by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
It is common these days to hear people use scriptures that say that God “loves” everyone and commands us to love everyone. But they use this to mean that God “accepts” everyone regardless of their sin and attitude toward sin. They often call this “unconditional love.” Often we are told that if a church does not “accept” adulterers, homosexuals, drug-addicts, and drunkards that we do not “love” them. This is another example of not handling the scriptures correctly.<\/p>\n
Love and acceptance into fellowship are actually two different things. Love desires reconciliation and fellowship, but love cannot accept destructive attitudes and behavior. Love appeals to the person to make needed changes, but the person that is acting rebellious and irresponsible is rejecting those loving appeals. Love does not accept rebellion and pretend it is acceptable. We can certainly love our children while not accepting certain behaviors and attitudes. Lack of acceptance does not mean hate or lack of love. It means love desires the best and expects better attitudes and behavior. That is why “repent” is always commanded. No blessings of forgiveness are given without repentance on our end (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38; 3:19). God loves us and desires for us to have forgiveness of sins, but God will not give forgiveness where there is no repentance. So, love and acceptance into fellowship are two different issues. One does not handle the scriptures aright while using the verses on God’s love in such a way as to cancel or override the verses that demand change through repentance.<\/p>\n
Jesus said to people He loved, “Except you repent, you will all likewise perish.<\/em>” Those are the words of true love. Whether we accept the blessings of such a love is up to us. No repentance means we cut ourselves off from the blessings of His love. The members at Corinth went through repentance to reach justification. Formerly, they practiced all kinds of sin (I Corinthians 6:8-10). “Such were <\/b>some of you<\/em>” means that they no longer live those kinds of behaviors. It was the love of God that moved them to change. Those in Corinth that did not change, did not get the blessing of justification and sanctification and washing away of sins.<\/p>\n One does not handle the scriptures aright if you use one set of scriptures on love to cancel the scriptures that demand repentance. All of God’s word must be used correctly to inform us on whether we are using verses correctly. We don’t get to pick a few verses, apply meanings to those verses not allowed by other verses, and build a way of life from a misuse of scriptures. Yet, it is very common in religions of today. Be very careful to handle the scriptures aright.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton It is common these days to hear people use scriptures that say that God “loves” everyone and commands us to love everyone. But they use this to mean that God “accepts” everyone regardless of their sin and attitude toward sin. They often call this “unconditional love.” Often we are told that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[65,36,50],"class_list":["post-33370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-love","tag-reasoning","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33175,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/handling-the-scriptures-aright\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":0},"title":"Handling the Scriptures Aright","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Audience Confusion is present when the scriptures are not \"handled aright\" (II Timothy 2:15). False teachers handle the word of God \"deceitfully\" (II Corinthians 4:2). There are basics to handling the scriptures carefully and correctly. Know who is writing and who they are writing to. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69153,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-does-not-mean-automatic-acceptance\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":1},"title":"Love Does Not Mean Automatic Acceptance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton God loved us at our worst, but that never meant He accepted us all without repentance and change (Romans 5:8; Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38). So, God's love motivates us to change so that He can accept us into fellowship. Love does not mean automatic acceptance into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40103,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unconditional-love-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":2},"title":"Unconditional Love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Benton in Answering Religious Error, April 15, 2015 That God's love is \"unconditional\" means one thing to one person and a different thing to someone else. The Bible does not use the expression \"unconditional love\" but does imply it. God \"so loved\" the world (John 3:16). That would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-make-this-people-trust-in-a-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":3},"title":"You Make This People Trust in a Lie","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Text: Jeremiah 28:15 Jeremiah confronted some popular teachers of his time and rebuked them for getting people to trust in lies. It has happened since the Garden of Eden that people trust in lies. There are plenty of preachers willing to give false assurances. Religious leaders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/perversion-of-the-love-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":4},"title":"Perversion of the Love of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many want to continue a sinful practice so much that they think they can use the love of God to justify it. God does so love the world that He gave His Son to die for sinners. He loved me while I was yet a sinner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87448,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-is-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":33370,"position":5},"title":"Love Is Love?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is gay pride month to some people. But one should not celebrate sin. The word of God is very clear about this (Romans 1:24ff; I Corinthians 6:8-10). The message of God is that He loves you and wants you, but He gives you reasons to repent (change), and repentance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}