Unconditional Love: A Love that Conquers All by Patrick Carden

People have a hard enough time figuring out what love is, and then there’s unconditional love, which some will argue is the only kind of real love.

According to Merriam-Webster, “unconditional”means not conditional or limited: absolute, unqualified.  So it stands to reason that unconditional love means a love that is not conditional, not limited; a love that is absolute and unqualified.  Love cannot be love without being unconditional.

Love isn’t just a feeling, it is an action.  A feeling is something we get from someone and when we don’t get that thing, we somehow change our behavior.  If you require someone to do something, or be a certain way or mold into your idea in order to receive love from you, that love is conditional.  Rather, if you start making love the behavior itself, the reward becomes the feeling you get when you act a certain way.

There’s only one kind of love that can fill us up, make us whole, and give us the happiness we all want: unconditional love or true love. It is unconditional love or true love that we all seek, and somehow we recognize that anything other than that kind of love isn’t really love at all—it’s an imitation of the real thing. Unconditional love—true love—is so different from the kind of love most of us have known all our lives that it deserves both a name and definition of its own.

Real Love

Real love is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought for what we might get for ourselves.

It’s also real love when other people care about our happiness unconditionally. With real love, people are not disappointed or angry when we make our foolish mistakes, when we don’t do what they want, or even when we inconvenience them personally. Real love is unconditional.

The phrase “unconditional love” is never mentioned in the Bible.  So does it actually exist or is God’s love earned by following conditions and rules?

Agape

In the New Testament, agape refers to the covenant love of God for man as well as man’s reciprocal love for God; in turn this love extends to man’s love for his fellow man.  Agape represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active love displayed at one’s own volition.

• Agape is never judgmental and is eternally patient.
• Agape is totally without demands or requirements…..unconditional.
• Agape is total truth meaning it doesn’t change, no matter what appears to change around it.
• Agape is unending and does not know time since time doesn’t exist in the Spirit.
• Agape is respect for another person’s freedom.
• Agape love has no boundaries.

God’s love for us has never allowed Him to even think about or begin to see any of us differently from everyone else regardless of what we may have done or believe we have done.  So no matter who you are or what you’ve done, God loves you.

What a wonderful truth!  Scripture doesn’t say that the heart of God only loves Christians or religious people.  Scripture doesn’t say that God only loves righteous people or churchgoers.  The Word of God is clear about the fact that God loves the WORLD and that includes everyone.  No matter who you are, God truly loves you.

God Loves All People

God does not love us because of who we are, but because of who He is. Likewise, we shouldn’t love people because of who they are, but because of who we are. This is unconditional love.

I cannot stress the truth enough that God loves people; all shapes and sizes, all different temperaments and personalities, all varying levels of intelligence and character, every race, every tongue, every nation, every family, etc.  God loves people!

So why should Christians be any different?  Why do some Christians put stipulations or conditions on people in order for them to be loved, accepted and celebrated?  Christians should not be different.  We are called to love and to love unconditionally.

I’ve learned over the years to view people as objects of God’s love. If I start to think critical about someone, I’ll catch myself and say, “That’s a man that God loves” or “That’s a woman that Jesus died for.” Because after all, we’re all created by the same divine Creator.

And love conquers all!