God’s Unconditional Love
Remembering how much God loves you is a great way to celebrate Valentines Day. But it’s important to remember how vast His love is any time of the year. Pastor Joel Kolb helps us meditate on God’s great love.
Why Is God’s Love Unconditional?
God loves you, because God is love. He loves you, not because of who you are, but because of who He is. He just can’t help loving you. Do you feel unlovable? It doesn’t matter. He still loves you. You can’t stop that kind of love. You can only surrender.
Jesus used a passage from the prophet Isaiah to describe His Divine mission. Luke 4:18-19 quotes it as Jesus read it:
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED; TO PROCLAIM THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” (Luke 4:18-19 NKJV)
If God’s love were not unconditional then Luke 4:18 should read:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel …to those of moderate income, or at least not so needy as to actually become a burden to anyone;
He has sent Me to heal …those who may have been hurt sometime in the past, but who really don’t think about it anymore and would rather not bring it up if you don’t mind!,
To proclaim liberty to the captives …who have either cleverly escaped, or who were never really captives in the first place because they could have been free any time they wanted too but they just chose not to.
And recovery of sight …to the illuminable challenged… or better yet, differently seeing.
To set at liberty those who are oppressed …not that there is anything wrong with being oppressed. I am sure that if you ask the devil nicely, he will understand and just leave you alone;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Yes that’s right. We finally have it all together and God has to accept us. Then again, if I have done all of this myself, why should I even care what God thinks?”
Aren’t you glad it doesn’t say that?
Thanks, Joel, for giving us a fresh look at how God’s love is for every one of us.
About the writer:
Joel and Karie Kolb serve at Spring City Fellowship in Spring City, PA, where Joel is the Lead Pastor. Karie is a career missionary and a Christian counselor who has spent her life serving the Lord. Together Joel and Karie serve the needs of international ministry leaders and workers from both a pastoral and a cross-culturally informed perspective.
You can listen to Joel’s sermons on the church website: http://www.springcityfellowship.com/