“The one who loves me, my Father will love.”
I understand that God the Father loves me and that therefore I can love God. I do not understand, “the one who loves me, my Father will love,” since it seems to be saying that God will not love me if I do not love God. Is God’s love conditional? Id God’s love dysfunctional? Dysfunctionality is not a sign of health or goodness. God cannot be dysfunctional.
It is very hard for human fathers or mothers to stop loving their children. If our parents cannot not love their children, how can God not love us?
God always loves us, but because of our sins, we cannot experience this love. God always loves us despite our wickedness, but our wickedness can blind us from experiencing God’s love.
In dysfunctional families, neither the parents nor the children love each other perfectly. Perhaps parents do not know how to love their children or the children do not know how to love their parents. The children may want to do good so that their parents will love them. The parents, on the other hand, may not be able to see the goodness of their children so as to show them their love. Such is the ignorance of dysfunctionality.
This is not so, however, in God’s family. God has made us because he loves us. God has made us good in the act of creating us. Nothing can destroy our goodness because God always protects his goodness in us.
The truth is that if we keep the word of Jesus, we will know that God loves us, but if we do not keep] his commandment, we will not experience this love solely for our fault.
God always loves us, and as a sign of this love, God has sent the Holy Spirit of the Son so that the Spirit would teach us the ways of Jesus.
The one who loves Jesus will receive the gift of his Spirit through the love of the Father who loves us and has made his dwelling in us.
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