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Is God’s love conditional or unconditional? It is both, as we shall see from the following verses of
Scripture.
But first, this is how God has shown His unconditional love to the world and us – by sending
Jesus to die for our sins.
John 3:16 (NIV): For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 3:16(a) (NIV): This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life
for us
1 John 4:10 (NIV): This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Ephesians 2:4‐5 (NIV): But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in
mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by
grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 5:2 (NIV): and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Then, the following verses demonstrate God’s conditional love to those who fear and obey Him.
Psalm 103:11 (NIV): For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love
for those who fear him
Psalm 103:17 (NIV): But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those
who fear him
John 14:23 (CEV): Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father
will love them, and we will come to them and live in them.
John 15:10 (NIV): If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have
kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
It is important to recognize this dual aspect of God’s love. Indeed, the Nicolaitans were
“Christians” who were deluded into thinking that their moral conduct did not matter.
Nicolaitans: A term appearing in the Revelation (2:6, 15) describing members of
Christian congregations who held a doctrine that the Lord hated. Irenaeus said that they
were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch, a proselyte who was among the seven men chosen
to serve the Jerusalem congregation (Acts 6:5), who had forsaken true Christian doctrine;
he said they lived in unrestrained indulgence (Against Heresies I; 26:3). Hippolytus
confirmed this by noting that Nicolaus left correct doctrine and had the habit of
indifference as to what a man ate and as to how he lived (Refutation of Heresies 7:24).
The Apostolic Constitutions (6:8) described them as “shameless in uncleanness.”
Although Clement of Alexandria defended Nicolaus by insisting that his followers had
misunderstood him, he observed that the Nicolaitans abandoned themselves to
pleasures like goats in a life of shameless self‐indulgence (The Miscellianes 2:20).
Encyclopedia of the Bible (https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia‐of‐
the‐bible/Nicolaitans), with emphasis mine, to highlight that Nicolaitans were indeed
individuals inside the church.
Now, little did those “Christians” who practised Nicolaitism realise that the Lord hated them and
would Himself fight against them, if they did not repent.
Revelation 2:5 (NIV): But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Revelation 2:15‐16 (NLT)(Note: From these verses, it is clear that those who held the
teachings of Nicolaitism comprised individuals inside – and not outside – the church)1:
In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.
Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the
sword of my mouth.
Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent
therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth.
Given the risk of being as deluded as those inside the church who held on to the teachings of
Nicolaitism, it is important for believers to recognize that when they profess to “love” Jesus, it is
not merely emotional, but it involves the will (and specifically, in obeying His commands).
John 14:21 (NIV): Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves
me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show
myself to them.”
John 14:23(NIV): Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My
Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
John 14:24 (NIV): Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These
words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
1 John 3:18 (NIV): Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions
and in truth.
Written by: Roy Chan
Version dated: 27 October 2018
FREE for circulation and distribution; this essay was written as a public service.
1
In Revelation 2:16, the Lord Jesus said: “Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against
them with the sword of my mouth.” (emphasis mine). Some may find it hard to conceive that the Lord Jesus
might “fight against” his own. But in 1 Peter 4:17 (KJV), we learn that: “For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the
gospel of God?”