I attended a conference where a tall grandfather figure spoke about a father’s love. He explained that our relationship with our earthly father often shapes our ability to relate to God the Father. At the end of the conference, he invited us to come forward for prayer, and if we were comfortable with it, to receive a hug. He suggested we picture his hug as if it were God the Father hugging us. I experienced a Father hug that day that changed the way I relate to God. To this day, I often close my eyes and ask God for a hug. He always wraps His arms around me and expresses His love to me. No matter what I am going through, no matter what I have done, everything changes when I allow myself to experience God’s love.

Before you became a follower of Jesus, you learned if you agree with God that you are a sinner, ask Him to forgive you, and ask Jesus to come into your life; you will be made right with God. You can now have a personal relationship with Him. So far, so good, right! However, soon afterward, you learn that your relationship with Him will suffer if you sin after being made right with God. The problem with this teaching is that it makes our performance the watermark for walking in God’s love.

1 John 4:16 says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (NIV)

Do we rely on God’s love or our performance? We live loved when our interactions with God and others find their source in “the love God has for us.”
Please let me paraphrase: “I live my life knowing in the depth of my heart that God loves me in every trial, temptation, and failure? I rely on God’s love for me and not on my ability to avoid sin and do good. Because I experience God’s love on a deep level, I am empowered to Live Loved. When I Live Loved, it is natural for me to love God, myself, and others. I place my hope and trust in His everlasting love and not on my fickle self-efforts. Relying on God’s love and kindness empowers me to live a godly life.”

Part of Romans 2:4 says, “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance.” (NIV)

We end up showing contempt for God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience when we fail to Live Loved and give love. If we think God is angry with us much of the time, we will focus on judgment. When we know God is madly in love with us, we focus on love and express love.

Love can mean different things to different people. For some, love is more about physical attraction than anything else. Other people emphasize the emotional aspect of falling in love. For others, being best friends is touted as extremely important for the long hall. These types of love are all great, but they fall short of describing God’s great love for us.

God’s love is unconditional, life-transforming, and unrestricted for anyone who will receive Him. God’s everlasting love and kindness, and not our ability to avoid sin, is the fountainhead from which we experience His love. The more we experience His love, the more we become like Jesus. The more we become like Jesus, the more we reflect His character. The more we reflect His character, the less we sin.

Think about it this way. A child disobeys their mother or father, and the parent responds by withholding love. Once the child repents and asks for forgiveness, the parent expresses love once again. Imagine what that does to the child over the years. As an adult, they would withhold love from anyone who upset them. Relationships based on conditional love create hot messes. “I will express love to you if you act the way I expect you to. If you do not, I will sit passively by until you get your act together.”

Sitting on the sidelines does not describe the God who is Love. Jesus did not sit by and wait for us to get our act together. He loved us while we were a mess. Once we become His children, His relationship with us does not change from unconditional to conditional love. If we mess up, His loving-kindness leads us back to where we need to be, not His wrath. When we “live in” the love God has for us, we live “in God.” Living in the experiential love of God fills us with the God of love.

To Live Loved is to live filled with God Himself.