Understanding God's Love – Part 7

5. The Provisional Love of God

Now we come to the fifth object of God's love – namely, obedient saints. There is a sense in which Christians who are faithful to obey God's commands encounter God's expression of love in a way that disobedient Christians do not. We have entitled this God's provisional love – a love which is conditional, because it depends on a believer's obedience. I am not speaking at all about how one becomes a believer, but rather I am referring to the life of a believer after salvation.

In Jude 21, the brother of our Lord Jesus commanded his readers saying, "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Naturally, one must ask, "How can this be achieved?" Simply stated, since Jude's command requires our obedience, one must assume that God's love is in some way conditioned upon our conformity to His will.

Similarly, Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love" (John 15:10). Jesus' provisional love is conditioned upon keeping Jesus' commands.

My parents expressed their love and affection for me much more when I was obedient than when I was disobedient. Now, of course, they loved me no matter what, and that would never change, but there was an even greater expression of love to me when I lived within the boundaries of their instruction.

So it is with God's provisional love.

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In summary then, there are five objects of God's love: [1] the other members of the Trinity, [2] the creation, [3] the world, [4] the elect, and [5] those who faithfully obey him.

But our understanding and application of God's love must be balanced otherwise terrible theological and practical implications arise. See tomorrow what happens if any one of the objects of God's love are "absolutized" to the detriment of the others.