Deserving

[fhansen]

So nothing in ourselves.

No, we don't "deserve" existence for that matter. Strictly speaking Adam didn't deserve God's love either.

 

[LaSorcia]

How does that make us deserving?

"God saw all that he had made, and it was good."

 

[LaSorcia]

How does that make us deserving?

I look at it this way: Babies can be pretty disgusting. They spend most of their time barfing, pooping and peeing, and sometimes they even do that on you! To top it all off, they wail at you as well, sometimes unceasingly. And just when you think you've had enough, they steal much of your sleep, adding insult to injury. But we love them and take care of them.

They can never do anything to earn the right to be taken care of and loved, but they certainly deserve to be taken care of and loved just by virtue of being. We made them, and we are responsible for them.

 

[fhansen]

So you think you were worth dying for?

I wouldn't think so, for myself, but apparently God thinks otherwise, in spite of our sin. Still doesn't mean we deserve it tho.

 

[Hammster]

I looked up the definition of 'deserve' and found the following from online dictionaries:

----do something or have or show qualities worthy of
----to be worthy of or qualified for.

I do not know if the Bible tells us exactly WHY God loves man. Why did God love the Jews, Deuteronomy 7:7-8 "The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

It simply says "because the Lord loved you" not giving a specific reason why He loved them.

We know that God is love, God loves His creation so it could be that God loves man for God, in His own mind, thinks man is worthy, has qualities worthy of His love. Did the Jews do anything to earn/merit God's love? Not that I know of but God loved them because in His mind He thought they were deserving, worthy of His love.

Why would God love man if He thought man was unworthy, undeserving, unqualified for His love?

Evidently God thought man was deserving, worthy of, qualified for a Saviour therefore He sent Christ to die for the sins of man. Again, I can't read God's mind, but if He thought man was undeserving unworthy, unqualified for a Saviour then why did He send Christ to earth?

Is God deserving of man's love? Yes. Did God do something to where He earned/merited man's love or does man love God for God is deserving, that is, God is worthy of man's love, (Psalms 18:3) God has qualities that are deserving, worthy of man's love? Maybe that God sees in man some trait, characteristic that in God's mind makes man deserving, qualified, worthy of His love.


Collins English Dictionary - deserve - "If you say that a person or thing deserves something, you mean that they should have it."

Man did not earn/merit God's love but in God's mind, God thinks man should just have His love for whatever reason is in God's mind.

It comes down to how one wants to define 'deserve'. If one wants to define deserve as earn/merit, then man did not do anything to earn/merit God's love. If deserve means to be worthy, qualified for then God loves man for a reason in God's mind that God thinks man has worth, therefore worthy of being loved, man is worthwhile of God's love, man has God's interest, man is valuable to God hence God loves man.


Worthy - having value. Man has value to God therefore man has not made himself deserving of God's love but God has made man worthy, deserving of His love.

So on his own, there’s nothing deserving of God’s love. It’s all Him.

 

[Hammster]

I look at it this way: Babies can be pretty disgusting. They spend most of their time barfing, pooping and peeing, and sometimes they even do that on you! To top it all off, they wail at you as well, sometimes unceasingly. And just when you think you've had enough, they steal much of your sleep, adding insult to injury. But we love them and take care of them.

They can never do anything to earn the right to be taken care of and loved, but they certainly deserve to be taken care of and loved just by virtue of being. We made them, and we are responsible for them.

I get what you are saying. But their worth still comes from God.

 

[Hammster]

I wouldn't think so, for myself, but apparently God thinks otherwise, in spite of our sin. Still doesn't mean we deserve it tho.

Good point. Your worth, though, comes because of God’s love.

 

[LaSorcia]

But their worth still comes from God.

Exactly. And that worth is in all of us due to being the works of His hand.

 

[fhansen]

Good point. Your worth, though, comes because of God’s love.

Yes, and/or it could be said that He gives us any worth we may have. And having created us good, and in His image, we can have a worth or value to Him that we don't necessarily see in ourselves or others.

 

[TheSeabass]

So on his own, there’s nothing deserving of God’s love. It’s all Him.

God created man giving man an eternal soul (Zechariah 12:1) thereby giving man value and worth deserving of God's love.

When it comes to salvation of man's soul, God saves but He saves those that conditionally obey him (Hebrews 5:9) keeping themselves in His love, (Jude 1:21).

 

[Hammster]

Exactly. And that worth is in all of us due to being the works of His hand.

It’s His love that makes us worthy. Not that we deserve His love.

 

[Hammster]

Yes, and/or it could be said that He gives us any worth we may have. And having created us good, and in His image, we can have a worth or value to Him that we don't necessarily see in ourselves or others.

But it’s still His love that gives us worth. It’s not from us.

 

[Hammster]

God created man giving man an eternal soul (Zechariah 12:1) thereby giving man value and worth deserving of God's love.

When it comes to salvation of man's soul, God saves but He saves those that conditionally obey him (Hebrews 5:9) keeping themselves in His love, (Jude 1:21).

So you think that you were worthy enough for Christ to die for, correct?

 

[fhansen]

But it’s still His love that gives us worth. It’s not from us.

As St Teresa of Avila stated, "It's love alone that gives worth to all things." Either way we didn't create ourselves so anything innate in us, whether good, or bad, or indifferent, would be God's work, not ours.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

We also have to realize that the devil is not deserving of God's love because of what he did. The devil is unredeemable because he did not have the vehicle of faith like we do. Man was also created in the image of God, and God is able to look into the future and see what value or worth we can become by our cooperating with the good work He desires to do through us (So we can be a vessel of honor). Jesus says we have more value than many sparrows. That suggests we have worth and we are deserving of His love. God surely does not love the enemy in the same way he loves man. The enemy (the devil) will be destroyed. The enemy never had any hope by what he had done. That is a lesson we should think about for ourselves. Our actions do play a part in our right standing with God. God cares and loves us because we can be of value to Him. But if we lived like the devil, then we will be a part of His kingdom and have no value to God anymore.

 

[LaSorcia]

It’s His love that makes us worthy. Not that we deserve His love.

I disagree. Being made by God, there is something in us that is inherently good, and therefore, do deserve God's love. We are marred by sin and its effects, but that inherent image of God is not destroyed. It is still in us.

 

[TheSeabass]

So you think that you were worthy enough for Christ to die for, correct?

GOD thought that I was.

Why would God think that? Maybe because of the worth He gave to me in creating me in His image giving me an eternal soul.

 

[~Zao~]

Okay. We might earn rewards, but that’s different than deserving His love.

No I would venture to say that only Christ is undeserving of any curse, due to our caving in to satan. But Christ extends the association to whom He wills.

Proverbs 26:1-3
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest,
so honour is not fitting for a fool.
Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying,
an undeserved curse goes nowhere.
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey,
and a rod for the back of fools.

Luke 12:6-7
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.
But even the hairs of your head are all counted.
Do not be afraid;
you are of more value than many sparrows.

 

[~Zao~]

It’s Christ’s love only that can be depended on for rewards because rewards are for the valley between the times of the church and eternity.

 

[Hammster]

We also have to realize that the devil is not deserving of God's love because of what he did. The devil is unredeemable because he did not have the vehicle of faith like we do. Man was also created in the image of God, and God is able to look into the future and see what value or worth we can become by our cooperating with the good work He desires to do through us (So we can be a vessel of honor). Jesus says we have more value than many sparrows. That suggests we have worth and we are deserving of His love. God surely does not love the enemy in the same way he loves man. The enemy (the devil) will be destroyed. The enemy never had any hope by what he had done. That is a lesson we should think about for ourselves. Our actions do play a part in our right standing with God. God cares and loves us because we can be of value to Him. But if we lived like the devil, then we will be a part of His kingdom and have no value to God anymore.

Do you deserve to have Christ die for you?