“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I can recall several instances in my life either as a child or as an adult when someone has said, “if you love me” and presented me with the opportunity to test the depth and genuineness of my love. By “loving” someone, I could prove my love by either doing this or saying that; or buying this or guaranteeing that. Is that really our understanding of what love is or how it works? Do we really believe that love is a response that can be controlled or 
elicit on demand or that love is something that is so conditional or self-serving? I realize now, that if I truly loved anyone making such a request of me, I would have done what God wanted me to do as opposed to what I was being forced or obligated to do because of fear or guilt or because I allowed someone to use the word love as a means to manipulate or control my actions. Love, or rather true love is from God, is God and therefore united in every way to his Word, his Will, his Way. Anything else is from you or me or the evil one; our words, our wills, our ways. True love is always for the other, for the sake of another. And so for our sake, the Father revealed the depth and sincerity of his all abiding love through Jesus – a scared love that is unconditional, unsolicited, unmerited. God’s love is pure, holy, genuine. His love is always for you and for me. He gives his love even if we don’t want it. He shares his love even if we refuse it. He offers his love even if we don’t deserve it. He simply loves because that is who God is – love. He loved us so much that he offered his Son, Jesus to prove his love even though he didn’t have to. Jesus manifested God’s love by becoming a victim and a slave for love, by becoming weak and vulnerable for the sake of love, by “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And now we never have to ask God if he loves us because the Cross remains forever the greatest expression and proof of God’s love. God doesn’t force us to love him but simply invites us to be “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing” – loving one another as God has loved us.
elicit on demand or that love is something that is so conditional or self-serving? I realize now, that if I truly loved anyone making such a request of me, I would have done what God wanted me to do as opposed to what I was being forced or obligated to do because of fear or guilt or because I allowed someone to use the word love as a means to manipulate or control my actions. Love, or rather true love is from God, is God and therefore united in every way to his Word, his Will, his Way. Anything else is from you or me or the evil one; our words, our wills, our ways. True love is always for the other, for the sake of another. And so for our sake, the Father revealed the depth and sincerity of his all abiding love through Jesus – a scared love that is unconditional, unsolicited, unmerited. God’s love is pure, holy, genuine. His love is always for you and for me. He gives his love even if we don’t want it. He shares his love even if we refuse it. He offers his love even if we don’t deserve it. He simply loves because that is who God is – love. He loved us so much that he offered his Son, Jesus to prove his love even though he didn’t have to. Jesus manifested God’s love by becoming a victim and a slave for love, by becoming weak and vulnerable for the sake of love, by “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” And now we never have to ask God if he loves us because the Cross remains forever the greatest expression and proof of God’s love. God doesn’t force us to love him but simply invites us to be “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing” – loving one another as God has loved us.