Unconditional Love – Day 10 Of The Love Dare

Unconditional Love – Day 10 of the Love Dare.  Demonstrate love for your spouse for the sheer joy of being their partner in marriage.

Day 10 – Love Is Unconditional

God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ~ Romans 5:8

Do something out of the ordinary today for your spouse, something that proves (to you and to them) that your love is based on your choice and nothing else. Wash her car. Clean the kitchen. Buy his favorite dessert. Fold the laundry. Demonstrate love to them for the sheer joy of being their partner in marriage.

If your reasons for loving your spouse has something to do with his or her qualities, and the same quality suddenly or gradually disappears, your basis for love is over. The only way love can last a lifetime is if its unconditional. Truth is, lasting love is not determined by the one being loved, but rather by the one choosing to love.

The Bible refers to this kind of love by using the Greek word agape. It differs from other types of love, like Philio (friendship) and Eros (sexual love). Both friendship and sex have an important place in marriage, and are a big part of the house you built together as husband-and-wife. But if your marriage totally depends on having common interests or enjoying a healthy sex life, then the foundation of the relationship is unstable.

Paleo and Eros are more responsive in nature and can fluctuate based upon feelings. You can also fall in and out of love with your own spouse hundreds of times throughout your life. Feeling “in love” is something you can enjoy and continue to kindle over the years. But it should not determine your commitment level to your marriage.

Day 10 – Love Is Unconditional

Agape love, on the other hand, is unselfish, unconditional, and unstoppable. It is based upon choice and commitment, not feelings. Agape love is “in sickness and health” love, “for richer or poorer” love, “for better or for worse” love. It is the only kind of love that is a lasting, unchanging, true love.

That’s because this is God’s kind of love. He doesn’t love us because we are lovable, but because He is so loving. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins” –  1 John 4:10. If He insisted that we prove ourselves worthy of His love, we would fail miserably. But his love is a choice He makes completely on His own. It is something we received from Him and then share with others.

Unconditional love, agape love, will not be swayed by time or circumstance. When you rebuild your marriage with the agape as its foundation, the friendship and romance aspects of your love become more endearing than ever before. When your enjoyment of each other as both best friends and lovers is based on unwavering commitment, you will experience an intimacy that cannot be achieved any other way.

Love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”, (I Corinthians 13:7) does not come from within. It can only come from God (I John 4:7-16).