I love, absolutely love pizza. Make it with a cauliflower crust, chicken, and Alfredo sauce! You can now convince me that I am already in heaven. Ahhhhhh. I also love the Boston Red Sox and have for about 50 years. I also love my tremendous wife, my children, and every dog I have ever had the pleasure to raise for the duration of their life. (Sorry, not a cat person. Yet.) So what does the word “love” mean? Is all “love” the same? I think that because we have diluted that word so much, it’s easy to not recognize “unconditional love” when it is offered.
Dictionary.com Says:
noun
- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- sexual passion or desire.
- a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.(used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
- a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.sexual intercourse; copulation.
- (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
- affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one’s neighbor.
- strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
- the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
- the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
- Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
- a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.SEE LESS
verb
- to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her.
- to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).
- to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.
- to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.
- to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
- to have sexual intercourse with.
- to have love or affection for another person; be in love.
- love up, to hug and cuddle: She loves him up every chance she gets.
Let’s Focus and See What the Bible says!
Looking at the list above, and picking the ones that are part of God’s love:
- a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one’s neighbor.
- God’s benevolent affection for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
Looking at the definitions of the highest form of love, let’s review what the Bible says:
1st John 3:11, 14, 16,18; 4:7-12, 16:
"The beautiful message you’ve heard right from the start is that we should walk in self-sacrificing love toward one another. ... Yet we can be assured that we have been translated from spiritual death into spiritual life because we love the family of believers. A loveless life remains spiritually dead. ... This is how we have discovered love’s reality: Jesus sacrificed His life for us. Because of this great love, we should be willing to lay down our lives for one another. ... Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. ... Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. The light of God’s love shined within us when He sent His matchless Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love: He loved us long before we loved Him. It was His love, not ours. He proved it by sending His Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins. Delightfully loved ones, if He loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God’s splendor. But if we love one another, God makes His permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in Him, and His love is brought to its full expression in us. ... We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them." - The Passion Translation.
God’s Love For You!
“Unconditional Love” means Love that cannot be stopped. No matter what you have done, no matter what you do, or will do God’s Love will not be deterred. Your bloodline, your situation, your response, and what others think of you, even what you think of yourself are all unable to stop God’s love for you. You can’t deserve it, neither have I. He will never turn away from you. It doesn’t depend on anything or anyone. It is “unconditional”. After all, he has “a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend”.
Please comment and/or respond to what you heard inside of you as you read this! Let’s share!
To see and use Personalized Scriptures, visit YouIntheBible.org and enjoy!