Have you ever noticed how the media will praise those displaying unconditional love toward others and then a commercial comes on that bombards the human senses with a constant stream of things we need to do to make ourselves more lovable. According to the world we need to have the perfect body, wear the right cloths, speak in the proper vernacular, manifest a socially acceptable attitude and have all the right toys; if we pursue these things people will love us. The world tells us that we need to show unconditional love towards society and, in the same breath, it sets conditions for our being loved by others.
If we listen to the world, we should have an unquestioning love toward social systems and at the same time we should gauge our love for a friend, neighbor, spouse or even a child by their looks, possession and social acceptability. It is no wonder the divorce rate is over 50%; our prison systems are bursting at the seams; and our children start having sex the instant, our even before, their hormones kick into gear. Thanks to the world's conflicting message about love, people have no idea what true love really is.
The way we love is actually a product of how we have been conditioned to think: our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions. The world is teaching us that to love is to hug a tree and correcting social injustice. In return, society will love us if we pursue the perfect body, the right cloths, being socially acceptable and having all the right toys. Parents are encouraged to love a child by spoiling them instead of loving them through instruction and discipline. Saturday night, people flock to the Colosseum (TV) where their preferred entertainment is watching people get murdered, women and children being raped and the bloodiest of torture; then on Sunday they will get up and go to church!
People will abandon one relationship in search of a better relationship, which they will eventually abandon in a perpetual quest for the perfect relationship. And, all the time they claim their search is for true love. We put young boys and girls in uniforms and send them off to kill or be killed; along with them we send religious leaders who use governmental sanctioned reasoning to assure them that God wants to see us killing other people. Americans are being trained to believe that how they treat other people is dependent on the circumstances; we love those society wants us to love and when sanctioned by society, it is acceptable to oppress, take advantage of, harm and even kill.
In the emerging new-world-order we are being trained to believe love is a function of the situation and that unmerited love follows the dictates of society. Jesus, on the other hand, taught that a person's looks, the cloths they wear, their speech, their physical possessions and their social standing mean absolutely nothing. A mature Christian loves without setting conditions because they know that God loves us without holding us to any level of expectation. Jesus said: "If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." (Matthew 5: 46-47) Jesus taught that we are to love other people because they are part of God's creation and not because of who they are. The world may lead us to believe that love is subjective but Jesus teaches that true love is our unmerited Christian response toward another person.
The controlling source of true unmerited love is the love of God, and it is this love of God that we are to mirror in our lives. Unmerited love means that we love without exception and at the same time we love by holding ourselves, and others, accountable for spiritual maturity and Christian love. The hand held out to us for aid is taken in the spirit of willing assistance; the hand raised against us is endured with Christian meekness; but the hand of the swine and dog is sadly ignored. The unmerited love of a Christian is patient and kind. Unmerited love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Unmerited love never gives up, never loses faith, it is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Unmerited Christian love has nothing to do with the physical world; it is spiritual and it has its roots sunk deep into the soil of God's love.