Cancer is Back: Unilateral Love: How God's Initiative Transformed Humanity

Exploring the Unconditional and Initiating Nature of God's Love Reaching out to Humanity

Jun 05, 2024

God loved us first

God’s love for humanity is not dependent on our initiative or effort; rather, it precedes our affection for Him.

We did not earn or deserve God’s love; it is a gift freely given, motivated by His compassion and mercy. By sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins, He first loved us and enabled us to be reconciled to Him (1 John 4:10). This love is not based on our performance or merit, but on the unchanging nature of God Himself.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10.

We love him, because he first loved us. I John 4:19

God initiated love before anyone ever made a move towards Him. Adam and Eve sinned against God. They hid. To hide their shame, they exerted great effort. They did not approach God and ask for forgiveness. They did not seek help.

They hid. They ran from God.

God ran to them. He came in the evening, as was His custom. He called them. They stepped out, but God reacts not in anger but in love. God doesn’t destroy He rescues. God took the skins of an animal, a lamb, for sure, and covered their nakedness and restored His relationship with Adam and Eve.

The act of covering their nakedness and shame points to what Jesus would do on the cross as the Lamb of God died, taking the sins of the world on Himself.

It was God who came in love and loved the unlovely. It was God that came loving the undeserving.

That is who we are. He loves us because of His good character, not because of anything we do.

God’s love is not contingent upon our love for Him or worthiness. As John affirms, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). It was God who started love, reaching out to us while we were still sinners, undeserving of His grace (Romans 5:8). His love is not a reaction to our actions, but a reflection of His good and loving character.

God’s love is a unilateral, initiating love that flows from His very nature.

Great Quotes

He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is Love. C.S. Lewis1

Christ did not die for us that God might love us; He died for us because God already loved us from everlasting. Love is not the result of redemption; it is the cause of it. A. W. Tozer2

Christ loved you before you loved him. He loved you when there was nothing good in you. He loved you though you insulted him, though you despised him and rebelled against him. He has loved you right on, and never ceased to love you. He has loved you in your backslidings and loved you out of them. He has loved you in your sins, in your wickedness and folly. His loving heart was still eternally the same, and he shed his heart’s blood to prove his love for you. He has given you what you want on earth, and provided for you an habitation in heaven.
Charles Spurgeon3

Believers should love other believers

Our Lord has many weak children in His family, many dull pupils in His school, many raw soldiers in His army, many lame sheep in His flock. Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to deal likewise with his brethren. J. C. Ryle4

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For Our Prayer Warriors

I wanted to inform you that the biopsy report for my lymph node in the pelvic area is now available in my patient portal. The report indicates a positive result, suggesting that it may be a metastasis from my kidney cancer.

I have yet to speak with a doctor about the report and await their input. In this challenging time, I ask for your prayers and support as we await further guidance from the medical team. We believe in the power of prayer and are putting our faith in the possibility of healing and recovery.

Please join us in prayer, asking for God’s will to be shown in my life. With your love and support, we remain hopeful and strong in the face of this challenge.

Thank you for your understanding and keeping me in your prayers.

Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 2000), 179.

Tozer on the Almighty God : A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2004).

Elliot Ritzema, ed., 300 Quotations for Preachers (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John, vol. 3 (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1880), 406.