Adapted from Andrew Wommack’s teaching article “God’s Kind of Love”

Satan tries to block the revelation of God’s love for us in many ways, but the most subtle and deadly way is deceiving us into thinking we have to do something to earn God’s love.

That’s not what the Bible teaches.

In the natural world, you get what you deserve. Employers don’t hire you based on their love for you. If you perform badly, you are punished or fired. The same thing is true in most relationships. However, the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news of the Gospel is that we don’t get what we deserve. Praise the Lord!

God doesn’t love us because of some virtue we possess. God loves us because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), not because we are lovely.

Religion is one of the biggest propagators of the conditional-love-of-God lie. If we pray, go to church, pay our tithes, etc., then God loves us and answers our prayers; but if we fail, He won’t answer our prayers. That’s not true.

There is a disease in the church that I call “spiritual dyslexia.” Dyslexia is seeing things backwards. Those infected with “spiritual dyslexia” see scriptures backwards.

1 John 2:3-5 says, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”

A dyslexic Christian sees these verses and says, “I want to know God, so I must keep His commandments.” But it’s just the opposite.

Keeping God’s commandments is a result of knowing God. You can live a holy life without knowing God, but you can’t know God without living a holy life as a result. When God’s love is perfected in us, keeping God’s Word will be the result (verse 5).

Any attempt to reverse this order won’t work; and yet this is what the majority of Christians are trying to do. They are seeking to know the Lord better by living a holier life.

It’s just the opposite. Experiencing God’s love more will produce a holy life.

This lie of the devil has caused many to tie God’s love for them to their performance. When they do well, they let God’s love for them flow. When they do poorly, they condemn themselves.

They think God is condemning them, but He’s not. Satan has caused them to believe a lie, and they are condemning themselves.

Don’t fall for Satan’s lie. You are God’s beloved—unconditionally!

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