If God's love is unconditional, how can you put conditions on it ?

Question

And say God loves you enough to go to heaven only if you do certain things? ie. Accept Jesus Christ as your saviour etc.

"God is Love: It's Unconditional
God is Love, and His love is very different from human love. God's love is unconditional, and it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love."

http://www.allaboutgod.com/god-is-love.htm

Remember JR the Christian model of who and what God is, is only one of many belief systems and varies widely within itself. Decide for yourself who and what God is or isn't.

Answer 1

Too true.

Then there are those like the jerk above, who say that God's love is NOT unconditional and that we will be judged. To him I would ask this: many mothers have unconditional love for their children. Wouldn't God's form of love be at least equal to a mortal woman's form of love? Should we not expect or even demand that our deities love us at least as much as the average human mother loves her child?

Answer 2

A parent's love is unconditional but that does not mean she does not still make rules for her child and expect him to live up to a certain expectations. When a child is disobedient, a parent does not abandon the child. The parent attempts to correct the bad behavior or encourage better behavior. Once a child grows into an adult, though, that child must choose whether to follow the rules and act correctly or not. It is not the parent's fault if the adult child rejects all that he was taught, but the parent is not obligated to support and reward the adult child's bad behavior even though she still loves him.

Jesus told us that God was our Father, our parent. God loves us and makes rules that are in our own best interest, even if we can't see it. But when we consciously reject the rules, we can't expect God to support our decision and reward us for it. Like any parent, though, God hopes that we will come around and ask for forgiveness and be prepared to start following the rules again.

I once read that a good parent gives us a child everything he needs a little bit of what he wants. God is the good parent. We are the greedy, spoiled children who care more about what we want than what we really need.

Answer 3

All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will [a grumbling] mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood...
--excerpted from The Problem of Pain and The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), included in The Quotable Lewis, 1989 Tyndale

Answer 4

The reason that God does not allow people into heaven who have not accepted Him is because of His unconditional love. Think about it. Let's say that God lets everybody into heaven, regardless of beliefs or whether or not they have accepted Jesus. Would a person who is vehemently against God, who hates Christians, who doesn't like anything that is good, be truly happy in heaven? Would that person be happy surrounded by good things and not sinful things, being in the presence of God, the angels, and Christians 24/7? Would they be happy without their alcohol, drugs, gambling, ect...? This is why God doesn't allow everyone into heaven. The people who God doesn't allow into heaven are the people who would truly not be happy in heaven. In fact, they would be miserable. God loves them, and He doesn't want them to be miserable, nor does He want them to cause trouble and make heaven an unhappy place with their attitude. So, it is merciful for Him to exclude them from heaven. It all goes back to free will. God would want everyone to be in heaven because He loves us all, but because He is not a God of force, He lets every individual choose whether or not they want to be in heaven.

Answer 5

Actually, nowhere in scripture will you find it said that God's love is unconditional. God has always put choices before man. His love for mankind is all encompassing yes. He gave his son up for a sacrificial death so that humans might get back what their original parents foolishly gave up. But it behooves us AS INDIVIDUALS to be obedient so that we might be worthy of that love.

“I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction; and you must CHOOSE life in order that you may keep alive.”—DEUTERONOMY 30:19

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order THAT EVERYONE EXERCISING FAITH IN HIM might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. -- JOHN 3:16

In every single instance where God brought his judgment down on mankind... the Flood of Noah's day, Sodom & Gomorrah, the destruction of Jerusalem (twice) ... in each case there were warnings ahead of time so that people could, as Deutoronomy says, choose life. In all instances people lost their lives because they ignored the warnings and chose poorly.

Answer 6

You are correct, "all you have to do" is a condition, and therefore surprise, surprise, God is not all-loving. But it IS unconditional ELECTION that determines who will be saved out of love for them, so the premise "doesn't love us because we're lovable" is correct. He loves his own, and His sheep know His name.

Answer 7

How can God's love be different from our love? We are made to His image and likeness, so we are like Him only to a lesser degree. He also experiences feelings and emotions His are supreme ours are based on mundane contaminated material desires. He is ever forgiven and is waiting for us to turn back to Him, however our turn back must be spontaneous and with a true desire to go back to Him (where we once were). We must have a sincere desire to go back to Him and He'll arrange for that to happen.

Answer 8

I think that religions put conditions on it as a type of reward, i.e you will only go to heaven if you do these things, securing power for themselves as mediators aswell.

Answer 9

Well, did Hitler's mother love him (actually she didn't, she almsot aborted him), but does that mean she LIKES what he does.

How about the parents of kids like that Chinese boy who shot up Virginia. They must LOVE HIM, but they don't approve of what he did, or if they do, then they should be deported.

LOVE and MORALS are two different issues.

You LOVE your daughter even if she's a prostitute who is addicted to heroin.

You don't LOVE what does she does. But you love her.

Answer 10

God isn't stopping anyone from going to heaven, it's the people who don't love Him that are stopping themselves from going to heaven. They want to to remain separated from Him and He merely grants them their wish.