| (Copyright 2023) by Zac Poonen (Bangalore, India) |
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| Satan asked permission from God to sift Peter as wheat (Luke 22:31). And God permitted him to do so – because Peter had a more important ministry than all the others who were not thus sifted. Jesus only prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail (Luke 22:32). Peter denied the Lord thrice. But, as a result, he was thoroughly broken and humbled and wept bitterly and repented (Luke 22:61,62). Thus, God’s plan was accomplished and all the chaff of pride in him was sifted away. God used Satan to accomplish that. That is one reason why God has not destroyed Satan as yet. Praise the Lord. “God loves to the highest degree, those disciples who have forsaken everything to follow Jesus – God loves them as much as He loved Jesus Himself “ After the resurrection, God sent a special message through the angel at the tomb saying, “Go and tell His disciples and Peter that Jesus is risen and going in front of you” (Mark 16:7). That phrase “…and Peter….” is so typical of our Lord. Wasn’t Peter also a disciple? Why did the Lord make special mention of him? Because Peter was the one who might have felt that the phrase “His disciples” could not possibly include him any longer, because of his terrible failure. So that phrase was meant to tell him that the Lord still considered him as His apostle. But in spite of that message, Peter was still so discouraged that he decided to go back permanently to his old profession of fishing (John 21:3). So, the Lord went and called Peter back to his apostleship, personally. Such is the love of the Lord. He will keep on coming after us. It was thus that Peter came back and his “faith did not fail”. It was not because Peter never failed or made a mistake. So, if we are truly born again and have become disciples of Jesus, we must believe that God has accepted us in Christ and loves us unconditionally – because God IS LOVE. There are two types of believers: Those who believe that their heavenly Father’s love is unconditional. Those who believe that their heavenly Father’s love is conditional. Those in category 1 will be at rest because they believe the truth. The others will remain in perpetual unrest because they believe they must perform well in order for God to continue to love them. Every false religion in the world teaches that God’s love is conditional – that His love is “performance-love” – a love that is based on how well we perform! Jesus came and taught the opposite. Yet most believers are still heathen in their thinking. We must expose Satan’s lie. Because the truth is that God loves His children unconditionally. We can reject that love and fall away from God and be lost. But His love for His children is still unconditional. The story of the father’s love for the prodigal son illustrates this perfectly. It is true that there are different degrees in God’s love for people. God loves all the people in the world to a certain degree (John 3:16). But God loves His born-again children to a greater degree. And among His children, He loves some more than others, because they fulfill certain conditions – as Jesus said in John 14:21: “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father”. And beyond those, God loves to the highest degree, those disciples who have forsaken everything to follow Jesus – God loves them as much as He loved Jesus Himself (See John 17:23). But yet God’s love itself is unconditional. One distinguishing mark of God’s love is expressed in Luke 6:35 as “expecting nothing in return”. Human love always expects respect, love, and gifts in return. But Divine love expects nothing. It has no inward demands on those it loves. God makes the sun to rise equally on the good and the evil and is kind and merciful to the evil and the ungrateful. Only if we live in this Divine love can we be saved from all Phariseeism. —————————————————————————————————- See Zac Poonen’s other articles at: Poonen, Zac – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: Christian Fellowship Church https://www.cfcindia.com/ —————————————————————————————————- |
| Iron Sharpening Iron In regard to: God Loves Us Unconditionally Article by Zac Poonen Comments by Darwin & Laura Lee (Bismarck, North Dakota) |
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| It is true that we should love others without expecting anything in return. For example, if you give a gift to someone who does not like you and does not talk to you, give the gift happily without expecting even a thank you in return. There is nothing wrong with that kind of love and we should all do it. We need to also give and practice that sort of love with our families and our friends. Luk 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. God also gives that kind of love to everyone. Remember Christ loved everyone so much that he gave His life for all of us. However, there are other scriptures that show God does expect something in return, that is that we love Him. That is all we can give Him. Everything else is already His. One of the ways we love God is to keep His Commandments. Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. So, God does expect you to keep His commandments if you love Him. Yes, God will still love you even if you do not keep His commandments, so in that sense God’s love is unconditional but if you want to be with God and live forever you have to keep His law. Meaning you would have to repent and stop sinning. If on the other hand you totally refuse to keep God’s law and you want to continue to sin, God loves you so much He will not let anyone suffer in a life of perpetual sin and that person will simply be destroyed. Everyone has “Free Will” so they can decide to love God or not to love God and they will suffer the consequences of their own decision, whether that choice is to keep the law of God and live forever or to want to continue in sin and be destroyed. Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. γέεννα geenna gheh’-en-nah Of Hebrew origin ([H1516] and [H2011]); valley of (the son of) Hinnom; gehenna (or Ge-Hinnom), a valley of Jerusalem, used (figuratively) as a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment: – hell. Luk 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. |
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