Q: Are You disappointed that You taught and believed in love and forgiveness, yet many of Your followers are full of hatred, anger, and judgment in Your name?

A: The Lord is always disappointed when His children sin and do not take advantage of the love and forgiveness that is available to them, but that disappointment does not diminish the fact that He loves us anyway. As parents, when our own children disobey us, it hurts but we don’t stop loving them. Our love never stops for a disobedient child no matter how many times they hurt us.

We can see how much greater God’s capacity for loving us is by reading the passage from Matthew 7:11, where Jesus says, “If you then, being evil (earthly), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

God made a way for our disobedience to be forgiven. I John 1:7 says in part “…the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin,” and verse 9 follows, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

In Luke 15 we find the parable of the prodigal or disobedient son. One of the things this story reveals is God’s great, unstoppable love for us, even when we wander off into terrible sin. In the story, when the disobedient son comes to his senses, he goes home in disgrace and shame prepared to beg for his dad’s forgiveness.

In verse 20, Jesus says that while the son was still a long way off, the father was straining at the door looking for his son and when he saw him, ran out to meet him. Even though the son had dishonored the father, and was dirty and smelled bad, the father ran up to him and hugged him and then commanded that fine new clothes be brought to the son and a ring (symbolizing that he was part of the family) be put on his finger and that a feast be declared to celebrate his son’s return.

Jesus was showing us that no matter how far we stray, God loves us and longs for our return to Him. There is no sin great enough to keep us away from God’s love.

Please read Romans 8:37-39. In this heartening declaration we are told that God’s love is greater than any obstacle and we cannot be separated from it.

Rick Ray