What’s the difference between acceptance and approval?

John 3:16-17“For this is how God loved the world: He loved it so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

In this well-known and much memorized passage, we see God’s love in action. And it is all about God’s work, not about ours. We stand dead, condemned in our sins. God did not and does not “approve” of how we are living, and he knows the end result—eternal condemnation. So despite our condition, he sent Jesus to save us, and thus he “accepts us.” God know us completely and accepts us just as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way. His love for us is totally undeserved.

Loving and godly parents act this way with their children. Their love for their children isn’t based on their children’s actions, which often are wrong and disapproved. In fact, because of their love and acceptance, they often have to discipline their children for their unapproved actions.