Three Powerful Words

When I dropped my son off at school this morning, I realized I forgot to tell him, “I love you.” As he was walking away, I honked the horn to get his attention, and he came back to the truck and said, “Yeah, dad?” “I love you son,” I replied. He said, “I love you too Dad,” and walked away with a smile on his face.

I want to remind you this morning, “I love you!” I forget to share that often. But, more importantly “God loves you!” And I think we forget that often. John 17:23 tells us, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Did you catch it? God loves you as much as He Loves Jesus, His only son. Maybe you’re thinking, “there is no way!” Over the years, I’ve heard many come up with all types of ways to interpret this verse. “Jesus must have only meant the disciples who were seated around the table at the last supper, after all, they were the ones who spread the gospel to the known world and all but one were martyred for their faith.” Yet, this is not true. That would make His love a conditional love based on our behavior. God’s love for us is separate from what we do for Him.

Others argue, “well this was spoken to a group of special men chosen by God and placed on earth at that time for him to love more than others.” This is not true either. In the same prayer Jesus starts and says, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”

Still others would say, “Well you see, I’ve messed up so terribly, that there is NO WAY God can love me unconditionally.” Yet that is a lie also. The Bible gives us a great description of God’s love: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Cor. 13:7-8) God’s love never fails. It never fades, weakens or becomes obsolete. Why? His love for you isn’t based on your behavior but on His character and identity. The Bible tells us God is love.

There are many passages throughout scripture that describe the love of God. One that I love is Psalm 103. I would encourage you to read it in its entirety. The Psalmist tells us, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding (full) in steadfast love.” (v. 8) “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.” (v. 11) “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.” (v. 17)

In this passage, the word that is used for love is the Hebrew word Hesed. Hesed is a word that is difficult to translate directly into English, but conveys a combination of steadfast love, mercy, kindness, and loyalty, often in a covenantal context. It describes a powerful, enduring, and often undeserved love that motivates compassionate and merciful behavior. This is the heart of God for you. God loves you genuinely, immutably and loyally. This is the type of love he overwhelms us with.

When God spoke to Moses and gave him the 10 commandments, this is what God said about himself, “The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” (Exodus 34:6) “Unfailing Hesed” is how God self-identifies. This is best understood as a love that does not change. It does not decrease, or increase based on our actions. It is not provisional to who we are but conditional to who He is! In fact, over 120 times the word Hesed is mentioned in the Psalms. Do you know how many times it’s in reference to our love towards Him? Zero. It’s always his unfailing, loyal love towards us!

C.S. Lewis said, “He loves us not because we were lovable, but because He is love.”

Timothy Keller would put it this way, “The only love that won’t disappoint you is one that can’t change, that can’t be lost, that is not based on ups and downs of life or how well you live. It is something that not even death can take away from you. God’s love is the only thing like that.”

Today, like then, this blows our mind. We can’t comprehend it. Neither could David as he penned the Psalms. He would often attempt to describe God’s love through parallelism: "Your love is like a fortress, a place of protection, your love is my strength, Your love is like a mountain, your love reaches to the heavens and it’s like the great deep."

The Apostle Paul would pray it this way when praying for the Ephesian church, “I pray that you may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this great love! It surpasses knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:18-19)

Whatever you are dealing with today—life change, illness, loss, unemployment, relocation, hardship and pain—be comforted, knowing that God’s love doesn’t change. God loves you period! Often our human relationships have conditioned us to measure love by “ifs, maybes, and because." "I'll love you if you do this.” Or, “I love you because you did that.” Most of us struggle with even imagining that a love without some sort of condition even exists. Yet, God wants us not only to know that such a love does exist and to believe it and receive it. Receiving the love of God, daily for us, is more important than us loving God. If we don’t receive the love, we can’t love back with the same value received.

Before we can do anything, we must receive God’s love for us.