Being loved vs experiencing it.

We are perfectly connected to God and fully accepted, loved and embraced by God in and through Christ. This is our status and standing before God. It is fixed, settled and complete. Nothing we do or don't do will take away or add to His love for us. This is an objective reality that does not change and is not based on what we do or how we feel.

But how do we connect with God practically and more fully experience and partake of this love God has set upon us and has for us? The following 2 verses give us an indication.

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” - Jn 14:21

Jesus answered him,

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and WE will come to him and make our home with him. - Jn 14:23

At 1st glance these two verses sound like the Father and the Son's love for us, and being present with us, plus Christ manifesting himself to us are all contingent on our performance i.e. earned by us, not given to us as a gift. However we are told elsewhere in several places that salvation is by grace i.e. a gift, not something we deserve or can earn.

So which is it? Is God's love a gift or earned.

What these verses indicate is faithful obedience - keeping His commandments, doing what Christ says is key and essential to our everyday experience of God - to His manifesting Himself to us and our sense of His ongoing, abiding presence. It is drawing near to God so we can experience His presence and draw near to us.

But to do what he says does

not happen without our love for God "...if you love me keep my commandments..." i.e. do as I say...obey me.

John 14:21, 23 clearly tell us that to experience (not cause) his love we must do as he says - obey His commands (the greatest commandments being that we love God with all we are and have and our neighbor as our self).

The more we do so, the more we experience His love. The more we experience His love, the more we love him in return and do as He says. It is a kind of spiritual feedback loop if you will.

So which comes first...His love or our obedience?

We love him because he 1st loved us. God is the primary cause of our relationship and His love is the driving force in all our faithfulness/ obedience to Him. We must trust in this love to enter into and partake of it. Love comes before trust. Trust is driven by love.

Practically and from our side of the relationship we must faithfully pursue him to experience Him. Our faithfulness does not cause God to love us but it does align us with His heart, will, and desire - i.e. who He is - so we might experience Him as the all loving God He is.

It's not unlike a husband and wife who dearly love each other (or like any other significant relationship) but for some reason are not able to talk and spend time together due to circumstances. They never stop caring and loving each other but when they get back together, communicate and demonstrate their love for each other they experience it anew again.

God is love and his love is secured for us by Christ efforts not ours. It never stops or changes. But our experiencing that love to the fullest extent is contingent on our faithful pursuit of God i.e. obedience to Him.

While it is important to contemplate his love for us - and all Christ did to demonstrate it - we must act by faith upon that love to enter into and experience it more fully i.e. spend regular time with Him and show our affections for him by doing things for each other.