Unconditional...
UNCONDITIONAL...
Love/Acceptance
This is a part of Christianity that brings a lot of assumptions.
Something in the human mind...equates love with acceptance.
But this does not always work as we imagine it.
Let's say a couple has two children.
Now let's say that when they are teens, one child tries to kill their sibling.
The parent, to protect the victim-child, needs to be pro-active against the perp-child -
and make something happen - so the victim-child can be safe.
This is painful, but necessary.
(The art, by Jan Lievens, Cain killing Abel, 1600s)
I suggest that we think this way about God.
If you believe God's love means absolute, resolute, unconditional acceptance -
then - why does hell even exist?
God created Hell to imprison the Lucifer and his followers after Lucifer tried to take over heaven.
This is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 25:41.
Lucifer was then renamed 'Satan' and 'the devil'.
Did God love Lucifer when God created him?
I presume so.
Did God love Satan after he rebelled?
I don't know how to answer that.
But what does it matter? Hell is forever, never-ending.
And Hell is where God decided that the devil needs to be contained
to keep those in heaven - safe from the devil.
We don't get to decide how this works.
Heaven has no voting booths
and Hell has no exit doors.
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About God's love:
Romans 5:6-8:
6 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person,
though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
* God loved us when we were created.
* God loved us while we were children, not sinless, but unaccountable for our sins.
* God love those who have become 'born-again'.
* God loves those alive on the earth - still ineligible to go to heaven because of unrepented sins.
His death on the cross made it possible for us to go to heaven,
because his death paid for our sins - IF we become born again.
IF we become born again, we can be forgiven and go to heaven.
And James 3 says:
9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance."
If God's acceptance were unconditional,
God's patience would not be necessary.
This means that God's love for us is ongoing,
yet...
those who die without becoming born-again
have rejected His offer of mercy and forgiveness -
and must pay the price of rejecting His love.
God accepts no Friendzone relationships.
