Love

What Is Unconditional Love?

Unconditional love is love that does not depend on conditions: not on how attractive, useful, or well-behaved you are, and not on whether you love back. It is given before it is earned and it does not expire when you fail. The Bible locates the truest form of it in God, who loved us and sent his Son while we were still turned away, and it calls that the pattern for how we are to love.

Love that does not depend on you

Human love almost always has conditions hidden in it, even when we do not mean it to. We love what pleases us and pull back when it stops. God's love runs the other way. It moved toward us first, at our worst, before we wanted it. That is what unconditional means: the love came before the condition was ever met.

Not the same as approving of everything

Unconditional love is sometimes misunderstood as never minding anything you do. But the God who loves you unconditionally loves you too much to leave you unchanged. His love accepts you exactly as you are and refuses to leave you that way. It forgives fully and then heals, the way a good parent both embraces a child and calls the child upward.

Frequently asked questions

Is unconditional love real?

Christians believe the purest unconditional love is found in God, who loved us before we loved him and sent Jesus while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10). Human love reflects it in part but God's is its source.

Does unconditional love mean God approves of everything I do?

No. Unconditional love means God's love for you does not depend on your behavior, not that he is indifferent to it. He accepts you as you are and, because he loves you, works to heal and change you.

How can I experience unconditional love?

The Bible's answer is to receive God's love first (1 John 4:19), by coming to Jesus honestly in prayer, reading his words, and letting his people love you. We love, it says, because he first loved us.