Unconditional Love

Geoff-Allen said:

Greetings One & All!

Do you believe we each have the potential for unconditional love?

Or is it just reserved for God & a few saints?

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Firstly.. I would like to say that there isn't any difference between the word "LOVE" and "UNCONDITIONAL-LOVE" , or "TRUE-LOVE". Its a big folly to add the words such as True, False, Conditional or Unconditional with the word Love because.. where there is Love, its always true and unconditional by default.

Secondly.. I would like to rephrase you question because according to me its not the right question.

Instead of.. Do you believe we each have the potential for unconditional love? It must be.. Do you believe unconditional-love/Love has the potential for all of us?
Because, instead of man trapping a love, its love who always traps a man. or another in way to say.. Its not man who can control a love, its love who always controls a man. Love is bigger than everything/all of us.

And in all that sense.. my answer is.. YES Love has the potential for all of us. In fact in some way or another we all are already trapped by unconditional love. The only difference between a Saint and a normal man is that.. Saints are in love with God, whereas we people are in love with this world, and worldly-things.

Its Love who forces man to love God,
Its Love who forces man to love world, and worldly things,
In both the cases its is Love who forces one to do something.

Now the question becomes.. Why Love forces only few people to Love God ?
My answer is.. Love will force each of us to do so, but on different times which has been fixed for us to do so. Like.. all the buds in this world cannot turn into a flower at one same time. Similarly.. we all cannot turn into True-devotees/Devotees/God-adorers at one same time.

God is Love is God.

JayJayDee said:

As the giver and originator of life, God has the right as sovereign ruler to dictate the terms of our existence. For what he offered, he asked very little in return.

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Assuming this God you speak of exists, why would he do this? Why would he create the world and humans, then set himself up as a ruler? Is he not sufficient in himself?

I'm not sure what makes it so difficult. I don't really think it's as difficult as people make it out to be. I just do it.

Bunyip said:

Well most versions will be very similar, so I guess Mathew 13:41-50, Mark 9:48, Revelation 14:10, Rev 14:11, Rev 20:14, Rev 20:15, Luke 10:15, Luke 16:23, John 3:16.

Those are all I recall offhand, and of course like all theology it is all a matter of how it is interpreted. The notion of eternal torment is a very common interpretation within Christianity.

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"Very common" does not mean truthful.
A very common MISinterpretation is more accurate.

Nietzsche said:

I would rather live a single day as a Lion rather than a hundred years as a Sheep.

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Saint Frankenstein said:

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cough

Lions fight, they don't roll over and die.

cough

Nietzsche said:

cough

Lions fight, they don't roll over and die.

cough

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Well, He only conquered death and *****slapped Satan.

JayJayDee said:

He offers us life on his terms or death on our own.....we choose.

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Thanks for the feed-back.

Here's a lovely excerpt from one of my favourite books -

Emissary of Light and The True Meaning of Love | In Search of Simplicity

All the best!

Nietzsche said:

I would rather live a single day as a Lion rather than a hundred years as a Sheep.

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I am sure your preference has been duly noted Nietzsche. I can hear you roaring all the way from Australia.

"There is hope for whoever is among the living, because a live dog is better off than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten." (Eccl 9:4, 5)

When we die, who will remember that we ever existed unless we did something extraordinarily good or bad?
Solomon gets to the nitty gritty I think.....live dog....dead lion.

Being remembered by man is meaningless....being remembered by God guarantees an everlasting future. You can believe that or not. God will not force anyone to even believe in him.

Marisa said:

Unconditional love is the act of loving someone without requiring them to change in any way, and despite what they may do.

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I guess that is the kicker in our situation.....God DOES require that we change. His love IS conditional because he has laws and standards which would be meaningless if he required nothing from us.

That seems reserved for us mere mortals, and most of the gods we've created remain incapable of achieving.

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Humans create gods who will do as "they" wish.....who will smile and let them get away with anything. The God of the Bible is not that kind of god. We do things his way or he will have no use for us in his future plans.

Others can pretend that there is no Creator to answer to, but that does not mean that doesn't exist.

He does not owe us life, which was conditional from day one. It is a valuable gift given with instruction on how to care for it. If the conditions are not met, God is under no obligation to allow us to keep it, whilst we selfishly trample it under our feet.

JayJayDee said:

Others can pretend that there is no Creator to answer to, but that does not mean that doesn't exist.

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I'm not really interested in debating this, but I will say that the converse is also true. Just because you pretend your personal vision of a creator exists, doesn't make it true.

I count the Abrahamic god among the gods man has created.

Thorbjorn said:

Assuming this God you speak of exists, why would he do this? Why would he create the world and humans, then set himself up as a ruler? Is he not sufficient in himself?

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Understanding that there is so much more to the scenario than this simplistic view, the Creator, whose primary quality is love, desired to share life with other beings. He did not need to do anything, but chose to do so for his own reasons.

He did not create all life with mere programming for self preservation and self perpetuation. He lastly created man to reflect his own qualities with free will and with choices in everyday life to enhance their enjoyment in living.

We humans are the only creatures on earth who have a sense of morality....who have a conscience, and the ability to act and plan with consequential thinking.

The Creator knew there was risk in giving other beings free will, so this is why he did not make any creature immortal like himself. Even his angelic creatures are not immortal. The abuse of free will had to have a penalty. The penalty was death.....not life somewhere else, but death as in returning to the dust. Going back to where we were before our parents created us. (Gen 3:17-19; Eccl 9:5, 10)

He laid down only one reasonable rule and kept the knowledge of evil in his own jurisdiction. Yet because of free will, he only made them aware of the consequences of going against his directive. Had they obeyed that directive, we would not see the world we have today.

God allows us to choose our own destiny. Obey and live or disobey and die were the conditions of life from day one. They have not changed.

As a timeless being, God does not operate in earth years. So from the human perspective, it s taking an awfully long time for God to achieve his aims. He has no need to rush, and no one needs to wait any longer than their own lifetime to see the fulfillment of his purpose. Those asleep in death have no consciousness of the passage of time. And God has promised to awaken the dead once the rule of his kingdom is accomplished. (John 5:28, 29)

Those alive at the time of the judgment will have no excuse to have ignored his message of salvation, which he said would be preached right up to the end. (Matt 24:14) There are only "sheep and goats" at that time and the destiny of both is clearly outlined. (Matt 25:31-46) No one will be able to say that they didn't know or that they weren't given enough time to make their choice.

Marisa said:

I'm not really interested in debating this, but I will say that the converse is also true. Just because you pretend your personal vision of a creator exists, doesn't make it true.

I count the Abrahamic god among the gods man has created.

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That is entirely your choice. To me, the God of the Bible is the only true God. I do not believe that humans created him, but that he created us.

To each his own...we will all stand or fall by the choices we make.

JayJayDee said:

That is entirely your choice. To me, the God of the Bible is the only true God. I do not believe that humans created him, but that he created us.

To each his own...we will all stand or fall by the choices we make.

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I'm perfectly content to let you have your belief.

Unconditional love and the acceptance of all life puts your awareness into a higher place, allowing understanding and compassion to develop. This love and acceptance of others is a recognition of the spiritual light within those people and is not dependent upon their outward behavior. Unconditional love also includes a general respect for the beliefs of others, regardless of how much they may, or may not, align with your own beliefs.

Comes from this excellent site -

http://www.spiritualdynamics.net/articles/10-awareness/

Cheers!

Geoff-Allen said:

Unconditional love and the acceptance of all life puts your awareness into a higher place, allowing understanding and compassion to develop. This love and acceptance of others is a recognition of the spiritual light within those people and is not dependent upon their outward behavior. Unconditional love also includes a general respect for the beliefs of others, regardless of how much they may, or may not, align with your own beliefs.

Comes from this excellent site -

http://www.spiritualdynamics.net/articles/10-awareness/

Cheers!

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That is a nice fantasy but it has nothing to do with the Bible's message of salvation.

People create religions and gods to suit themselves. They had no sanction from Jehovah to do this.....in fact it was completely contrary to his express commands. (Ex 20:3-6)

The God of the Bible was reflected perfectly in the personality of Jesus Christ. He tolerated no deviation from the truths contained in his Father's written word. He condemned unrighteousness and lawlessness completely, which means that human behavior and attitude was to be modified to bring it into line with the Creator's standards and laws of one was to become a Christian disciple. No one could ever become a worshipper of Jehovah on his own terms.

The compassion and love of Jesus was demonstrated time and again towards erring ones. He sensed their feelings of worthlessness and encouraged them to do better. Their "outward behavior" had to change because unless they repented of their former deeds, God would reject them. The reward for changing their negative personality traits was well worth any and all efforts.

The God of the Bible never tolerated the beliefs of the nations. He eradicated those belief systems from the land that he gifted to his people, setting a pattern for all to follow. (Deut 18:9-12)

Unconditional love does not exist in the Bible. The end result of God's immense love for mankind was in providing something personally precious, which he sacrificed to secure the release of Adam's children from an endless cycle of sin and death. (John 3:16) A reasonable response to that sacrifice is gratitude and a real desire to sacrifice something in return. Maybe its a lifestyle choice, a health destroying habit or addiction, a partnership that is causing the breaking of God's laws, a secular pursuit that causes detriment to others, such as the manufacture or distribution of weapons or drugs that destroy health.

If we are engaged in any pursuit that causes harm to our fellow man, we will account to the Creator for it.

JayJayDee said:

The God of the Bible never tolerated the beliefs of the nations. He eradicated those belief systems from the land that he gifted to his people, setting a pattern for all to follow. (Deut 18:9-12)

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And how did he eradicate those beliefs other than eradicating the people themselves? Let genocide in the name of your god begin! "Jihad! Holy War! Die infidels and your false beliefs with you!"

It scares me people think like this, that they imagine God this way, that they view their fellow man as evil doers that need to be eradicated in order for your views to reign supreme. Quite disturbing indeed.

JayJayDee said:

Unconditional love does not exist in the Bible.

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Except for the fact it says "God is Love". There are no conditions set there. Love is the being of God.

Did your parents love you conditionally? Only if you pleased them? If so, that must have been quite hurtful on the deepest of levels that you needed to earn love. To me, a love like that is not love at all. Again, that's not love.

JayJayDee said:

If we are engaged in any pursuit that causes harm to our fellow man, we will account to the Creator for it.

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But a couple sentences ago you said it was having incorrect "belief systems"? But what if these belief systems create good for our fellow man? Wipe it out anyway because it's not "true doctrine"? Such views of God grieve the Heart and keep one from God, from Love. How can you love as God Is, and desire others eradicated? That is not Love.

Heaven Letters is another wonderful site -

What Else Matters When There Is Love | Heavenletters

Try their cosmic letter generator!

All the best!

Yes.
Avoth 5:16
Any love that is dependent on something, when that thing is gone, the love is gone.
And that is not dependent on something, it is never lost.
Which is a love that was dependent on something? This is the love of Amnon and Tamar (ie. bc of her beauty)
And not dependent on something? This is the love of David and Jonathan.