God loves us! I’ve said that over and over and over again. And I will go to my grave saying that over and over and over again. I learned that from my former pastor and mentor, Jim Gardiner. That has never left my mind or my heart. It is something I preach and teach repeatedly because it is so difficult to get people to understand that God loves them and that His love never changes because it is not dependent upon them being good or bad or anything in between. It is dependent upon His perfect nature.
That said, I would add the warning that God can be pleased with us, or displeased with us, and that is dependent upon us. He will chasten His children when their disobedience displeases Him. He does that because He loves us. He does that with the end goal of restoring us to a right relationship.
We must serve God with a desire to please Him and a healthy fear of offending Him. As I look around at our society today, I think we have lost both the desire to please God, and the healthy fear of offending Him. Society, apart from God, serves only to please itself and it bears no fear of offending anyone. It lives to serve self.
As God’s children, we must guard our way to not be caught up in that attitude. It is a very easy attitude to catch, as we are exposed to it constantly. It can only be overcome by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. “[God] saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7)
