God’s unconditional love requires everything from you.
Is God’s love unconditional? Yes.
Is God’s love conditional? Yes.
God’s unconditional love
We define unconditional love as not requiring a person being loved to fulfill any conditions. Unconditional love gives love regardless of whether the beloved deserves love or wants love. Unconditional love does not say, “I will love you if….”
Jesus said, your father who is in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45 ESV). That is unconditional love.
God resembles a human father who loves his child long before the child is able to respond to that love. The father gives the child a home, pays for her food, diapers, doctor visits, clothing. His daughter returns this kindness with poopy diapers, crying in the middle of the night, and regular demands to be held and walked. Still, the father keeps giving and giving. This is unconditional love.
Scripture says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
God loves people unconditionally. He loves because he loves. He loves even his enemies. He loves sinners.
Scripture says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 ESV).
God planned to send his Son to suffer and die for our sins before we were even born. He brought the gospel message to our ears when we did not want to hear the message and convicted us of our sin and godlessness when we did not want to be reminded of it. He poured out his wrath on his holy, beloved, precious Son so he would not have to pour wrath on us. He did this while people were still sinners. This is unconditional love.
God’s conditional love
On the other hand, conditional love says, “My love requires something from you.” Again and again the Bible shows that when God gives love he demands something.
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:21–23 ESV)
What could be more conditional than that? In effect, Jesus says, I have loved you, but if you insist on disobeying my Father and living lawlessly, depart from me. I never knew you.
That is conditional love.
God delivered the Israelites from Egypt unconditionally. He called Moses and sent him against Pharaoh with ten plagues even though the Israelites soon told Moses to leave them alone. God parted the Red Sea and set the people free. Then at Mount Sinai he gave the people his commands and taught them how to live in covenant with him. Nevertheless, again and again they refused to believe and obey God, until finally God sent them to wander for 40 years in the desert until the last of the rebellious men had died.
That is conditional love. God didn’t say he would love each of them no matter what. He said they had to keep his covenant.
One of the best-known verses in the Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16–18, ESV).
In other words, God loved the world unconditionally by sending Jesus, but the condition for escaping condemnation is believing in Jesus. If a person rejects Jesus, then God’s unconditional love does them no good at all. Meet the condition, or perish.
Elsewhere, the New Testament says, “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:4–5 ESV). That is conditional love. Respond to my love or suffer my wrath.
The problem with talking about God’s unconditional love
God’s unconditional love in Jesus is our song and message. Unfortunately, in our culture today, when we talk about God’s unconditional love, many people misunderstand that to mean God requires nothing from them. Many think “God loves you” means they don’t need to believe in Jesus, don’t need to repent of their sins, don’t need to pursue holiness, don’t need to worship or give thanks to God, don’t need to pay attention to the Bible, don’t need to have anything to do with the church. They think they can live however they want, or at least be a generally good person, and believe whatever they want regardless of what the Bible says, and God loves them enough to surely welcome them into heaven. Tragically, they are wrong, and ultimately dead wrong.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen sinners can misunderstand God’s love to require nothing from them.
God’s way: God’s unconditional love requires everything from us. “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15 ESV). “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10 NIV).
Life principle: Don’t choose between describing God’s love as either conditional or unconditional, for his love is both.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)