ICS Daily Devotions
God Loves You No Matter What
John 13:34-35 (NKJV) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The key in this Scripture is to love one another as Jesus has loved us, but if we are to love one another based on how Jesus loves us, the prerequisite is to fully comprehend His love for us.
If you have doubted God’s love for you, there is a high likelihood that you think God loves you conditionally. Some of us think that God will love us more when we are doing all the right things, including practising all the spiritual disciplines such as praying, reading the Bible, fasting, and going to church; we think that by “doing” for Him, we can gain His love and acceptance, but that would be Phileo love instead of Agape love. Indeed, being rooted in the Word, keeping in fellowship with God through prayer, fellowshipping with other believers and fasting to hear God more sharply are all important spiritual disciplines. Nonetheless, there will be times when we may slacken in some aspects of them, but it doesn’t mean that God will stop loving us or love us any less. If we think that way, it means we are equating God’s love to Phileo love, which is a conditional love.
Romans 5:17 (NKJV) For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Only when we understand God’s grace will we truly know that He loves us unconditionally and let us focus on our being in Him rather than “doing” for Him! God chose to give us the gift of righteousness, which is the ability to stand right before Him, just like we have never sinned despite our sins and weaknesses—that’s the abundance of His grace. He didn’t wait for us to be good, worthy, and perfect before Jesus died on the cross for our sin, for that would have been Phileo love. Instead, it was Agape love that caused Him to love us proactively—it is a love by choice. God showed and demonstrated His love for us on the cross even though we don’t deserve it, did nothing to earn it, and aren’t entitled to it—that’s unconditional love. We will only reign in life when we identify ourselves in our being in Christ and are soaked in His Agape love. It is when we are absolutely secure in His love that we will be able to carry out great exploits for Him.
Grace is God’s unmerited favour or Agape love, which means there is nothing you can say or do, or have not said or done, that makes God love you any more or any less. He simply loves you unconditionally.
Sermon Series: How to love? (Part 2)
