If God loves us unconditionally, why does he demand conditions from us?

Answer 1

"Jump through hoops, my creatures, jump!"

Answer 2

Yes, God does love you unconditionally. However, while God loves you unconditionally, you have to love God unconditionally too before you can enter heaven. This means you must have passed all the tests that prevent you from living a spiritual life. This is the main condition God has given you. It is the reason you cannot go to home to God (heaven) right away.

Now, answer this question: if you have all the money and material things your child can ever need, would you still bother to send him/her to school? Of course, you would; else the child grows up useless to himself and everyone else. So the reason you are still here is because you have some lessons (experiences) to go through. These lessons bring out the God in you as you learn them.

Answer 3

Yes God loves us unconditionally but all the conditions and rules he makes us follow are only for our own good ! Just like our parents !

Answer 4

He doesn't demand anything of you. If you stick your hand on the hot stove, you are gonna get burned. If you want to turn against your God, your King, your Creator, Your Father - then don't expect Him to be very happy with you. Would you be?
Read the parable of the prodical son;
The Father was so very happy at this return; he didn't care to even hear what the son had done, he was only happy to have him back with the family. But, had the son not chosen to return to his father, he would have set his own conditions. He would have continued to eat pig slop, lived without a home, etc. - that certainly wasn't what his father wanted, but it was still the kids choice as to whether he would live that way or not.
The time will soon come when the final family of God is chosen. Those who display their desire not to return and be part of the family, will have chosen their own condition - and that will mean to terminate,
because we only want those who wish to be in the family - we don't want a repeat of the nonsense going on today, and I assure you there won't be a repeat of it.
This is where all the crap ends. You get to sail your own ship. Bon voyage, Captain.

Answer 5

God does not love us unconditionally. That would mean He would ignore our sin; He cannot since He is perfect and holy. Christ died to remove our sins so that God the Father might see us as He sees Christ, perfect and holy. This is the condition of His love, that we are born again and cleansed from our sins.

Ath

Answer 6

Hi Ambusher. Let me answer that with an analogy. Supposing I said I wanted to give you a million dollars. There are no strings attached. The money is in a safety deposit box and I have told you the address. The only thing you have to do is ask me for the key. This is hardly a condition, it's just necessary for the transaction to go ahead.

Answer 7

Whoa . . . so it's wrong to compare ourselves to god, but being a parent is somehow comparable to being like god . . . . I don't get it.

If god exists, he/she/it probably isn't concerned with our everyday actions. As long as our minds and intentions are good, that's probably all that matters when being judged. This is all assuming god falls under the Christian parameters, which I have a feeling that god transcends any limitations our feeble little human minds have placed on he/she/it.

Religion demands conditions, and that's my problem with it. That's my Lutheran boyfriend's problem with it. That's my Baptist mother's problem with it. That's my Hindu father's problem with it. And my sister, etc.

No one I know goes to church (besides my adorable holy roller granny and the bf's parents . . . who have a picture of Christ over their bed . . . which isn't creepy at all . . . really . . . honestly). My boyfriend's parents left their church recently because they felt the pastor wasn't acting within those Christian conditions. To me, that's not a loving environment. And most people I know don't go to church because church fosters feelings of guilt and resentment, not love and acceptance.

Anyway, god cannot have given us both freewill and rules. Parenting is about protection and responsibility. God is in no way responsible for protecting us if we have free will, nor does he/she/it have any responsibility for us.

Answer 8

Because God is God, and being all powerful, He is the only One who truly knows what is best for us. He knows that He must set limits and give instructions so that we can live happy productive lives and not interfere with others living happy productive lies. Without structure we would soon self-destruct.

That is what the Law of God is all about.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul! And you shall love your neighbor as yourself".

The Law, which Paul calls a perfect Law, shows us how to do this.

Answer 9

If a Father loves his child, he applies discipline for the good of the child.
Discipline is not to be confused with cold-hearted punishment. The Lord's discipline is a response of His love for us, and His desire for each of us to be holy. Consider Hebrews 12:5-7 (NLT), "And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, 'My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.' As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined?" God will use testing, trials, and various predicaments to bring us back to Him in repentance. The result of this discipline is a stronger faith and renewed relationship with God (James 1:2-4), not to mention destroying the hold that particular sin had over you.

Answer 10

Dont you love your child unconditionally? You also put conditions and boundaries for that child dont you? God does the same. He loves us unconditionally but has put in conditions and boundaries for us.

Answer 11

He doesn't love us unconditionally. If we sin and never repent he will spit us out of his mouth into an eternal pit of fire.

Earthly parents try to love their children unconditionally (sometimes). But God can't be compared to an earthly parent. He's much more *terrible* than that:

Nehemiah 9:32:

"Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and lovingkindness, let not all the travail seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day."