When we were younger, my sister would copy various poems and quotes and pin them on a cork board in our room. I remember one quote in particular that read, “love is a choice, not a feeling”. Those words stuck with me and left me wondering if love really could be a choice.
At the time I didn’t think so. The love I knew was very emotional and very conditional. It was always, “I love you if__.”
In my mind, love was never guaranteed, and it always had to be earned. I couldn’t understand the idea that anyone would choose to love, much less choose to love unconditionally.
My perspective was born mostly from what I saw in my own home. I watched my parents, who said they loved each other, fight, argue, hurt each other, and in the end divorce over ‘irreconcilable differences.’ For me, unconditional love was a fantasy.
Much of my early life I carried a weight stemming from lies I allowed myself to believe, lies I brought into my walk as a Christian.
Lies that said no one would love me unless I was perfect.
Lies that said love always walked away in the end.
Lies that said God only loved me if___.
Love is Unconditional
We often use the word “love” the same way we would use the word “like”, to describe an emotion, an affinity towards something, or a fleeting experience.
Love Undeserved
It irks me tremendously when I hear Christian authors or speakers telling people that they’re worthy of God’s love. My friend, the truth is just the opposite:
We don’t deserve God’s love.
At first glance, such a statement may appear discouraging. But in truth, that should be the most freeing thing you’ve heard all day, maybe all year, or perhaps in your entire life.
I believe the Bible clearly teaches that God’s love is undeserved. Consider Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Did you catch that phrase “while we were still sinners”? God epitomized His love for us while we were still His very enemies.
Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
We were dead in our sins and had done, can do, nothing to earn God’s love, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love…” saved us. Read that again. God saved us because He loves us, He doesn’t love us because we are saved or sanctified.
We can’t earn His love because we already have it. And we can’t lose His love because we don’t deserve it in the first place.
