Unconditional Love Vs. Conditional Love
In a world where love is so conditional that vows are a part of our marriage ceremony, where do we get the idea of unconditional love from? Let's talk about it.
I wanna start out by reading an excerpt or a description of love that comes from Bob Marley, right? This is what he says, only once in your life I truly believe you. Find someone who can completely turn your world around you. Tell them things that you've never shared before with another soul. They absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come through. Um, goals that were never achieved, and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can't wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They're not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Doesn't this just sound amazing? Like I, I love the intensity of this kind of love, right? And, and love its definition is an intense feeling of deep affection. And I think Bob Marley actually like hit it on a nail when he's describing it.
But the problem is that's not the love we experience on the daily. What we usually get is the, I love you if. Or I love you when you, or even I love you because you see all of these have conditions tied to it. It's love with strings attached. So if all we experience in this life is conditional love, then where do we get the idea of unconditional love from?
That answer is simple. It's God, it can be nobody else. In Psalms chapter 1 0 3 verse 11, it says, for his unfeeling love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west in Lamentations. He even goes further and he says.
The faithful love of the Lord never ends and his mercies, they never cease. And then if we go to Isaiah, uh, 54 verse 10, it says, for the mountains, may move in, the hills disappear. But even then, my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessed will never be broken. This is unconditional love.
The Bible is a book that tells us of unconditional love, a covenantal love that started with grace and a commitment, a love that redeemed us, a love so unconditional that he laid his own life down so that we can choose to love him back and spend eternity with him. This agape love. Is what it took to redeem us. In early Roman societies marriage was a civil and legal agreement involving property inheritance and family alliances. This kind of love is natural, not spiritual. It flows from self-interest, not the Holy Spirit. It's the love of the flesh. It is protective and centered around oneself. Conditional love says. I'll love you if you deserve it. It is performance based, a reaction to behavior, not a reflection of character. Luke 6 32 says, if you love those who love you, then what benefit is that to you? Or even sinners. Love those who love them. Now, unconditional love, AKA, the agape love that God has can be seen in full effect in Hosea chapter three.
Verse one to two, it says, then the Lord said to me, go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them. So I bought her back for 15 pieces of silver, five bushels of barley, and a measure of wine.
Hosea. Just bought back his wife Gomer. And in this illustration, we are Gomer selling ourselves repeatedly for the pleasure of our sins destined for the grave and the flames of hell. But God, he's consistently choosing to love us and never changing. Malachi three, six says. For I the Lord do not change therefore, you the children of Jacob are not consumed.
