God’s Unconditional Love

The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!   Deuteronomy 7:7

On this occasion, God seemed almost to tease his people with the prospect of an explanation of why he loved them. Have you ever wondered why God loves you? Our appetite for an answer is piqued. “Lord, tell us why you love us.”

God gave his people an answer: “It was simply that the LORD loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:8). That is the reason God loves you, and you will never get a deeper answer! The explanation of the love of God for you lies in God alone—in the source and not in the object.

This is quite beyond the range of our experience. It is easy for me to explain why I love my wife. The reasons are not hard to find. Her charming character, striking appearance, unusual gifts, and warm personality evoke a response from me. It was like that when we met, and it is still like that today.

But God’s love is different. The reason God loves you is not that he was smitten with your appearance, bowled over by your personality, knocked out by your good works, or swept away by the sheer genius of your talent. The explanation of God’s love for you does not lie in anything within you; it lies in God alone.

Only God is able to love the unlovely, the unskilled, the wounded, the inhibited, and even the rebel. Only God still loves you in your worst moments. So when you wonder, How can God love me? the problem is that it focuses all of the attention on you, and when you’re depressed or struggling with a personal failure, thinking about yourself is not very encouraging.

Thankfully, the reason God loves you has nothing to do with you at all. The explanation lies in God. If you can get your attention away from yourself and focus your thoughts on God, it will not be long before you are rejoicing in his love.

For further reading, see Deuteronomy 7