No, the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.- John 16:27

February 19, 2008 Floyd Ray Gage

Is Jesus saying that God doesn’t love those that don’t know and love Jesus? We know this is not true, because of verses such as John 3:16. This lets us know that God does love us even before we know Him in Christ. If it was not for the love of God coming to us before we knew Christ, we would all be condemned to an eternity apart from God.

If this is not what Jesus is saying, then what is He telling us in this passage? We can see that there is a love that is only given to those who accept and love Christ. We must therefore understand that God does love everyone even before they come to Christ, but there is a special love that He reserves for those that trust in Christ and believe on Him to be all that He claimed to be: the Son of God, Savior of the world.

Christians, true Christians, that really believe on Christ and give their lives to Him are loved in a deeper way by God than those who have not trusted in Christ. I think that this is true for many reasons. First, I think God loves Christians more, because they have accepted His love in Christ. When we are wanting to date someone, there is love there, we hope. When that person responds in kind and loves us in return, the love deepens and broadens. We therefore love the person even more. As we grow to know them more and remain dedicated to them that love deepens past what we could have imagined, when we first began to know them.

When a Christian accepts Christ and the offer of God’s love in the person of Christ, then that believer gives some of the love God has to offer to God and to those around Him. As he or she does this, love broadens and deepens in that person’s heart and soul and they are therefore able to be loved even more by God. God loves us deeper, because we love Him in the way that He desires to be loved, That is, through the heart and regenerated life of one that has been transformed by His love. Only Christ can bring this about. In truth only those that have been transformed by Christ and His redeeming work on the cross can truly love God. We are not equipped to truly love as God loves until we are transformed by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives after we have surrendered to Christ.

There is also truth in the fact that we truly can’t receive the deeper form of God’s love until we come to Him in Christ. We can’t understand the deeper love of God until we have given ourselves to Christ. So often, children cannot understand the love of their parents. They don’t see all the sacrifices that the parent makes. They don’t understand that the love of the parent will sometimes keep them from doing harmful things that they may want to do. A child simply cannot understand love as deeply as an adult can, because they don’t have the experience against which to see that love.

The same is true of someone that does not know Christ. It is true that God loves them, but they can’t see that or understand it. They are the unborn. They have not been born again. A fetus doesn’t really understand love. They perceive things, but they can’t really delve into the deeper understanding of love. It is beyond their experience.

Those outside of Christ do not fully understand God’s love. They may catch glimpses of it. They may even perceive it as something else: nature’s benevolence or fate’s kind offering. Only after one has been born again by believing on Christ, can he or she perceive God’s love in all of its beauty and nuances.

Christian, you are loved. Start delving into the deeper aspects of that love by surrendering more and more to Christ. Seek His heart and will and dive into God’s love.