed his love for them by taking the punishment of their sins upon himself through Jesus. There was no condition attached to this - God simply showed how much he loved us by sacrificing everything for us. Does this mean all will be saved because Jesus was punished for the sin of the world? No, because we have to accept Jesus as having taken our punishment - trusting him to have done what he said he had done. If we reject Jesus then we choose to bear our own sin and therefore we will take the punishment due our sins. So the ball is in our court - God has done everything but will not force us to accept Jesus.
There is nothing else that God can now do - the choice remains with each one of us - you and me. So you leave God no choice but to send you to hell if you carry your own sin. Can we turn around and say, God's unconditional love will mean he could never send anyone to hell? If could have been like that do you think God would have died and taken our punishment himself? God is Just - this means he has to punish sin - he cannot leave it unpunished. But his unconditional love for us as sinners is what made him give up everything and take our place - but the one thing that remains is our own choice. God's unconditional love is now of no use, because the choice is our own.
Did you really think God sends you to hell? No, look closer and you'll see that you send yourself there because you leave God no choice - even after he done everything so that all you have to do is say 'yes' - you say no and you'll send yourself to hell.

Does God love you more or less depending on whether you are a christian? No - he love you just the same. Is he more pleased with you when you become a christian - yes, but that doesn't change how much he loves you.

 

[Rolling_Stone]

Unconditional love is a myth

I love my sons unconditionally. That does not mean, however, I approve of everything they do. Once the older son understood this from a conversation we had, many problems just went away.

God's love is unconditional. That doesn't mean everything we do meets with his approval or is sustained by him. On the other hand, if God's justice has to be appeased by the sacrifice of innocent blood, IMO he is either unjust or has his mercy is secondary to his justice.

</IMG>

 

[kiwimac]

If God's love were not unconditional we would all be in a LOT of trouble.

 

[astarath]

God's love is unconditional his forgiveness is not. To be truly forgiven, you must love god, you must love one another, you must accept the sacrifice of christ and the salvation, and you must never deny the presence of the holy spirit

 

[Sunstone]

It is absurd to think an unconditional being is only capable of conditional love.

 

[astarath]

It is absurd to think an unconditional being is only capable of conditional love.

well said senor

 

[lunamoth]

God's love is unconditional. Grace is that which can't be earned, it can't be awarded for anything we do or think, and that includes choosing some set of correct beliefs. Granted, some beliefs assist us in this life better than others, or perhaps I should say how we choose our beliefs in this life also directs the other choices we make and thus our overall course. God's love is raining down free all the time. We are soaked in it, whether we aknowledge that or not.